Geena Davis at 70: ‘I like myself better every year’

Geena Davis poses the question: Guess how many female characters over 50 in movies and TV are essential to the plot without falling into ageist stereotypes?

“One in four,” she says, and then recalls how she lost a role years ago after a male star said she was too old to be his on-screen girlfriend. “He was 20 years older than me!”

Now 70, the Academy Award winner is joyous about this new decade.

“I think aging is fabulous,” says the star of “Thelma & Louise,” “Beetlejuice” and “A League of Her Own.” “I like myself better every year.”

The roles are getting more interesting, too. Davis stars in Netflix’s hit series “The Boroughs.” She relished playing Renee, an audacious, strong, sexy senior living in an over-50 community that redefines creature comforts.

It co-stars Alfred Molina, Bill Pullman and Alfre Woodard as fellow residents who must contend with a monstrous entity that has infiltrated the area. The sci-fi series was created and executive produced by Matt and Ross Duffer of “Stranger Things” fame.

Davis was in from the start. “I got to read the pilot, and I was like, ‘Oh, hell yeah! I want to be in this!’ I said, ‘Yes, if you’re asking — and I hope you’re asking.’ ”

Others have asked, too. Davis received huge cheers when she surprised fans with a cameo at Sabrina Carpenter’s set at Coachella this past spring in a “Thelma & Louise” tribute. “It was such an incredible moment. I loved it,” Davis says. “All of a sudden I was trending, which was crazy. You need to reach for those crazy joys in life.”

The single mother of three lives in Los Angeles. She shared her other good life advice:

Play the hero

“She’s thriving and living her best life,” Davis says of her character in “The Boroughs.” “She squeezes the most out of each day. She flirts. She falls in love. She is a desirable woman. It was such a refreshing role because all of us get to be heroic. That’s really unusual and great.”

Davis’ Renee is a former rock ’n’ roll manager who moves into a retirement community. “This is the kind of role I love,” she says. “She keeps saying, ‘I’m not old enough to be here.’ She dresses like she’s still touring with bands.”

Hot and heavy

Davis welcomed her on-screen love scenes in the new series. “It has some of the steamiest scenes I’ve ever done,” she laughs. “I’m 70!”

Get bold

“I talk about in my book how typically the characters I play are much further along in life in terms of being bold and assertive women than I am sometimes in life,” Davis says of her 2022 memoir, “Dying of Politeness.” “The great thing is, I’ve learned about being that bold after playing those women. It infiltrates my life.”

Role model

One of Davis’ most iconic roles came in the 1991 road trip adventure “Thelma & Louise.” It earned her the cover of Time magazine, and fans started looking deeper at the actress who had previously starred in “Beetlejuice” and “The Fly.” “It changed the course of my life,” she says. “Women especially wanted to talk to me about how they felt about ‘Thelma and Louise,’ which was beautiful. It started a conversation about important topics. It made me realize in a very powerful way how few opportunities there are for women to feel excited and empowered by the female characters in a movie.”

Get out there

On the set of “The Boroughs,” Davis made sure the cast got out of the hotel regularly just to hang out. She says those times were magical. “Yeah, we went line dancing a lot,” she says. “Bonding is so important in life. We all need community. … Alfred Molina calls it ‘the hang.’ Just make the call. Get out there and do it. Say yes. Don’t miss out. We even had a private film festival where we sat around and watched old movies. It feels so good to be around people you really like.”

Stars in her eyes

At 3, Davis told her family she wanted to act. “How did I even know that was a job? It was a mystery. But I knew movie stars wore sunglasses. So, when I was 3 I asked Santa for sunglasses. In Massachusetts, getting children’s sunglasses at Christmas was hard, but my mom found them” she laughs. “I began to watch movies on TV with my sunglasses on.”

She wouldn’t let go of her dream. Later, an acting teacher told Davis drama class that “only 1 percent of you will be able to make a living at it. I looked around the room and thought, ‘Those poor other kids not in that 1 percent.’ ”

Start something

Some 20 years ago, the actor started the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media. “I created a research institute because when I first saw kids’ shows and movies through my toddler daughter’s eyes, I was stunned by the lack of female characters,” Davis says. “The message that sends is that women and girls have far less value than men and boys. This needed to be exposed. We needed to show boys and girls are equal. If you see it, you can be it.”

More work to do

“There is still so much more to do,” she says. “There are some great shows on TV with women, but that number needs to move. I want to see and hear our stories.”