Kelly Deadmon Stars In The Younger Games

Actress Kelly Deadmon is 49 years old—but as you'll see in our new video series, The Younger Games, she looks a heck of a lot younger. And you'd think that was a good thing. The Tennessee native has been in New York City for almost thirty years working in television, film, and commercials and on stage and in comedy. She's never had any problems being cast: Recently she was appeared in her birthday suit as a randy Hampton's housewife that romps with Joshua Jackson in season two of The Affair ("I had to be naked! It was ridiculous!") She also starred in a highly successful Vagisil spot that ran for years. "I had to look sad because I was itchy. And my friends were comforting me. Then I got the cream, and I was happy. I didn't even have to speak!" she laughs. "My husband and I joke that our home in Phoenicia, New York is the house that Vagisil bought." (Deadmon's husband is also an actor; the couple live fulltime with their son and dog in Washington Heights.)

But as Deadmon has found, age discrimination doesn't just happen when you start to look old. It can happen when you look damn good for your age, too. "In an audition, I present around 40ish," she says. "Recently a casting director went looking for my age on IMDB. They knew I looked great, but they wanted to know how old I really was. And that doesn't feel right. That feels discriminatory." (There has been some talk about the Screen Actor's Guild working with IMDB to have the practice discontinued.)

It's that strange pressure that made The Younger Games so appealing to Deadmon. "You don't have to live in LA or be an actress to feel obligated to look a certain way," she says. For her, there's nothing—absolutely nothing—wrong with elective cosmetic procedures to look your own personal best. "If you need it you need it!" she says. "I had a friend who once told me in hushed tones that she was going to the doctor. I was like, 'Why are you whispering?' She said she was getting Botox and I couldn't believe it. I was like, 'You didn't kill some puppies! You're getting Botox!'" The chance to approach the world of injectibles and lasers with a touch of laughter and levity felt like a dream gig. "I'm happy that it's out in the universe," she says. "I feel really, really lucky that I have the opportunity to talk about it and poke fun at it."

Hannah Morrill is a writer and editor based in Portland, Maine. She’s an avid reader, an indifferent face-washer and a sunscreen/retinol evangelist.

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