Gen X Movie Stars Are The Worst At Aging
Just watched The Substance. Demi Moore finally did what aging stars used to do — she got grotesque, raw, and fully unhinged. Think Bette Davis in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?, Gloria Swanson in Sunset Boulevard, Shelley Winters in Night of the Hunter, or Jack Nicholson in The Shining and About Schmidt. Aging used to unlock something in stars. Now it shuts them down.
Gen X actors? They’ve completely flopped at aging.
Clooney, Damon, Hamm, Affleck — they should’ve become the next Hackman, Mitchum, or Stewart-in-his-Hitchcock-era. Older, haunted, morally compromised. Instead, they’re clinging to charm and relevance like it’s 2005. Still trying to be the “guy” rather than the character.
And the women? Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock, Jennifer Aniston — allergic to risk. No hag horror. No psychological decay. No dangerous glamour. Just Botox and bland prestige roles about wine moms, CEOs, or therapists.
Meanwhile, younger actors — Kristen Stewart, Mia Goth, Paul Mescal, Barry Keoghan — are doing what Gen X wouldn’t. They’re letting themselves be ugly, strange, and specific. They’re already giving us what Gen X never did: character work.
Demi Moore made her Baby Jane. The rest of her generation still thinks they’re in My Best Friend’s Wedding.
| by Anonymous | reply 6 | July 3, 2025 7:36 AM
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Julianne Moore has spent her entire career going raw and unhinged and continues to play age-appropriate lead roles. She hasn’t fucked with her face too much and resembles a (gorgeous) real person. She’s the American Isabelle Huppert.
| by Anonymous | reply 1 | July 3, 2025 6:02 AM
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Hollywood is collapsing under IP bloat and superhero fatigue. The only films that consistently break through now are horror, psychological thrillers, and character-driven indies — the A24 lane. That’s what younger audiences are watching and sharing.
So where are the Gen X movie stars?
Clooney and Damon could have aged into modern-day Jimmy Stewarts — playing haunted, morally messy men in stylish, Hitchcock-style thrillers. Instead, they’re stuck making race car dramas, military movies, or throwback prestige fluff that feels like 1997.
Meanwhile, millennials and Gen Z would love to see them take real swings. Be unlikable. Be pathetic. Be weird. That’s why actors like Willem Dafoe are thriving — The Lighthouse wasn’t even a stretch for him, but he still went all in, and a whole new generation paid attention.
Clooney and Damon had the taste, the talent, and the platform. But when it was time to evolve, they played it safe — and aged out of relevance.
| by Anonymous | reply 2 | July 3, 2025 6:04 AM
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R1 I agree with Julianne Moore but she’s been always been a character actress with movie star appeal but a character actress at her core so she’s had no issues transitioning into old age.
But there’s a part of me that feels like aside from superhero movies dominating the box office for 15 years, the “movie star” died because a lot of Gen X refused to move into old age and funded self-fulfilled vanity projects that were bomb and boring to audiences when they should have been producing films that kept them movie stars by evolving with audiences taste.
Like I said, Demi Moore and “The Substance” is a great example of a Gen X star transitioning into their age and being able to win back audiences and gain new audiences.
| by Anonymous | reply 3 | July 3, 2025 6:11 AM
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I think the main cause is the increasingly risk averse movie industry, where almost everything now concerns superheroes, remakes or the odd oscar baiting prestige project. While i don’t disagree re Clooney, Damon, Roberts, Bullock they are too expensive to entertain a risky project - and, granted, most of them were ever really into talking major risks. Demi Moore is older and her movie career was defunct.
Any creativity mostly lies now on tv;streaming. There are some good indie movies, a handful of good directors all competing for the next award but unfortunately movies are getting increasingly uninteresting.
| by Anonymous | reply 5 | July 3, 2025 7:05 AM
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