Age diversity for actresses in The Emmys’ nominations

Continuing on the theme of Katrina’s last post (the acting profession’s awards and diversity), I just picked up this piece in the Huffington Post about ‘age diversity’ in the nominations for The Emmys. The headline to the article makes a big deal about the fact that ’15 Of The Emmys’ 18 Leading Actress Nominees Are Over 35′, specifically, it says: “This Is Huge” I think the word ‘awesome’ is also used. OK! Personally, I find it rather depressing that 35 is seen as the breakthrough age here given that there are actors of both genders working well into their 70s (e.g. Judi Dench, Ian McKellen). In fact, interestingly, the headline was changed from how it appeared in our alerts (where it claimed ’15 of 18 actresses are over 40′) to its present incarnation, because it was wrong (it was only 13 of 18).

The Emmys are the TV acting equivalent of the Oscars, where TV is claimed to be the more ‘daring and creative’ industry. This seems to be suggesting that these attributes are needed if one is going to cast (older) women in what are described as age appropriate roles.