Anabel Graetz was always aware that she had an interesting and unusual face. At the ripe old age of 80, it’s now paying the bills.
Anabel Graetz has always worked in the arts, but she won her first screen part when she was 62 – in a fire safety short. Not exactly a blockbuster start, but the film work has since rolled in - including a part in a blockbuster!
This summer, at the age of 80, Graetz cleared her debts for the first time in her life. “I am earning more money than I ever have,” she says. “It feels like a whole new world.”
Graetz’s turning point came when she made it on to the books of a casting company in Boston which helps studios and production companies hire actors. “They started calling me for auditions, and the shock was that the third time I auditioned, I was cast.” Still, she says, “I didn’t think I had a big future in it.” But she kept responding to calls to audition. “And I kept being cast.”
In 2019, Graetz was cast as Cat Lady in Free Guy, starring Ryan Reynolds. It was her first role in a major motion picture. “And it turned out to be a blockbuster.” The film grossed more than $330m.
Graetz says that these days “there is a lot less anxiety in my life” and that she hopes to work until she is 90. “There aren’t a whole lot of roles for people like me,” she says. “Then again, there aren’t a whole lot of people like me going for them.”