Kim Cattrall: 'Hollywood against ageing actresses'

Kim Cattrall has claimed that she is frequently denied challenging acting roles because of her age.

The 54-year-old Sex and the City actress, who plays a former porn star in the new film Meet Monica Velour, insisted that women over 50 are unfairly shunned by Hollywood filmmakers in favour of younger starlets.

Cattrall told PopEater: "I am not interested in being a Barbie Doll and turning myself into a sausage in the next 20 years. I want to go the road of actresses like Helen Mirren and Judi Dench who have lines on their face and aren't afraid of playing their age.

"There aren't enough roles for women over 50. Directors here [in the US] aren't interested in us. We have to go out there and make them for ourselves, which is what I did with Monica Velour."

Cattrall admitted in May that she has begun to feel marginalised as she has grown older, explaining: "I'm on the early side of 50 and I've had a whole life of Jane Fonda tapes and dieting and exercise and all the rest of it. So I just sort of think, 'How is it going to get any better if this is where it is now'?"

Liverpool-born Cattrall famously portrayed Samantha Jones on Sex and the City for six seasons and later returned to appear in both big screen adaptations.

The Treehouse, which stars Cattrall and Jeremy Irons, is scheduled to open next year.

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Watch a trailer for Meet Monica Velour below: