So says Dame Maggie Smith while doing press for her new film Quartet at the London Film Festival.

Smith who also stars in the highly addictive Downton Abbey was speaking at a press conference for the film which is directed by Dustin Hoffman and set in a retirement home for opera singers. She is is on the watch list for supporting actress for her role in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.

Here’s the full quote:

It seems to me there is a change in what audiences want to see…I can only hope that’s correct, because there’s an awful lot of people of my age around now and we outnumber the others.

I don’t think films about elderly people have been made very much. But I think of [films like] Cocoon and Driving Miss Daisy and they always seem to be fairly successful, so it’s a bit baffling as to why everybody has to be treated as if they were five years old.

At 77, she is still kicking ass and doing great work. The film opens in the US on December 28 and in the UK on January 4.

Maggie Smith attacks Hollywood’s obsession with youth (The Guardian)