Hollywood Gets to Grips with the Age Gap好莱坞开始反思“忘年恋”

It’s a contentious issue. The Hollywood age gap romance—the habitual casting of an older male actor and a much younger female actor， for so long accepted as the norm—is now meeting with increasing scrutiny and criticism from audiences. Some filmmakers， identifying a hot-button topic， have started to respond.

这是个颇具争议的话题。

好莱坞大银幕上的“忘年恋”，往往男演员年龄大得多，女演员却小得多。这种搭配长久以来被视作惯例，但如今观众对此越来越较真，批评声也越来越大。一些电影制作人也注意到了这一敏感话题，并已有所行动。

At the Sundance Film Festival1 last month， age gaps in relationships were a recurring theme. But rather than the trad-itional approach， of hoping that people wouldn’t notice an age difference which could practically be measured on a geological time2 frame， filmmakers are instead emphasising and examining the issue.

在2022 年1 月的圣丹斯电影节上，“忘年恋”是反复出现的主题。不过，有别于传统的处理方式，对快要以地质年代来计算的年龄差，电影制作人不再期待观众熟视无睹，而是改为强调、剖析年龄差问题。

Approaches include flipping the gender roles， as with Good Luck to You， Leo Grande， which starred Emma Thompson， who is 62， opposite 29-year-old Daryl McCormack， or the audience prize-winner Cha Cha Real Smooth， which explored the attraction between a young male college leaver and a thirty-something divorcee.

新的处理方式包括对调角色性别。就像影片《祝你好运，利奥·格兰德》，62岁的艾玛·汤普森饰演女主角，29岁的达里尔·麦科马克与她演对手戏。另一个例子是获得了观众奖的影片《恰恰丝滑》。这部影片探讨了刚大学毕业的男青年与30多岁离婚女人之间的相互吸引。

Other films， like the potent but gruelling Palm Trees and Power Lines and Sharp Stick， delved into the real-ities of the power imbalance between a young woman and a much older man. One thing is certain： the debate about onscreen age differences is not about to die down.

还有几部影片，像颇为劲爆却让人备感疲惫的《棕榈树与输电线》和《锋利的棍子》，深入探索了现实问题，即年轻女人和年长许多的男人之间权力不平衡。有一点是确定无疑的，那就是有关银幕上“忘年恋”的争议不会平息。

On the contrary， if the polarised reactions to Paul Thomas Anderson’s Licorice Pizza are anything to go by， the conversation， amplified perhaps by the fact that it frequently plays out on social media， is only set to grow more heated. Another film which flips the gender roles of the traditional age gap， Licorice Pizza is a defiantly unconventional picture.

不仅如此，保罗·托马斯·安德森执导的《甘草披萨》上映后，观众的评价两极分化。如果说这种现象能反映什么问题的话，那就是针锋相对的讨论注定会愈演愈烈。或许是由于这种讨论经常发生在社交媒体上，因而争议加剧。《甘草披萨》也对调了传统“忘年恋”中的性别角色，大胆地挑战了传统。

At the heart of the film is， if not quite a romance between a 15-year-old boy and a woman at least 10 years his senior， then certainly a mutual attraction.

这部电影的核心，即使谈不上是15 岁男孩和至少年长10 岁的女人之间的爱情，起码也是二人之间的相互吸引。

Anderson， talking to The New York Times last year， downplayed the age gap aspect. “There’s no line that’s crossed， and there’s nothing but the right intentions. It would surprise me if there was some kind of kerfuffle3 about it… There isn’t a provocative bone in this film’s body.”

2021 年，安德森在接受《纽约时报》的采访时，对影片中的“忘年恋”轻描淡写。“没有任何出格之处，只有一番好意。要是有什么争议，那还真出乎我的意料……这部电影没有一点煽动性要素。”

One suspects that Anderson was being a touch disingenuous in his claims： surely the whole point of pushing the age gap to the front of the story was to create a degree of discomfort. Anderson is， after all， a filmmaker who has made a career out of getting under the skin of a series of broken screw-ups.

有人怀疑安德森的这番说辞有点不真诚：之所以要让故事里的“忘年恋”如此醒目，显然是为了制造些许不适。毕竟，安德森正是靠着接连制造支离破碎的混乱，让人烦躁不安，才在自己的职业生涯里得志的。

Malcolm & Marie， a Netflix production written and directed by Sam Levinson， about a film director， played by John David Washington， 36， and his girlfriend， played by then a 24-year-old Zendaya， sparked criticism for the 12-year age gap between the two. This is in part， as Zendaya pointed out， because audiences were accustomed to seeing her in high school-age roles in films like the Spider-Man franchise. Even so， the fact that the comparatively modest age difference between Zendaya and Washington drew complaints might be an indication that audience tolerance for multi-decade gaps is waning.

由萨姆·莱文森编剧、执导，并由网飞出品的《马尔科姆与玛丽》，讲述了一名电影导演和他女朋友之间的故事。36 岁的约翰·戴维·华盛顿饰演导演，当时24 岁的赞达亚饰演他的女友，两人之间12 岁的年龄差招来了不少批评。究其原因，就像赞达亚指出的一样，部分是因为观众看惯了她演高中生，比如《蜘蛛侠》系列。即便如此，赞达亚和华盛顿之间相对而言并不算太大的年龄差，依旧引来了怨言。这或许说明，观众越来越不能容忍几十岁的年龄差了。

Not before time4. “Men on screen have a whole life， and women only have a shelf life，” says Nicky Clark， the founder of campaign group Acting Your Age， which lobbies for age-appropriate casting and representation for older women on screen. “Since the medium began， women were expected to retire at 40 and not do anything particularly interesting if they were working after that age. And that hasn’t really changed.”

早该如此了。“男人可以在银幕上活跃一生，女人却总有保鲜期。”尼基·克拉克如是说。她发起的“演出你的年龄风采”运动旨在号召选角要与年龄相符，号召在银幕上刻画年纪较大的女性。“从电影这种媒体刚出现时起，人们就觉得女演员到了40岁就该退休。就算过了40岁还在演戏，也演不出什么特别有趣的东西。即使到了今天，这一切也没有真正改变。”

According to actor and co-founder of the ERA5 50：50 campaign Polly Kemp， there’s no mystery behind the tendency to cast much younger women opposite older actors. “I think it’s to do with the fact that it was predominantly white， older men who commissioned， financed and produced. They were casting their preferences… I think things are changing slowly， certainly in terms of diversity. But certainly for middle-aged women it’s still a bit of a struggle.”

“ 平等上镜50：50”运动的联合发起人、演员波莉·肯普认为，选角时常选年轻得多的女性和年长男性演对手戏，其背后原因并不神秘。“在我看来，这是因为委托人也好，投资人也好，制片人也好，绝大多数是年龄偏大的白人男性。他们依照自己的喜好选角……我觉得，情况正在慢慢改变，当然是变得越来越多元。不过，对于中年女演员来说，依然有点困难。”