Talking Animals are Now on the Same Shitlist as Chris Pratt

We’ve long endorsed Chris Pratt as the worst offering from Hollywood’s Chris-fecta—but it appears the week has shed another reason for us to hate him.

Per a Monday study published by the U.K.-based Center for Ageing Better, successful movies in recent years have been more likely to feature an actor named “Chris”—or a talking animal—than an older woman. The study was conducted by comparing the 100 highest grossing films in the country from 2023 to 2025, of which six starred a male Chris, and of which three starred Chris Pratt (derogatory). Chris Pine—who still holds our honorary title of being the best Chris in Hollywood—starred in just one. 

Speaking to CAB, the U.K.’s first national campaign to address ageism, Emma Thompson—who holds our honorary title of being the best in general—said while old women “already exist in the world, cinema just needs to catch up.” “Women are half the population and we get older. So where are the stories about us?” she said, adding: “Older women don’t need permission to exist on screen.” 

Alas, all this comes as another shit-addendum to the well-documented lopsidedness that clearly favors men in Hollywood. Nearly 10 years ago, data website Pudding Cool released a breakdown of about 2,000 films, showing—visually—how vast the disparity between male and female dialogue is in movie dialogue—and, well, you can probably guess what results the data yielded. Per the CAB study, female characters over the age of 50 were also cited to have about 14% less dialogue than older men. 

The study also found that just five movies featured a lead woman that was over 60: Jennifer Saunders in Allelujah, Nia Vardalos in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Diane Keaton in Book Club: The Next Chapter, Demi Moore in The Substance, and Jamie Lee Curtis in Freakier Friday. (It must be said that Renée Zellweger in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy would have made the cut if Zellweger was just three years older—and the movie was the second highest-grossing in the U.K. last year.) On top of all this, films were four times more likely to feature a talking animal as the lead character than it was to feature a lead woman over 60. 

“Sadly, it is not just in cinema where this happens,” Dr. Carole Easton, chief executive at the Centre for Ageing Better, told CAB. “In many forms of media, in many different employment sectors and parts of public life, the input of older women is minimised, marginalised and ignored. We must all push back against ageism, and its intersection with sexism, by telling the cultural gatekeepers that we want all aspects and stages of life represented in the things we watch, listen to and read.” Great! While we’re at it—we can do with fewer Chris Pratt things, too.

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