Judy Greer has criticised Hollywood for failing to accommodate women going through perimenopause, citing a pervasive fear of ageing in the industry. The 50-year-old actor, best known for roles in 13 Going on 30, experienced insomnia, night sweats and low mood in 2021 as her oestrogen and progesterone levels declined.
Asked whether the film industry is mindful of women experiencing menopause symptoms, Greer told The i: “Well, there’s a lot of talk about how accommodating they are, and then… they’re not.” She added: “I don’t feel like Hollywood is in general accommodating to anything that is not… financially lucrative right now… I think that there is still a lot of fear about ageing in the business.”
Greer, who frequently played best friend characters in romantic comedies early in her career, said her favourite roles now are “women my age, who really do something”. She is set to star in Dead of Winter alongside Emma Thompson, playing a kidnapper who takes a young woman hostage. Thompson, 66, plays a grief-stricken widow who discovers them at a remote cabin in snowy Minnesota.
Greer praised Thompson as “probably the greatest actor” she could have hoped to work with. “She is like, number one, and you don’t know what to expect,” Greer said. “You think maybe to be that good you just have to stay in character all the time. But luckily Emma didn’t. She was very much Emma in between takes.”
In 2023, Thompson called for menopause to become a protected characteristic under the Equality Act, telling LBC’s Andrew Marr that more must be done to support women. “The fact of the matter is, what women need or want, or need protection from, or desire has never been at the top of anyone's agenda in any country, in any part of the world until very recently,” she said.
