•• As a woman in her fifties, I can speak with some experience about our industry. Having developed a pretty thick skin, I can tell my younger counterparts that it’s not all bad. You are correct in feeling that you are discounted, discriminated against, undermined and all around underestimated. That’s the bad news. Here’s the upside. If you have chosen, as I have, to stay the course and suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, then you are one hell of a broad. No matter how many candles you have on your cake, you can devour it with gusto. Dive in, ladies. But let’s start at the beginning.

When you dive into the deep end of the pool, most everyone tells you you’re insane. How dare you? But you do. You do dare. You dare to be what you truly believe you can be. And then…the business stops you cold. You are too green. You are too young. You are too “street”. You aren’t enough “street”. You’re too angelic. You aren’t innocent enough, not tough enough, not smart enough, not …well, here’s a list…

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•• 17 women. 17 extraordinary lives. The inspiring documentary produced by Virginia Madsen “I Know A Woman Like That” is now available to watch on digital platforms Netflix, iTunes, Amazon DVD, Google Play and Vudu.

Share your inspiring story about a woman in your life using ‪#‎IKnowAWomenLikeThat‬.

“I Know A Woman Like That” brings to its audience interviews with 17 exceptional and vigorous women who share an extraordinary attitude about how to live the upper decades of one’s life. Each of them exercises an unexpected passion for their unique individual choices at a time when society expects them to disappear. These women were carving out unique paths before the social revolution had a name. Roger Ebert called the documentary “transformational.”

•• Oscar-nominated actress Virginia Madsen stopped by HuffPost this week to interview her mother Elaine, for Talk To Me. The two discussed their documentary “I Know A Woman Like That,” which highlights remarkable older women, including Rita Moreno and Gloria Steinem, who haven’t let societal pressures to slow down stop them from living life to the fullest. Elaine described the film (which is available on all digital platforms on May 10) as an “exploration of a new way to live the upper decades of your life.”

But their talk about the film, which Virginia produced and Elaine directed, broadened into a conversation about aging, representation of women in Hollywood and the privilege the two have felt staying healthy while getting older.

“If you’re lucky, you get to be old,” Elaine said. “You get to be old.”

In the video above, watch Elaine and Virginia discuss their experience working on the film together and the way their perspectives on life have changed as time has gone on. Elaine acknowledged that she’s become more fearless. “I feel like, ‘What have I got to lose?’”

“In the upper decades of your life, there is a reality that your life can stop or change in a minute,” she eliadded. “And you can choose to live fearfully with that or you can choose to live wisely with that.”