Tales of Sexism in Hollywood: Maggie Gyllenhaal Deemed 'Too Old' & Many Others

It is no secret that Hollywood is a male-dominated industry, with female actors bearing the brunt of this unfair preference. The American Civil Liberties Union has actually called for an investigation into the film industry's hiring practices, which hopes to level out the playing field for women in Hollywood.

According to Screen Rant, Maggie Gyllenhaal was one of the actresses who has been subjected to sexism. At age 37, she had been turned down for a certain role because she was deemed "too old to play the lover of a man who was 55."

The project details are incomplete as of the moment and do not specify much about the roles, but Gyllenhaal recalls feeling very hurt because of the rejection.

"It was astonishing to me," she said. "It made me feel bad, and then it made me feel angry, and then it made me laugh."

Gyllenhaal is not the only one to suffer from this prejudice. "Pitch Perfect" actress Anna Kendrick has earlier revealed to Glamour that actresses actually have to wait for the male roles to be filled up before they can audition, and the prerequisite feels very frustrating to her.

"There's a film I'm considerin] now where I have to wait for all the male roles to be cast before I can even become a part of the conversation. Part of me gets that. But part of me is like, 'What the? You have to cast for females based on who's cast as males?'" she said.

And that's not all. Female leads are also paid much less than their male counterparts, and this was what was revealed by the recent Sony hack. In the movie "American Hustle," it was discovered that both Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams were actually paid much less than their male co-stars Jeremy Renner, Christian Bale, and Bradley Cooper.

When another Sony hack revealed that Charlize Theron was to be paid less than her Huntsman co-star Chris Hemsworth, the actress demanded a $10 million pay raise, which she eventually got. But unfortunately, not all stars have the negotiating powers of Theron.

In the movie "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes," when director Matt Reeves was asked why the movie only had one female speaking role, he became silent before offering the reply: "It wasn't a conscious decision. I don't know. Gosh, I don't know... It's sort of a shame that, as you say, that's sort of true."