MacDowell: 40s awkward time for leading lady
MacDowell: 40s awkward time for leading lady
SHANGHAI — “Four Weddings and a Funeral” star Andie MacDowell says her 40s were an awkward time partly because Hollywood filmmakers didn’t know how to cast the veteran American actress.
The 51-year-old actress hasn’t had a big hit since a string of commercial successes in the early and mid-1990s, including “Groundhog Day,” “Michael” and “Four Weddings and a Funeral.”
She said Thursday that while she didn’t have trouble finding work in her 40s, American filmmakers may have had trouble finding good roles for her.
“In America, there’s such a hunger for young people, so you get the young up-and-coming star. And then it becomes a time period when they really don’t know what to do with you or how to use you,” MacDowell told The Associated Press in an interview in Shanghai, where she is serving as a juror at the 12th Shanghai International Film Festival.
“And then it changes, I think, after 50 — then you become — ‘I’m the mother of the 20-year-old.’ So I’m hoping there’s going to be a shift again and I’ll work more,” she said.
“I think you have to stay open and flexible and look for opportunities and not be arrogant,” she said. “You’re so used to being the lead or the hot thing. I think a lot of people get stuck in that moment. And I’m not really stuck in that moment. I just want to participate.”
MacDowell, who lives in Asheville, N.C., said she still managed to find artistically challenging roles.
“I did a couple of crazy movies. They weren’t that good. But I loved the process because it made me get out of my element. It was all improvisation. It was fun. Of course, I would love to have a big box-office success. But everything I’m doing, I still feel I’m being challenged. I’m working with interesting people,” she said.
Her upcoming films include the thriller “As Good as Dead” and “The 5th Quarter.”
Settlement deadline set in Morgan Freeman lawsuit
JACKSON, Miss. — A federal judge says actor Morgan Freeman and the woman suing him over a car wreck should submit settlement proposals to the court by July 15.
Demaris Meyer claims the 71-year-old Oscar-winning actor was negligent when the car he was driving ran off the side of a rural Mississippi highway in August. Meyer was a passenger in the car when it flipped several times. Both of them were seriously injured.
Freeman’s attorney has said in court papers that Meyer shares blame for the accident.
The judge set the deadline Wednesday. Such deadlines are common in federal civil cases and don’t necessarily indicate the sides will agree.
U.S. Magistrate S. Allan Alexander has scheduled a July 29 conference on the case in U.S. District Court in Oxford.
Today’s birthdays
Actress Olympia Dukakis is 78. Actor Martin Landau is 78. Actor Danny Aiello is 76. Actor John Mahoney (“Frasier”) is 69. Musician Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys is 67. Actor John McCook (“The Bold and the Beautiful”) is 64. Singer Anne Murray is 64. Home repair show host Bob Vila is 63. Singer Lionel Richie is 60. Actor John Goodman is 57. Bassist Michael Anthony (Van Halen, Chickenfoot) is 55. Bassist John Taylor of Duran Duran is 49. Keyboardist Mark De Gli Antoni (Soul Coughing) is 47. Bassist Murphy Karges of Sugar Ray is 42. Actress Nicole Kidman is 42. Singer Dan Tyminski of Alison Krauss and Union Station is 42. Actor Peter Paige (“Queer as Folk”) is 40. Actor Josh Lucas (“Sweet Home Alabama,” “A Beautiful Mind”) is 38. Singer Chino Moreno is 36.