A few months after becoming the first Dominican-American to win an Academy Award, Zoe Saldaña walked the Met carpet in tailored Thom Browne, and looked nearly identical to the first time I saw her, in the 2002 Britney Spears-lead teenage dramedy movie, Crossroads. That was 23 years ago! There’s currently a picture on Saldaña’s Instagram account of her wearing a pink skirt, brown belt, black body suit, and the infamous Instagram pout. If I knew in my early-20s, this is what being 40 could look like, I wouldn’t have fretted nearly as much about getting older. Then I noticed a trend: Latinx artists are aging beautifully. From the newly single Jessica Alba, who makes a cameo in the latest Lena Dunham Netflix series, Too Much, to the internet’s boyfriend Pedro Pascal, Latinx over 40 are muy fuego in more ways than one.
Aubrey Plaza’s upcoming film Honey Don’t with Margaret Qualley received a 6-minute standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival. At 41, Plaza plays a sapphic cop to Qualley’s lead “Honey.” The epitome of black cat energy, Plaza also portrays Harper Stiller in the second season of HBO’s The White Lotus. With her natural unreadability, playing a sharp, sarcastic, and successful lawyer vacationing with her husband Ethan (Will Sharpe), Plaza makes any vulnerable moments nuanced, and yet still drenches the character in her classic, dry wit. Being over 40 and setting the standard for nonchalant, cool-girls everywhere is elite hot, and Aubrey Plaza is literally the prototype for a current, circulating meme that references the extreme detachment of her popular, Parks & Recreation character – a full decade after the show’s finale.
Marvel’s current Mister Fantastic is the world’s crush, Mr. Pedro Pascal. The upcoming superhero movie is the latest installment of the Fantastic Four, the second reboot of the comic book series, and newest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). He also stars in writer/director Ari Aster’s latest project Eddington, alongside Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone. At 50, Pascal is not only booked and busy, with television shows like HBO’s The Last of Us and films like The Materialists – the Chilean actor also finds time to be an avid champion for LGBTQIA+ rights. His younger sister Lux, came out as transgender in 2021.
Fellow advocate and MCU alum, Salma Hayek-Pinault, still maintains the seductive stare and otherworldly allure that led Quentin Tarantino to cast her in From Dusk Till Dawn, but the actress recently discussed wanting to end the pressure on Latinas to look ageless. In a YouTube video, Hayek credits her grandmother with shaping her current beauty routine. For example, she doesn’t wash her face in the morning, a tip she learned from her grandmother, so she doesn’t strip the skin of its natural oils. She’s also recently partnered with Merz Aesthetics, a non-surgical, ultrasound treatment option for skin tightening – a topic Hayek hopes will be handled with more grace and less pressure. Hayek, a former telenovela star and Academy Award nominee, married French billionaire François Pinault in 2009. The two share a 17-year-old daughter. At 58, Hayek is timelessly, (and I can not stress this enough) insanely rich in literal and “face card” currency, but more importantly, she’s empowering generations of women to ease the anxiety around aging.
At 46 years old, Golden-Globe-winner Oscar Isaac will portray Victor Frankenstein in the much-anticipated Guillermo del Toro (another Latino over 40 who’s killing it) horror film, Frankenstein. He’ll star alongside Euphoria’s Jacob Elordi and scream queen Mia Goth, known for the X film series. Isaac is also Moon Knight, yet another Latinx actor within the MCU. Making him the third, over-40, superhero representing Latinidad in blockbusters and art films alike.
Whether it’s Benicio Del Toro in the upcoming film One Battle After Another with Leonardo DiCaprio (or the recent Wes Anderson joint The Pheonician Scheme), or Jennifer Lopez simply existing and doing the 1,000 projects she’s got going on at all times. Latinx over 40 are showing us we never have to stop showing up. We’re not too old to do, say, or wear anything. Age gives us experience, wisdom, lessons, and lines on our face to remind us of the life we’ve lived so far, and Latinx celebrities like Andor’s Diego Luna are making that process look like a new, hot trend.
