Actors kissing co-stars 20 years their junior is ‘disgusting, wrong and so typically male’, claims playwright Sir David Hare – despite his Page Eight thriller boasting that EXACT age gap
- Playwright Sir David Hare has hit out at 20-year age differences between actors
- He said gap between Bill Nighy and Rachel Weisz in Page Eight was ‘disgusting’
- Sir David was asked by Jay Rayner, the food writer, for the Out to Lunch podcast
If you’ve visited a cinema at any point in the last couple of decades you’re probably aware of the age gap often present between the male and female lead actors in Hollywood films.
But now, playwright Sir David Hare has confessed that the 20-year difference between Bill Nighy and Rachel Weisz in his 2011 BBC thriller Page Eight was ‘disgusting and so wrong’.
Nighy was 61-years-old when he played Johnny Worricker, a long-serving MI5 analyst, in the first of Sir David’s Worricker trilogy – while Weisz, who portrayed his love interest, political activist Nancy Pierpan, was aged 41.
The playwright was asked by Jay Rayner, the food writer, for the Out to Lunch podcast, why, in the Worricker films, Nighy ‘keeps getting to snog women 20 years his junior’, referring to Weisz, according to The Telegraph.
Sir David replied: ‘Yeah, it’s disgusting, isn’t it? It’s so wrong and so typically male.’
Yet to the outrage of campaigners, Hollywood age gaps have not narrowed since Page Eight was released; Daniel Craig, 53, is currently seen in No Time to Die with his love interest played by Lea Seydoux, 36.
Playwright Sir David Hare has confessed that the 20-year difference between Bill Nighy and Rachel Weisz in his 2011 BBC thriller Page Eight (pictured) was ‘disgusting and so wrong’
Next year, Jodie Comer, now 28, will be starring in historical drama The Last Duel, opposite Matt Damon, now 49.
Meanwhile, Tom Cruise, 59, regularly co-stars with actresses 20 years his junior, including Rebecca Ferguson in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation and Emily Blunt in Edge of Tomorrow.
In 2016’s Suicide Squad, Jared Leto, who played The Joker, was aged 44, while Margot Robbie was 26 when playing his love interest former psychiatrist Harley Quinn.
Nicky Clark, who runs the Acting Your Age campaign to highlight the age difference on screen, told the publication: ‘As with Bond and the forthcoming The Last Duel… we’re being offered again and again the trope of old man, young wife.
‘What may be normalised in the film industry isn’t actually the case with audiences’ own relationships and it speaks to something a lot darker. The perceived sexual currency of a young woman still seems to be her biggest celluloid selling point.’
She continued: ‘Older women, if featured on screen at all, tend to be the adjunct to the male characters. In the main, their function is to be humourless, cautious, dangerous and difficult.’
However, Weisz previously defended the age gap in Page Eight, telling the Observer: ‘I’m not sure how old Bill is. Do you know? I’m 41. You need to Google it.
‘We’re not making out. There’s one very delicate kiss in the last frame of the film, which is incredibly tender.
‘They connect with their hearts and they have a great amount of empathy. Anyway, I think people of all sorts of different ages can get it on. It doesn’t bother me.’