In a story that should seem familiar, because it’s happened before, actress Olivia Wilde, currently 32, says in a new interview that she was told she was “too old” to play the wife of fellow good-looking person Leonardo DiCaprio, currently 41. Now, for a bit of context: Wilde revealed this information on The Howard Stern Show while discussing her role in HBO’s Vinyl, executive produced by Wolf Of Wall Street director Martin Scorsese. She says she didn’t have to audition for Vinyl because she had met with Scorsese about Wolf, which, sure. But here’s something else she said about that same audition:
The funniest thing I heard recently was I had heard for a part that I was too sophisticated. And I was like, ‘Oh, that sounds nice. I like that feedback. I didn’t get the part, but I’m a very sophisticated person.’ And then I found out later that they actually said ‘old.’ I want to make a translation sheet for Hollywood that’s all the feedback your agents give you and what it really means.
As difficult as it may be to not clamp your hands tightly around your ears to keep your brains from exploding everywhere at the idea that a 28-year-old woman (Wilde’s age at the time) is too old to be married to a 37-year-old man (ditto for DiCaprio), let’s think about this objectively. Wilde read for the character of Naomi Lapaglia, eventually played by Margot Robbie (21 or 22 at the time of her audition, and currently 25). Wilde is a little less than 10 years younger than DiCaprio, and despite her beauty, marrying a trophy wife within a decade of his age could be considered out of character for a Wall Street scumbag like DiCaprio’s Jordan Belfort. Wilde isn’t mad about it, either, if that helps:
Considering Vinyl’s ratings, Robbie still came out ahead in that scenario, but whatever.