The Case of the Disappearing Actress: January Jones

Every now and then, someone I haven’t thought about in years will randomly pop into my head. I’ll look them up, and without fail, they’re either on a CBS procedural, an NBC drama, or—if they’re women—they’ve aged into invisibility. For actresses in their 40s, the roles just vanish. Thanks to the usual suspects — ageism, sexism, and the general lack of meaningful parts for middle-aged women — there’s a long, painful gap between their peak era and the character-actor comeback as the mom or the matriarch in their 50s.

It’s infuriating. And I can’t help but feel like January Jones got caught in that dead zone. She spent eight seasons on Mad Men, rolled right into four seasons of Last Man on Earth, and then… poof. Nothing. Her final season on the Will Forte comedy aired the same year she turned 40. That doesn’t feel like a coincidence.

When I say she vanished, I mean it. She posts 15 to 20 times a year on Instagram—usually in sharp, fashionable outfits, almost like she’s reminding the industry, “Hey, still here!” But the roles? They dried up. Since Last Man on Earth, Jones — who, by the way, has an Emmy nod, a Golden Globe nomination, and major name recognition (thanks in part to that X-Men movie) — has had three roles: a mom in a failed Ryan Murphy Netflix series (The Politician), a mom in a Netflix ice-skating drama I’d never heard of (Spinning Out), and a peripheral trophy wife in a 2023 movie I’d also never heard of, God Is a Bullet. That film made a grand total of $118,000 at the box office.

That’s it. That is the entirety of her filmography since 2018. Two supporting “mom” roles and one throwaway trophy wife. Co-owner Seth has literally seen her at a Los Angeles bar more than he’s seen her onscreen since 2018. It’s bleak.

She did just sign with new representation, as announced today on Deadline, which is what reminded me of all this. She has one movie on the horizon: an A24 horror film called Altar, starring alongside Kyle MacLachlan and David Krumholtz. Based on the source material, it looks like Jones will be playing … a suburban mom.

It’s pathetic. Someone get this woman a David Leitch-style action movie already. Otherwise, I guess she’s stuck waiting until she hits 50 before casting directors remember she exists.

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