Hollywood’s view of ageing stars barbaric, says Rampling

Charlotte Rampling

CANNES - Actress Charlotte Rampling, who at 59 is still landing regular movie roles, described the pressure Hollywood puts on ageing stars to stay young as "barbaric".

In the French Riviera resort of Cannes to present her latest film at the annual festival, the British screen siren added that European cinema compared favourably.

"It's a form of racism," she said. "It's a form of actually saying that certain things are not allowed, certain age is not allowed, certain colours are not allowed, a certain way of thinking is not allowed.

"And so women are destroying their faces to try to look young, whereas they obviously can't be young. Once we've got to a certain age ... you try and make yourself look young so it's a cheat. So that's why I said [it is] in a way barbaric."

Rampling's comments echo those of other leading actresses, including French star Catherine Deneuve, who said in Berlin in February that she believed her career in film would have ended by the age of 45 had she been in Hollywood.

Rampling, still considered to be one of the world's great beauties, appears in Dominik Moll's Lemming, a dark work in which she plays a bitter and abused woman who destroys a younger couple's marriage.

Born in 1946, Rampling's career took off with Luchino Visconti's The Damned (1969) and Liliana Cavani's The Night Porter (1974) with Dirk Bogarde.

She enjoys an iconic status in European film, but plans to spend more time on stage in future, she said.

- REUTERS