Comedian Ronni Ancona, best known for her role in The Big Impression, has opened up about the difficult emotional time she endured when turning 50, and why she refused to celebrate her birthday. On this week's episode of HELLO!'s Second Act podcast, the comedian spoke to Ateh Jewel about how she regrets not having thrown a celebration for the occasion in the way that she believes she "should have done" and "all her other friends did".
Ronni Ancona spoke about turning 50
The 57-year-old confessed to having what she calls a "terrible problem with age", that she stresses is much more than "just pure vanity". Explaining, Ronni said: "I think it's because I hate the way that women are defined by their age. Often you see, in some plays and films that are very good, they do that 'menopausal woman thing' and they're always portrayed in a certain way."
Reaching that age herself made the actress more aware of the stereotyping inaccuracy that comes with these portrayals. She told Ateh: "I often go, 'Those aren't the people I know who are in their 50s!' It's not what I recognise." Ronni doubled down, emphasising that these tales are "storytelling" and a "narrative" rather than reality.
These feelings about age meant that the Last Tango in Halifax actress didn't give herself a particularly monumental celebration for the occasion. She confessed: "I didn't celebrate my 50th in the way that I should have done, like all my other friends did, and went, 'You know, let's have a party!', which is the right thing to do because actually it is a privilege to be alive."
Ronni elaborated: "I'm married to a doctor, so I know it's a privilege to be getting older, and I realise all that, but I don't know what it is. Subconsciously, it's just that, especially if you're quite eccentric, you don't want people to automatically judge you."
Ronnie also spoke about her experience with sexism in the industry
At the beginning of her career, Ronni observed that there was "a lot of sexism around", calling it something that was "just generally very prevalent", adding that she thinks it's "now gotten much better". However, that doesn't mean that the impact of those years has just disappeared: "I talk about this to my friend, Sally Phillips, all the time. We've still got remnants of that, and we're still affected by it," she told Ateh.
In fact, the prevalent sexism, especially combined with ageism, had a profound impact on Ronni. She explained: "Seeing that inevitable ageism that happens to middle-aged women, and how they suddenly become invisible and how they become irrelevant, that crept up on me. I was like, 'Oh, okay, it's a real thing'. It's really depressing, and it's really happening.
"I could see it all around me, and people's reactions to you, and other people's reactions and the disparity of gender at that age, because you can see your male contemporaries just not being affected in the same way," she continued.
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