Dame Joan Collins: ‘I only get offered roles after Judi Dench and Maggie Smith reject them’

ICONINSIDER — Dame Joan Collins says she only gets offered moving roles after Dames Judi Dench and Maggie Smith turn them down.
The 84-year-old actress believes she is low down on the list of older actresses that producers turn to and acknowledges that maintaining an acting career in her 80s is tough.
She told Fabulous magazine: “There are older-women parts, but quite frankly they’re going to go first of all to Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Helen Mirren, Meryl Streep or Susan Sarandon. There are 20 women they’re going to go through before they get to me.”
Joan also believes that parts for older actresses are few and far between, as movie studies continue to cater to a younger audience.
She explained: “Today, big-budget films are made by big businesses, and all of the companies have one motive in mind – to make money.
“Their audience is mostly young men between the ages of 12 and 28 and they want to see young, nubile girls.”
However, Joan’s latest role in ‘The Time of Their Lives’ was written specifically for her by director Roger Goldby.
She said: “It’s got a great honesty about it. Fame is totally fleeting, and that’s one of the things I learned very early on. It casts a light on the misery of celebs as they get older. At fan conventions you see people you haven’t heard of for 30 or 40 years selling their photographs. You’re like: ‘That’s so and so, they were so beautiful,’ and now they’re absolutely unknown. They love the fame, and unfortunately it’s gone.”

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