Catherine Zeta-Jones, the A-lister who couldn’t escape ageism

It’s one of the first, great celebrity images of the summer: Michael Douglas taking in, looking for all the world like just another Mallorcan, the celebration that the town of Valldemossa stages for its 80-year-olds in its central plaza, in which it showers them with regional dances and traditional cuisine. Days later, he picked up a lifetime achievement award delivered by Queen Letizia at the Atlàntida Mallorca Film Fest. The Oscar winner’s connection with and participation in the Balearic community should come as no surprise: he’s been an intermittent resident of S’Estaca, an impressive Neo-Mudéjar villa located in the Serra de Tramuntana, for over three decades. At his side for the past 25 years has been Catherine Zeta-Jones, but she had to miss the festivities on this occasion due to the fact that she was, presumably, in the middle of filming the second season of the Netflix series Wednesday. Douglas and Zeta-Jones can boast of having one of the most stable marriages in Hollywood, having defied skeptics who thought that their 25-year age difference would be too large an obstacle for a viable relationship. Still, the career of the actress, who has also won an Oscar, has not managed to stand the test of time and its implications in a famously ageist industry.

Although today many have forgotten the heights to which she rose, Zeta-Jones was one of the most sought-after and highest-paid actresses at the beginning of the century. She collected $10 million in 2005 for her work on The Legend of Zorro, the sequel of the box-office smash in which she co-starred alongside Antonio Banderas and that established her as a Hollywood A-lister, a designation reserved for the era’s mega-stars like Julia Roberts, Cameron Diaz and Drew Barrymore. But she had a different persona from those American sweethearts, eschewing their angelic smile for a temperamental smirk, golden locks for a femme fatale’s rich complexion and their naïve and somewhat goofy charm for an empowered stance, even before that word took on its modern-day meaning. She had already won over the British public in the ‘90s, thanks to various TV roles, but her leap to the Hollywood hills in her thirties was meteoric.

From the moment Spielberg became fascinated with her after seing Zeta-Jones’s work in a miniseries about the Titanic and offered her a role in the Zorro saga, the calls began to pour in. She became the most searched-for actress in the world on an internet that was still in its infancy back in 1999. High Fidelity, Traffic, Chicago, Intolerable Cruelty and The Terminal — all shot within four years of each other — paint a picture of her draw for filmmakers like Frears, Soderbergh, the Coen brothers and Spielberg himself. Not to mention, during the same period, Zeta-Jones found the time to win an Oscar, get married to Douglas, give birth to two children — Dylan, who is now 24 and Carys, 21 — and break records with a $10 million-plus contract to become a brand ambassador for the telephone company T-Mobile. “It was a memorable journey,” confirms the Brit.

But the streak didn’t last for very long. You now have to go back more than a decade to find Zeta-Jones’s last starring role. At 54 years old, she appears to have fallen victim to the chronic ageism that plagues the film industry. Her career has moved nearly exclusively to television, limited to supporting roles that don’t make many waves. Her latest and perhaps most noteworthy project from the last 10 years was a brief — she only appeared on two episodes — turn as Morticia Addams in Tim Burton’s hit Wednesday. Even before the wave of #MeToo crashed over Hollywood, she was calling out how ageism had prematurely erased her chances of playing great leading roles.

“I have been in this business since I was nine years old, and have heard the same thing said throughout the different parts of my career. Then, HELLO, I’m in my forties … and it’s true. It’s not that there aren’t great stories to be told about women in their forties, it’s just that the big bosses in Hollywood feel that the demographic of moviegoers are less interested,” she said in 2016. Not to mention, Zeta-Jones acknowledged that, after the birth of her children, she became much pickier when it came to accepting projects that would require her to spend time away from them. In statements she made to The Telegraph, she said that, “If I’m going to leave my family for any length of time it had better be for a role that I haven’t played before, with great people. It had better be fun. Otherwise, to be honest with you, I would prefer to stay at home.”

It was the Spanish actor Antonio Banderas who played cupid between Zeta-Jones and Douglas at the Deauville American Film Festival, where he was presenting The Mask of Zorro alongside the Welsh performer. After a half-hour of conversation, Douglas swore she’d be the mother of his children, at which point Zeta-Jones decided to cut off the actor, who had a well-earned reputation for being a womanizer: “I’ve heard a lot about you and I’ve seen a lot about you, it’s a pleasure to confirm that it’s all true. I think it’s time to say good night.” The following morning, Douglas sent her flowers and a letter of apology, but he was far from giving up. They became an official couple in the summer of 1999 and, after settling his divorce with Diandra Luker, his first wife — it was one of the most expensive separations in Hollywood history — they announced their engagement and the upcoming birth of their first son, Dylan. On November 18, 2000, they exchanged vows in a lavish ceremony at New York’s Plaza Hotel. The guest list resembles the Oscars’ red carpet: from Tom Hanks and Brad Pitt to Sharon Stone, Meg Ryan and Jennifer Aniston.

Their marriage has not been free of ups and downs. In 2013, they spent eight months apart to “evaluate and work on their marriage” after having gone through some turbulent years. Michael’s first son with Luker, Cameron, was incarcerated for drug possession, and the actor was diagnosed with a malignant tumor in his throat, which resulted in him losing 33 pounds. Douglas courted controversy when he told the Wall Street Journal that the cancer was the result of oral sex, a remark he later retracted, publicly apologizing for “any embarrassment” it caused his wife. At the same time, Zeta-Jones was hospitalized twice for treatment of bipolar II. The Welsh actress has since become one of the celebrities who has done the most to normalize the condition among the general public. “I’m not the kind of person who likes to shout out my personal issues from the rooftops but with my bipolar becoming public, I hope fellow sufferers will know it is completely controllable. I hope I can help remove any stigma attached to it, and that those who don’t have it under control will seek help with all that is available to treat it.”

In 2017, she entered the world of entrepreneurship with her brand Casa Zeta-Jones, an echo of Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop, which deployed its founder’s image to help sell ready-to-wear dresses as well as kitchenware, vegan shoes and makeup products. The venture did not end well and five years later, ended sales. As she waits for Hollywood, given as it is to stories of redemption and professional rebirth — just ask her Chicago co-star Reneé Zellweger — she has decided to once again capitalize on her talent. Zeta-Jones seems to be satisfied with small supporting roles for the moment, which are surely made easier to bear by her personal worth of some $164 million. “I work hard and I reward myself. I pay my own way. I love to buy. I love to share. I love to travel like you can’t imagine. I want to go to every part of the world. But anyone looking into my life would go, ‘She’d better God-damned like her life. Yeah, I’d like it, too,’” she admitted in an interview.