The "natural light" movement in cinematography has been a gift to mature actresses. We are seeing pores. We are seeing laugh lines. We are seeing the texture of 60 years of living.

For decades, the unwritten rule of Hollywood was painfully simple: a woman had two acts. The first was the "ingenue"—the fresh-faced love interest or the damsel in distress. The second, tragically shorter, was the "character actress" or, more cruelly, the "mom role." Once a female actress crossed the nebulous threshold of 40, the scripts dried up, the leading man remained 55, and the offers shifted from romance to retirement.

So, here is to the crows’ feet that tell a history of laughter. Here is to the grey hair that signals confidence. Here is to the 75-year-old actress kicking down a door in an action movie and the 82-year-old delivering a monologue that brings the house to a standstill.

The 1980s and 90s were particularly bleak. The "buddy cop" genre and action blockbusters sidelined women entirely. If a mature woman appeared, she was usually the antagonist (the cold boss) or the supportive mother (the hero’s cheerleader). The romantic comedy genre, specifically, was a graveyard for aging actresses. While men like Sean Connery and Harrison Ford aged into "distinguished" leading men, their female co-stars were swapped out for younger models with alarming consistency.