15 Movie Couples With Big Age Gaps
Let's face it, Hollywood is still a very sexist and misogynistic place, and because it's so male-driven, men tend to get the upper hand, unfortunately. As such, it seems like no matter how old certain male actors get, they will still be paired with young, beautiful actresses, even if they're half their age. It's no secret that there are bigger pressures on women in showbusiness to look young and attractive than there are for male actors, and as such ageism is rife in the industry. Once actresses get to a certain age, they're often considered too old to be a love interest in a movie, and they lose out to more youthful women for parts that actually they'd probably be better suited for.
Here we take a look at some of the most confusing, creepy, and just plain ludicrous movie couples whose age gaps are just too much for us to handle. Some of the on-screen couples we'll see here are separated in age by two or three decades, which really is astounding when you think of how unlikely that usually is in real life. It's time blow the BS whistle on these ageist traditions that allow men to get older while women are stuck in a youthful trap.
15 Johnny Depp and Amber Heard Are Hard To Swallow In The Rum Diary
Age difference: 23 years
Johnny Depp is guilty of quite a number of things, including his taste for younger women. Depp has starred alongside many a younger female co-star, including Amber Heard in the 2011 film The Rum Diary. At the time of filming, Johnny Depp was 48-years-old, compared to his leading lady Amber who was just 25. This has been the biggest age gap between Depp and his female lead, and it was on the set of this film that the two actors met and fell in love. As we all know, Heard and Depp ended up getting married, but have since gotten a very messy and very public divorce. They say age is just a number, but perhaps this just goes to show that sometimes if the gap's this big, the relationship is just doomed to fail.
14 Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal's Romance Is Crazy In Crazy Heart
Age difference: 28 years
Maggie Gyllenhaal made headlines in 2015 when she revealed that at 37, she was too old to play the romantic interest of a 55-year-old man. How insanely crazy is that? To be told that in your mid-30s, you're basically over the hill? There's definitely a problem here. This makes the fact that she was cast to be Jeff Bridges' love interest in Crazy Heart all the more preposterous and confusing. The age gap between the two leads in this film is almost 30 years wide, and yet, somehow the filmmakers thought this was a believable and a good decision to make in their casting. Maggie Gyllenhaal being rejected for being too old to play opposite a 55-year-old, yet apparent suitability to play opposite Bridges who was 65, clearly demonstrates the deep-rooted ageism and sexism which existS in the show-business industry and the inequality that continues to pervade Hollywood.
13 Woody Allen and Mariel Hemingway Make A Creepy Pair In Manhattan
Age difference: 26 years
Woody Allen is most definitely the king of confusing age gaps, not only in the casting of his films but also in his personal life too. One of the craziest, creepiest, and most confusing age differences between two lead characters in a film is in Allen's celebrated movie Manhattan. In it, Woody Allen stars as the male lead who is seen to first be dating a 17-year-old played my Mariel Hemingway. It's weird enough to portray an age difference like this in a film, but it's even stranger to actually star in it yourself and cast an actual teenage actress to play your love interest. As we know, Allen ended up marrying his adopted daughter, so clearly, he has an unhealthy desire for very young women. We're used to seeing younger actresses play opposite older men, but this huge age gap is just plain wrong.
12 Will Smith and Margot Robbie Lose Sight Of Reality In Focus
Age difference: 22 years
Originally, this con-artist romance was meant to star Ben Affleck and Kristen Stewart. However, after Affleck dropped out in order to star in Live By Night, Focus' producers settled on Will Smith to play the lead. That caused some issues though, as Kristen Stewart felt uncomfortable playing the romantic interest of a man with whom she had such a big age gap. As a result, Margot Robbie was cast, and she seemed to be fine with playing opposite Smith who was 22 years older than her. There's definitely something quite icky about this age discrepancy, and it's pretty obvious in the film although it's not strictly addressed. Good on Kristen Stewart for standing up against the ludicrous age gap that Hollywood seems to perpetuate. If only more actresses would have such strong convictions, then maybe a change could actually happen.
11 Liam Neeson and Olivia Wilde Are Oddly Matched In Third Person
Age difference: 32 years
Ok, so there's definitely something very wrong with having a 32-year age gap between a leading man and lady in a movie, which is exactly what happened in the filming of Third Person. Liam Neeson was 61 while Olivia Wilde was just 29 in this drama about romance and betrayal. Although there's no denying that Neeson is still ruggedly handsome for his age, the fact that he was paired with Wilde who was 32 years his junior is just plain confusing. Would it really have messed up the story had they chosen someone just a little older? In the real world, couples like this rarely exist outside of a gold-digging situation, and we doubt that Wilde would normally go for a man who was more than twice her age. But that's Hollywood for you. Confusing AF.
10 Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig Have Us Asking Questions In The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Age difference: 17 years
Daniel Craig is universally considered to be an A-grade hottie, and Rooney Mara is an incredibly stunning actress. That being said, there's no ignoring the fact that there's a significant age difference between the two, which seemed to be completely swept aside in the casting of these two together in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Really, there was no reason for insisting to cast such a young actress for the role, but it being Hollywood and all, it's unsurprising that they made this choice. Getting a beautiful, young woman to play the role was surely considered as a way to get people to see the film, despite the fact that the part could have just as easily been played by an older woman.
9 Catherine Zeta-Jones Gets Trapped in Sean Connery's Age Gap in Entrapment
Age difference: 39 years
When the movie Entrapment came out in 1999, it ruffled a lot of feathers among feminists who were outraged by the large age difference between the two main characters. Sean Connery was 69 whereas Catherine Zeta-Jones was just 30-years-old. While this ridiculously wide age gap of nearly 40 years sparked a lot of controversy, as we've seen from this list, not much has changed with Hollywood's obsession with young actresses playing opposite older male leads. Zeta-Jones plays an insurance investigator in the movie and Connery a master thief. The movie paints Catherine as the relationship's instigator, which is probably the movie's way of dealing with the bothersome age gap. Even so, the pairing is undeniably awkward, and apparently, the glaring disparity between their ages is the big elephant in the room that no one is supposed to notice.
8 Claire Danes and Steve Martin Confuse Us In Shopgirl
Age difference: 34 years
In the case of Shopgirl, starring Claire Danes and Steve Martin, the fact that there is a considerable age difference between the two stars is written in as part of the plot. Hey, at least we have some acknowledgment this time that it's weird. That being said, the fact that this pairing was made between two leads that have a 34-year age discrepancy is still confusing to us. Sure, they wanted to portray the complications that arise when there's a relationship age gap, but did they really need to go this far in order to do so? Maybe this is what Hollywood thinks is what happens regularly to people in the real world, but we're here to say no Hollywood, this is not an everyday thing. When will they learn, right?
7 Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson's Relationship Gets Lost in Translation
Age difference: 34 years
Directed by Sofia Coppola and showcasing two incredible performances by Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson, Lost in Translation is a quietly gorgeous film that is both touching and sincere in its depiction of loneliness. However, one of the aspects of the film which has troubled some people is the relationship which is portrayed between Bill Murray's character and Scarlett Johansson's. Although no physical intimacy actually occurs between the two during the film, they clearly develop a close relationship with one another and share a number of tender moments. Considering that Murray is 52 in the film and Johansson is just 18, the relationship definitely leans towards being creepy if not just a little confusing. This film just further reinforces the fact that in the land of Hollywood, men over the age of 50 have a very good shot at wooing women 20 to 30 years their junior.
6 Keira Knightley and Steve Carell Become More Than Just Pals In Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
Age difference: 22 years
Funnyman Steve Carell actually didn't achieve fame until he was in his forties, and maybe it's for this reason that he's making up for lost time by starring alongside some actresses who are much younger than him. One such instance of him starring with a younger co-star is in 2012's Seeking a Friend for the End of the World. Although the relationship between Carell and Knightley's characters starts off as a friendship in the film, their rapport does eventually turn romantic. During the filming of the movie, Steve Carell was 49 years old while Keira Knightley was 27. This is quite a large gap between their ages, and while Carell certainly doesn't look his age, this doesn't take away from the fact that he is, in reality, a lot older than his female lead. We definitely don't think these two make an obvious pairing, and once again, this could have still been a great film with a slightly older female part.
5 Tom Cruise and Annabelle Wallis' Relationship Feels Like A Dead End In The Mummy
Age difference: 22 years
Ok, someone needs to say it: it's about time Tom Cruise started acting his age. The action movie megastar is known for doing his own stunts and for loving a good action sequence sprint, but he's also started to be known for starring opposite younger women. The more Cruise tries to stay the same age, the more obvious the age gap becomes between his leading lady and him, and therefore the rapport between them becomes less and less believable. This was just one of the many faults with the recent reboot of The Mummy, which featured a 55-year-old Tom Cruise acting opposite a 32-year-old Annabelle Wallis. Although Wallis isn't as young as some of the female leads we've seen in this list so far, the fact that there's still over a 20 year age gap there isn't showing much progress in this area at all.
4 Colin Firth and Emma Stone Lack Spark In Magic in the Moonlight
Age difference: 28 years
Are you that shocked that another Woody Allen flick made the list? We didn't think so. Once again, Allen shows his unhealthy penchant for matching older men with women much too young to be romantically involved with them, in his disappointingly drab film Magic in the Moonlight. Colin Firth and Emma Stone are the two stars, and there's a drastically unhealthy age imbalance between the two of them: 28 years. Yes, Colin Firth who was 53 at the time, was matched with 25-year-old Emma Stone. Allen's obsession with age gap romances has clearly gone on too long, as audiences were deeply perturbed by this casting choice, and were more than a little creeped out that Woody Allen was clearly infusing his work with his own issues.
3 Emma Stone Falls Into The Age Gap Once Again With Sean Penn In Gangster Squad
Age difference: 29 years
Emma Stone is clearly a favorite of directors when it comes to age-gap casting. For some reason, Emma has been repeatedly given roles starring opposite men who are much too old to be realistic romantic partners for her. We thought it was bad when she was cast opposite Colin Firth who was 28 years her senior, but surprisingly Firth wasn't her oldest on-screen bae. Who was? Sean Penn, who was a whopping 29 years her senior in Gangster Squad. Stone was only 25 when she starred opposite Penn, and creepily she's only three years older than his eldest daughter Dylan. Eww, right? This pairing certainly wasn't believable to watch on screen, and it's definitely one of the age gaps in a movie that confuses us the most.
2 Michael Keaton and Andrea Riseborough Are Awkward In Birdman
Age difference: 30 years
Michael Keaton got a much-needed career-boost with Oscar-winning film Birdman, and it was a rather fitting role for the actor as the movie focuses on the damaged psyche of an aging actor trying to put his past behind him. Although the role was a great fit for Keaton, the same can't really be said of his love-interest played by Andrea Riseborough, who is a shocking 30 years younger than him. Clearly, the filmmakers wanted to portray the internal crisis of an actor past-his-prime who's trying to hold on to his youth by having a younger girlfriend, but casting someone who is three decades younger than her male counterpart is a little extreme, if not a little creepy. Actually, on the topic of Birdman, another age gap romance that occurs within its narrative is that between Emma Stone (again!) and Ed Norton who is 19 years older than Stone. Oh my Birdman, you have a lot to answer for, Oscar or no Oscar.
1 Javier Bardem Could Be Jennifer Lawrence's Father In Mother!
Age difference: 21 years
Darren Aronofsky, the director of Mother!, was quick to address people's concerns over the very notable age gap between Jennifer Lawrence and Javier Bardem. Aronofsky explained the gap as making sense as Lawrence's character is an impressionable young woman who is attracted to her older husband's brilliant writing and worldliness. Although this makes sense in terms of the film's narrative, the fact that Aronofsky is choosing to perpetuate the film industry's clear obsession for casting young women opposite older men is highly problematic. This kind of relationship is hardly innovative or fresh in the film world, and if we're hardly fussed by this 21 year age difference in Mother!, it's surely only because we've experienced decades of this kind of ageism in Hollywood and as such, have become numb to it.