Geena Davis Reacts to the ‘Dismal’ Findings of Her Center’s Study on Ageism in Hollywood: ‘It’s a Shame’

As a new study conducted by her organization and TENA (a popular female health + incontinence brand) shows, there’s still a long way to go. The results of the global Ageless Test, which examines how women ages 50 and over are portrayed in film, found only 1 in 4 films passed, with no women over 50 cast in any leading roles in 2019’s 30 top-grossing films from the U.S., the U.K., France and Germany. “I knew it was bad, but this really drove home how very dismal it is,” Davis, 64, tells PEOPLE. “If you look at lead characters in this study, there were no women, female characters over 50 leading. And it’s a shame, I mean, there are significant sectors of our society that are significantly underrepresented and definitely age is one of them, particularly for women.”