For decades, the entertainment industry operated on a frustratingly simple equation regarding women: Youth equals value, and age equals invisibility.

: Characterisations featuring degenerative disabilities that position the woman as a burden to her spouse.

Similarly, has redefined the "scream queen" into a character actor of staggering versatility. Her raw, physically audacious turn in Everything Everywhere —as a bureaucratic IRS agent with a mustache and a grudge—was a career zenith, not a swan song. These women aren’t exceptions; they are the vanguard.