Olivia Colman Proves 52 Can Be Undeniably Sexy On Screen

In the new film Wicker, Olivia Colman plays a Fisherwoman in a rural medieval fantasy who commissions a wicker husband from a Basketmaker (Peter Dinklage). When Alexander Skarsgård’s wicker creation arrives at her cottage, the townspeople around her become startled—not by the oddity of her new partner, but by what appears to be happening inside her home. The Fisherwoman is experiencing the kind of active, enthusiastic sex life rarely portrayed on screen for women past 50.

What makes this representation significant, according to Allure’s review of the film, isn’t the magical premise. It’s that Colman appears on camera as she actually looks at 52: a face with lines, a face that reveals her age, a face unadorned by major aesthetic intervention.

The Rarity of Unretouched Aging on Camera

Hollywood has long obscured the physical realities of aging. Women over 50 who continue to appear in leading roles often do so through heavy makeup, surgical procedures, cosmetic injectables, or digital retouching. Colman’s approach is different. According to Allure, she presents on screen as an actual 52-year-old woman, which is to say, visibly 52.

The film opens with the Fisherwoman as poorly groomed, rejected by her community for her indifference to their misogynistic standards. As her marriage progresses, she becomes exceedingly well-groomed. According to Allure’s observations, she grows almost incandescent within her new relationship. This transformation is not, however, a typical Hollywood makeover in which aging features are erased. Instead, her face remains lined and imperfect while she steps fully into her own desire and sexuality.

Why Visibility Matters

For decades, the beauty industry has sold a false equivalence: that visibility and desirability require the erasure of age. A woman at 52 could only remain sexually relevant if she looked 35, the logic went. Colman’s presence on screen contradicts that entirely. Her character’s sexual awakening and satisfaction occur not in spite of her age showing, but alongside it.

The Contrast With Industry Standards

The film invites comparison to other recent films about older women and desire. Nicole Kidman, in Babygirl, plays a 50-something CEO pursuing sadomasochistic fantasies with her intern. In close-ups during moments of sexual intensity, Kidman’s face shows no lines, no crepey skin, no hint of a jowl. According to Allure, such a face bears little resemblance to how most women actually look after half a century of living. Kidman’s beauty operates as an erasure of aging itself, while Colman’s operates as an affirmation of it.

What the Fisherwoman’s Appearance Tells Us

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The Fisherwoman’s grooming journey in Wicker follows a pattern common to fairy tales: the outcast receives transformation and acceptance. But the terms of that transformation differ from typical Hollywood narratives. She doesn’t become beautiful by becoming younger-looking. She becomes radiant while remaining visibly her age.

The Grooming Shift

Initially presented as unkempt and rejected, the Fisherwoman’s shift toward being well-groomed after her marriage suggests a connection between confidence, sexual satisfaction, and self-care—not between erasure of aging and acceptability. Her appearance changes in texture and presentation, but not in fundamental authenticity. She is still 52. The difference is that she now inhabits that age without apology.

The Role of Makeup and Presentation

Beauty on screen is constructed through lighting, makeup, wardrobe, and cinematography. According to Allure’s analysis, even as Colman’s character’s grooming increases, her face retains its lived-in quality. This is a choice—cinematographic and editorial—to present age as beautiful rather than to obscure it. The result affirms that a woman need not look younger to look beautiful.

Older Women as Sexual Beings: A Hollywood Departure

The Babygirl comparison extends beyond appearance to narrative agency. Nicole Kidman’s character, despite her youthful-looking face, exercises sexual power within the film: she lies, pursues what she wants, survives through her own grit. But Allure notes that Kidman’s character retains what Hollywood typically considers a prerequisite for sexual visibility: a face unmarked by time.

Colman’s Fisherwoman lacks that prerequisite. Her sex life is portrayed as vigorous and satisfying not because she looks 35, but because the film permits a 52-year-old woman who looks 52 to be a desiring, desired sexual subject. This represents a departure from Hollywood convention. Both characters possess sexual agency; only one required the erasure of age to claim it.

The Significance of Aging Actresses Having Authentic Representation

For women accustomed to seeing their own aging rendered invisible through digital alteration or heavy cosmetic work on screen, seeing Colman’s face as it actually is represents something close to radical. It’s not a rejection of grooming or self-care. The Fisherwoman’s increasing investment in her appearance proves otherwise. But it’s a refusal to equate grooming with the erasure of age, or to suggest that an older woman’s sexuality requires her face to lie about her years.

The Broader Beauty Standard Shift

The prevalence of cosmetic procedures, filters, and retouching has created a visual culture in which many women have never seen an actual 52-year-old face on a major film screen. That absence shapes expectations: both of what women are supposed to look like and of what’s possible for aging actresses in leading roles.

Colman’s presence in Wicker pushes back against those constraints. Not by rejecting beauty or grooming, but by decoupling them from youth. The Fisherwoman becomes more well-groomed, more confident, more radiant as the film progresses. She also remains visibly 52, visibly a woman who has lived half a century. These facts coexist, suggesting to audiences that they might coexist in their own lives too.

Source: Allure