Maggie Gyllenhaal has stated that a Hollywood producer told her that she was too old, at 37, to portray the love interest of a 55-year-old man.

In an exclusive interview with The Wrap, Academy Award winner Gyllenhaal admits that she was outraged before deciding to laugh it off.

“There are things that are really disappointing about being an actress in Hollywood that surprise me all the time. I’m 37 and I was told recently I was too old to play the lover of a man who was 55. It made me feel bad, and then it made me feel angry, and then it made me laugh.”

The actor picked to play the 55-year-old is undisclosed.

This form of Hollywood ageism is, of course, nothing new. In Casablanca, Humphrey Bogart was 16 years older than Ingrid Bergman, Gene Kelly was 20 years older than Debbie Reynolds when they sang in the rain, and Julia Roberts was 18 years junior to Richard Gere in Pretty Woman.

The pairing of Monica Bellucci, 50, opposite Daniel Craig, 47, in the latest Bond film Spectre has received plaudits. Léa Seydoux and Stephanie Sigman, the film’s other two “Bond girls,” are both in their late twenties, and the long-running espionage story has a tendency of pitting 007 against love partners half his age. In the Englishman’s final tour as Bond, 1985’s A View to a Kill, Roger Moore, aged 57, romanced 29-year-old Tanya Roberts.

Gyllenhaal is no stranger to romance situations with an actor her father’s age, as seen in Crazy Heart.

The double standard is all about power, notably the male hierarchy in charge of the business, which gets to project their tastes. You may do some research and find out that some of Hollywood’s heavyweight decision makers—the studio execs who can get a picture greenlit in the blink of an eye—are guys whose love relationships exactly mirror the male/female age divide. That isn’t a trivial matter.

Recent research and vexing sexism tales demonstrate that Hollywood still has a women’s problem. Only 4% of the top-grossing films in the previous 12 years were directed by women, according to the A.C.L.U., which recently requested the government to probe Hollywood’s employment procedures owing to “widespread exclusion of women directors.” It’s not unexpected that when a woman directs—or, more crucially, writes the script—she brings a unique viewpoint that necessitates distinct characters and character interactions that are more age and sex inclusive. And that viewpoint might reflect a part of the ticket-buying public that is underserved—one that appreciates Julianne Moore’s charm as much as Colin Firth’s.

Gyllenhaal is optimistic about the expanding amount of female parts.

“A lot of actresses are doing incredible work right now, playing real women, complicated women. I don’t feel despairing at all.”