What I find interesting...entertaining...amusing (not sure the word here - lol) -
This also doesn't even get into the extra layer added when you start looking at ACTUAL ages of actors/actresses, the ages of their characters, and whatever relationships on top of that. Hubby has made a game of "Guess how Old they are vs. their characters!" in tv shows/movies because of how wildly discrepant this 'image' is when compared to reality. You have 30somethings (and older!) cast as 18-22 year olds, in relationships with 40+year old characters played by 50-70 year olds. You have 40+ year olds playing people in their 60s+. Not every show and movie does this, obviously, and you're more likely to see the 'huge age gap' between character and actor age the younger the character gets; but still the commonality of these crazy visual standards is remarkable. And the expectation of (for example) a 35 year old actor to be able to, with some makeup on their face, their whole bodies to either look 20 or 65 - is nuts, and unhealthy.
Many of us have had the 'age shock' of learning that the characters in the popular 80s sitcom "Golden Girls" were (per the writers/script) supposedly characters in their upper 40s/early 50s - when everyone in the real world looks at those characters and sees women at LEAST 65+ years old, not 48. Its disturbing (at least to me) to realize that "Hollywood", at that particular time, was looking at women who were 48 and considering them the equivalent of a 70+ year old. That, at least in SOME aspects, has certainly improved in the intervening decades - but there's still a long way to go.
Hollwood's age 'norms' are nothing healthy or realistic, no matter what age group you're looking at - and casting younger women/older men together is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg here. A casting that isn't even, necessarily, inappropriate - because there are tons of people in healthy, supportive, loving romantic relationships with people 20+ years apart from each other. (So implying that its 'always wrong' or arguing from that standpoint, isn't at all correct, either.)
I'd just like to see actors playing characters at least in the same 'age decade' - and let THAT be the real norm and expectation for the business. Maybe one day! =D