Kristin Scott Thomas: Describes ageism 'disaster' for female actors as 'boring'

The English Patient actor says that the situation is unlikely to change

Kristin Scott Thomas outside the Royal Opera House before the ceremony (Getty)

Kristin Scott Thomas told Sophie Raworth that ageism in Hollywood was a "disaster", and that female actors are still losing out on roles to younger ones.

Scott Thomas, who was made a Dame on the 2015 New Year's Honours List, bemoaned the lack of representation of 50-something women.

"I won't bore you with all the stories of older women not getting jobs in film because it's so boring. But it's true - it's a disaster," she said on BBC One's Andrew Marr Show on Sunday.

When Raworth asked the 54-year-old actor why she thought it was boring, Scott Thomas replied: "Because it's never going to change."

"Until the average life-span is 150 years or something, I don't think women in their 50s are going to be considered at all viable. I think that's what it is," she said. "Sorry."

Scott Thomas has spoken about watching herself age on screen in the past. In 2013, she said: “When you’re my age, you’re invariably in a supporting role, so there’s often a young woman in her twenties or early thirties who is the lead, and you’re constantly put next to them.”

“You’re watching yourself get old, on a screen that hides nothing.”

She added that she would consider a face-lift, and said that women of her age became "invisible" to society.

Scott Thomas will take on Helen Mirren's role as Queen Elizabeth II in The Audience from April. She has just finished a run in Electra at the Old Vic.