Feisty, frail or fiendish: why do film-makers still insist on shoving older characters into stereotypes?

<p>There’s been a dramatic increase in actors of pensionable age playing starring roles in movies – but why are the three Fs the only personalities they get to play?</p><p>A decade and a half ago, in 2009, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/dec/31/older-leads-film-meryl-streep"> I watched over 300 films</a>, and I counted only three featuring senior citizens in significant roles. But the times they are a-changing, because leading characters of pensionable age are all over the place nowadays, whether solving crimes in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/aug/22/the-thursday-club-review-richard-osman-bestseller-provides-solid-star-stuffed-entertainment">The Thursday Murder Club</a>; turning the tables on swindlers in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/jul/15/thelma-review-june-squibb-richard-roundtree">Thelma</a> or <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/article/2024/jun/17/the-g-review-dale-dickey">The G</a>; wrestling with unreliable memories in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/jun/10/the-father-review-anthony-hopkins-olivia-colman-florian-zeller">The Father</a> or Familiar Touch; or preying on other inmates or staff in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/aug/19/the-home-review-pete-davidson-horror">The Home</a> or <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/film/2025/mar/12/the-rule-of-jenny-pen-review-john-lithgow-pulls-the-strings-in-care-home-horror-geoffrey-rush">The Rule of Jenny Pen</a>.</p><p>Not long ago, the screen was monopolised by smooth-skinned teens and twentysomethings, but now it has been infiltrated by creased faces imbued with the sort of personality that can only be accrued over decades of experience and with minimal recourse to cosmetic surgery. And not just as non-player characters but in starring or p