Sienna Miller: Too skinny for Russell Crowe?

 

Everyone knows that it can be hard for older actresses to find leading roles in Hollywood movies. Once they’re through the first bloom of pulchritude, opportunities thin out dramatically: For every Judi Dench or Meryl Streep there are dozens of middle-aged actresses who can’t get a break in tinseltown.

That trend appears to have been reversed on the set of Ridley Scott’s reinvention of the Robin Hood legend, Nottingham. Highly regarded screen siren Sienna Miller has reportedly been sacked from the project in order to make way for an older..perhaps chunkier..performer who might less likely to invite unfavourable comparisons with husky leading man Russell Crowe.

I can think of a good many films where a grizzled leading man was teamed with a slimline starlet, I can think of comparatively few mainstream movies that have featured plausible middle-aged couples, and most of those involved the remarkably well-preserved Anne Archer.

Is this a step forward in the battle against ageism?  Or just another sign that Nottingham is one of strangest productions of recent years?

Comments

[Dixon Kipretich]

"Highly regarded screen siren Sienna Miller"

:O)

...by whom ?

[kerry livermore]

I don't think it is girth (either Sienna's or Russell's) that is the problem. Sienna has now got a name in Hollywood as a marriage breaker, and Americans sometimes like to take the moral high ground.

[Tony Parsons]

One has to wonder if there's more to this than just Sienna's beauty and youth.
Personally, I'd rather watch her, or Keira for that matter, than a middle aged woman; sexist, but honest.

[Victoria Taylor]

The story of Robin Hood is about political intrigue, class injustice and is not a love story. Marion is supposed to have helped Robin during his daring campaigns and she should be tough, smart and devoted to the "cause", not just to Robin. No need to see her naked.

[Fiona]

Is it just me or do the most ludicrous pairings of young beauty + old fogey seem to always involve Nick Cage (Ghost Rider, anyone?)?

[StevenS]

Not so strange or new an idea actually - in the 70s film Robin and Marian, Sean Connery and Audrey Hepburn in the title roles were both a bit older than Crowe is now. Good film.

[Carson]

This reminds me of job rejection letters I have received telling me that I am amazing, gifted, talented, experienced and just far too good for the job -- application rejected because I would just make my mates look bad.

[Reardon]

Sienna Miller is "highly regarded"? By whom?

A quick check on IMDb shows Miller has no active project in the works.The story about her being too young and beautiful for Crowe is just a ludicrous spin from her PR. She got fired because of her reputation as a hard party girl and home-wrecker, that's all. Nobody can suspend disbelief to see her as Maid Marian.

[tiddle]

Hollywood has become so uninteresting, but unrealistic model-looking starlets. How often do we have interesting fares like Something's Gotta Give?

Truth be told, I'm so tired of those pouty lips of Keira Knightley or Sienna Miller, and not much else.

[Dr Roy Gordon]

It cant be as bad as most French movies which have no problem showing relationships between 60 y.o. men and 14 year old babes

[Matilda]

What has ones love life to do with the ability to act?

If you want to go down the road where you judge people by their behaviour off screen then why not sack Russel Crowe for his violent antics caused by his bad temper?

What's the difference between Sienna as a single woman having an affair with a married man (whose wife doesn't understand him of course) and Russel Crowe throwing a telephone at a receptionist?

[Daisy]

While the termination of Miller's contract may well have more to do with her off-screen antics with married men (although I agree she has hardly set the screen alight with any of her performances so far), it does present a double standard. Russell Crowe had an affair with a then-married (to Dennis Quaid) Meg Ryan on the set of Proof of Life. Apparently only women acquire the 'homewrecker' badge which subsequently affects their careers then...

[Carol]

That depends. Will the character Marian actually be around 40 in the movie? Because that could be an interesting change and I'd be willing to check it out.

Now... will Mary be a 20 year-old damsel in distress played by a 40 year old actress? Because that's not "new" or "revolutionary" at all. The fact that there are few good characters actually over 35 to be played by actresses over 35 has been addressed beautifully in "All About Eve" more than half a century ago. Casting a mature actress to play a "medieval teenager" doesn't help creating better parts for older actresses.

[Tim]

yes, lets make it different a good opportunity for change: Ms Miller gets hung in the first scene for being a witch and the male lead goes off with the fat bird with a tash? - marvelous.

[Sara]

I'm glad Sienna's gone, she's a terrible actress and not that good looking.

[Michael]

She was the only reason I would have gone to see yet another remake of Robin Hood.

[Laura Roberts]

Let's face it, Sienna Miller's only good for shots where she's holding a cigarette. She's incapable of doing non-cigarette-holding scenes and I don't think Maid Marion smoked.

[Alex]

Too skinny? No.

Too cheap and talentless? Damned right!

[anon]

Sienna is not talented or beautiful the only reason she is famous is because of the men she sleeps with- she needs high profile names to keep herself in the business. She is far more famous in the US because of her bad reputation nothing to do with her acting ability.

[vanessa]

sienna just needs a decent meal! maybe if she wasn't hungry she'd behave better? maybe even perform better as an actress?

[Tony V]

@ Reardon: Your quick look at IMDB may have been a little too quick. I'm showing:
A Woman of No Importance (2009) (in production) .... Hester Worsley
G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra (2009) (post-production) .... The Baroness
Hippie Hippie Shake (2009) (completed) .... Louise Ferrier

[am]

Life expectancy want so long at the time Robin Hood is set, most middle age women would probably be dead.

[Ella]

When will they get rid of men because they are too skinny compared to the woman? They won't, the woman will just be expected to lose weight. Men have it easy with regards to body image

[Victoria]

Good.
Funnily enough, actresses do not stop being actresses when they hit 40. Older men are accepted, what should older actresses do? fall on their swords?
Get real Hollywood. 40 years old, 50 years old so what? The experience, wisdom, beauty and elegance of some older actresses cannot be replicated by the young.

[Dirty old man]

Young girls just love rich powerful old men. This has always been the case and always will. Ugly flabby Hollywood producers have beautiful tight mistresses. Get over it. Would Grace Kelly have fallen for Bing Crosby in High Society? Audrey Hepburn for Bogey in Sabrina etc etc Whilst we might find the prospect of being intimate with Nicholas Cage frankly nauseating, there are plenty of hot young babes willing to overlook certain physical misfortunes in favour of bank balance/fame/power etc take your pick.

[Sara]

Tony V

Two fo those movies are done. Hippie Hippie Shake and GI Joe have been delayed in their release, possibly because of all of the bad press Sienna is getting. A Woman of No Importance is dead, they just need to bury it. She is the only cast member listed, all of the other ones having dropped out.
Her career is over, and it never should have started in the first place. It has nothing to do with her appearance, it's that no one will spend any money to go see her in a movie.

[NessieP]

I thought the legend was that Maid Marion and Robin where childhood playmates? Russ needs an actress closer to his own age to suit the role.

[maddison]

bring on kate Winslet or Kate Blanchett..they are first and foremost brilliant actresses of the old school...Sienna Miller is so insipid as an actress with so little charisma

[Young Goddess]

I truely believe that yes we young tight beautiful women,look for flabby old RICH men. But that being said, the flabby old Rich men who are married and leave their first wife who put up with all the heartaches from the beginning, who have children with these first wives.Lets be real the men have a problem not the young beauty or the old wives, The men do they need to feel desirable so they run to the younger women, blinding themselves of what we really want.
Thank goodness for their stupidity.
Love all the Rich old Fuddy duddys

[Claudia]

Sienna was great in factory girl.

[charlie]

Of course you could play your part and break the modern day obsession with youth and beauty by showing a picture of the woman who landed the role but no, we get a photograph of Sienna Miller. And Anna Archer is hardly a fat old bag is she - not much of risk for the film maker.

[Terry]

Sienna Miller's name should not even be mentioned in the same sentence with actors of the caliber of Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly .. and I will add Russell Crowe .... give me a break, as an American, I fail to see the British attraction to Sienna Miller ... she is not an actress, model, singer, or even a celebrity ... so what is her deal? If I were Mr. Crowe I;d like an actor of substance around me instead of the "nothingness" of a Miss Miller ..

[Carl]

It could just be that paired together on the screen Russell Crowe would look so much older than Miller as to be suspected as having certain pedophile tendencies. He is getting to be an old geezer after all.

[Patricia]

The author is right. There are no "30 or 40 something" women to offset the aging or bulky lothario. 10 years ago, Rene Russo made a late career run at being the age appropriate romantic interest for actors such as Pierce Brosnan, Kevin Costner, Mel Gibson and an old Clint Eastwood. The powers that be in Hollywood have not "allowed" that role to be re-cast or they have not "discovered" the actress to fill it.

[P]

"I don't think it is girth (either Sienna's or Russell's) that is the problem. Sienna has now got a name in Hollywood as a marriage breaker, and Americans sometimes like to take the moral high ground."

Blimey, they've got short memories... what about Mr Crowe having a well-publicised fling with the Sweetheart of America, Meg Ryan, effectively ending HER marriage?

[Donna]

Sienna Miller is THE worst actress ever. I'm also guessing she and Russell Crowe couldn't get along since they both have reputations for being "difficult" on set and afterall he is the star..

[Marc]

Sienna who?

[tkehler]

So, she's starring an "A Woman of No Importance", is she? Is it biographical?

[Someone Sienna's age]

I agree with the film makers... nothing creepier or more embarrasing than watching some vain old guy with hair in all the wrong places trying to get inside the pants of someone young enough to be his grandaughter.

Just makes the actresses look desperate for money (no difference between doing it for the screen and a 'career', or doing it for the money a la Anna Nicole Smith is there really?).

Eeeuw!

[Snoopie]

I don't think he meant she's young in that way, I think he meant that she looks more like an immature bimbo-head who's been gobbling too many ectasy pills at the clubs she's at every day of the week and can't possibly pull off the demure, regal, well-liked and relatively intelligent character of Lady Marianne the way Cate Blanchett can, that's all.

[Vanessa]

Kerry Livermore: "Americans sometimes like to take the moral high ground."

As if the English do not take the moral high ground!

[Anthony]

...but seeing her naked is the point.

[KC]

Yes, thats the reality. Especially in Calif where I live; NO MAN dates his own age because its only a reminder of HIS AGE
They feel very intitled to date VERY YOUNG because their wallets and cars is what the very young EXPECT. They prefer blondes of course, and when their blonde babes grow older and they discover they have white hair? Their men opt for new ones or dark haired women who dye their hair not to look a day older than 35. All is fair in the fake world of tinsletown Hollywood. I should know, I grew up there!

[Helen]

A Woman Of No Importance is now off the table for Sienna. Indeed, I don't think she ever landed that role. Her reps have this habit of announcing roles that she has tested for, before she has landed them properly. This time it backfired on her. As for Sienna being replaced by an older, tubbier model for Robin Hood, Cate Blanchett is hardly what I would call a bloater nor is she ready to put out to pasture! In fact, comparing recent pictures of the two actresses shows that Blanchett is looking THE SAME AGE as the more youthful Miller! Clearly Sienna's hard partying, hard smoking lifestyle is showing itself in her looks. I give her 10 years and she will be ready for the knackers yard!

Sienna has no new projects beyond her Broadway debut. That will be a make or break role for her too. As for the reasons for her being let go, I seriously doubt they had anything to do with her lifestyle. Far more likely they had everything to do with her lack of talent in comparison to a screen great like Russell Crowe.

[KC]

Exactly correct Dirty Old Man!!! Hollywood is so screwd up over who weights what and WHOS PAST 40. I should know! I've lived there nearly 60 yrs and in films. And 40 yr olds now play grandmothers. Its silly but its part of the nasty business. Notice Sally Fields hair dyed! she's nearly 64 and lucky to have her job. If she didn't dye her hair chocolate, her gray hair would keep her playing VERY OLD women. I hate Hollywood

[KC]

Unless you have a Screen Actors Guild card, I'd advise you Brits to stay and grap parts there. However, due to the wealth of it all, try out for Hollywood acting jobs ONLY if you are at least a membre of Equity, otherwise no agent will even look at you. They do not take in people from the streets "just interested"

[ivy]

I'm wondering how many people who are shooting down Sienna's acting have actually scene any of her movies--beyond Layer Cake.

I saw her in a film recently, and was shocked at how good an actress she was; I was expecting the worst, and the truth is she's really not a bad actress. I thought she was better than Keira Knightley.

Yes, well, remember who actually pays to go to the movies 15-25+ ish, wanting to see actors / actresses who are in this same age grouping. Put older actors and actresses in more films and the rental crowd will be thrilled I'm sure.

[Michael G]

It's interesting to see that 90% of all negative comments on Siena Miller are from women! Sienna - you're hot!!!

[Sarah]

Awww, poor Sienna.

So - she's only famous for sleeping with Jude Law, but come on - how many women would honestly turn that down, given the chance?!

If you can make a career out of that happy circumstance, more power you.

And I am not entirely convinced Russell Crowe qualifies as 'Screen Great'. I think the best I've seen 'Crowe' was actually Robert Downey Jr's parody of him in 'Tropic Thunder'...