Carrie Coon, 44, says her decision to age naturally is the reason she gets casted to play older women.
In an interview with Glamour published on Monday, the “White Lotus” star was asked if she is drawn to “complex” characters or has simply been typecast. Coon said it’s the latter.
“We all have a way we present in the world. The perception of me is that I am verbal, intellectual. My voice is lower, and I don’t have Botox, so I tend to play older than I am. And so I’ve always had a gravitas or some authority,” Coon told Glamour.
Known for her Emmy-nominated performances in “The Gilded Age” and “Fargo,” the actor says her distinctive voice stems from years of vocal training and performing in theater.
“I started to understand just how vital it is as a woman to be fully voiced,” Coon said. “You see women in positions of power who aren’t fully voiced, and it actually makes their job harder.”
She added that she often tells women — female actors in particular —to avoid speaking in their “baby voice.”
“You have no power. You’re giving up all your power in every room,” she said.
Moreover, Coon also hopes that young women in Hollywood can withstand the pressure to go under the knife.
“Authenticity is more evocative than any kind of engineering you might consider doing to your face or your body,” she said. “Now, this is not the message coming from culture. As a woman who is 44, watching myself in HD is not easy, and it’s not comfortable.”
While she does get baby lasers and does gua sha, she isn’t a fan of injectables.
“I like science-based skincare,” she said. “But I’m not going to inject anything into my face. It’s just…I think it’s scary and strange.”
Coon added that she’s “inspired by other women in the business I see who I can tell are also not augmenting their appearance.”
“It’s a choice I’m making for myself,” she added.
Coon’s experience of being typecast due to her appearance is a reflection of broader issues in Hollywood, where many female actors have spoken out about the industry’s narrow beauty standards, sexism, and ageism.
Kathy Bates said in September that she was able to have a long acting career only because she didn’t fit societal standards of beauty.
In December, Nicole Kidman said her agent had to convince her that her acting career wasn’t over just because she turned 40.
Jennifer Love Hewitt said in a January interview that her fans have a “really hard time” accepting that she no longer looks the way she did in her 20s.
Ageism against women is also prevalent in other workplaces and industries, too. A survey of 913 women published in Harvard Business Review in June 2023 suggested that women in leadership roles faced workplace age discrimination at every age bracket.
A representative for Coon did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent by Business Insider outside regular hours.
