Maggie Gyllenhaal ‘too old’ to play 55-year-old’s love interest

TORONTO — Maggie Gyllenhaal has revealed she was turned down for a role because she was too old to play the love interest for a 55-year-old man.

“I’m 37 and I was told recently I was too old to play the lover of a man who was 55,” Gyllenhaal said in an interview with The Wrap.

“It was astonishing to me. It made me feel bad, and then it made me feel angry, and then it made me laugh.”

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Gyllenhaal, who is married to 44-year-old actor Peter Sarsgaard, did not reveal the names of the project or the leading man.

According to researchers at the San Diego State University’s Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, female characters made up just 12 per cent of protagonists in the 100 top-grossing films of 2014.

Gyllenhaal earned a supporting actress Oscar nomination for 2009’s Crazy Heart and won a Golden Globe this year for her role in the mini-series The Honourable Woman. Her credits include Secretary, The Dark Knight and the made-in-Montreal White House Down.

“A lot of actresses are doing incredible work right now, playing real women, complicated women,” Gyllenhaal said.