Amanda Peet Is Getting “Pushed Out” By Younger Actresses

Oh, Amanda Peet. We're here for you, sister. In the latest Lenny letter, the Togetherness star opens up about why she gets peels and buys anti-aging cream but swears she won't step into the realm of plastic surgery, not even for Botox. Her essay isn't just a piece about the shallow standards of beauty, however; it's also an inside look at what it's like to be an actress in her 40s. "Recently, I was told I was ineligible for a movie because I wasn’t 'current' enough," Peet, 44, wrote. "I’m constantly pushed out by younger talent, like Alicia Vikander. ... She’s in the hot center and I’m on the remote perimeter. The train has left the station and I’m one of those moronic stragglers running alongside with her purse caught in the door. Everyone’s looking at me like, Let go, you bullheaded old hag! There’s no room for you." Yikes. In case you can't tell from the picture here, Amanda Peet is still absolutely beautiful, and her acting skills have only improved since she starred in the early 2000s flicks Saving Silverman and Whipped, movies filled with "rampant misogyny" (her words!) that she's sure her daughters will write essays about one day. “I’m scared that because you have so many wrinkles it means you’re going to die soon,” Peet's daughter Frankie once told her. That seems to sum up, if not everyone's secret fear about aging, at least Hollywood's running theory. Rather than envying 27-year-old Vikander, Peet seems jealous of her sister, a doctor who has embraced signs of aging because they seem to gain her more respect in her field. In the end, it's hard to tell if Peet regrets her choice of career. What she does hope for is that if she's not getting work as an "old hag," then at least she'll live a long life, theorizing that "if I resist the urge to sweep old age under the rug, if I don’t try to clamp it down, I’ll be rewarded with longevity." If nothing else, she at least has the comfort of miserable company: "Botox or no Botox, we shouldn’t feel bitter, because we’re ALL going to look like shit. Every last one of us. Even Alicia Vikander. (Sorry, Alicia.)"