Nicole Scherzinger is opening up about the persistent ageism that she faced in the entertainment industry — all while in her early 30s.
“I’ll never forget when I turned 30 after the [Pussycat] Dolls, and the record labels were still, like, hesitant to play my music,” Scherzinger, now 47, said on the Sunday, August 10, broadcast of CBS Sunday Morning, referring to the period after she left the popular girl group.
“Because you turned 30?” CBS correspondent Tracy Smith, who conducted the sit-down, asked in response.
“Yes,” Scherzinger said. “I think when I was in my early 30s, they were already aging me up in roles.”
Scherzinger further quipped that, whenever she would go to acting auditions, the producers were only looking at her to play “the mother.”
“I was, like, ‘But, I don’t have children,’ she said. “It’s definitely still relevant, but I think the women are changing, so things are changing. We are not allowing people to hold us back and view us in that way because we don’t view ourselves, and we don’t put ourselves in a box like that.”
She continued, “We’re the ones that are changing, and because of that, the industry is changing.”
Scherzinger rose to fame as a singer in the Pussycat Dolls, which formally disbanded in 2010. After leaving the girl group, the Tony Award winner continued pursuing music as a solo artist, in addition to going after acting roles.
Scherzinger recently immortalized Norma Desmond in Jamie Lloyd’s revival of Sunset Blvd., a musical about a fading Hollywood actress clamoring to stay relevant. (Scherzinger earned an Olivier and Tony Award for her performance in the West End and Broadway productions, respectively.)
“I see Norma Desmond as myself … and I see a piece of Norma Desmond in everyone,” she said on Sunday. “Norma Desmond is the human story [for] anyone who wants to feel seen, anyone who’s ever felt unseen or lonely or unheard.”
Scherzinger further stressed that Sunset Blvd., which closed on Broadway last month, that Norma’s story “definitely [deals with] the issue of ageism.”
“I think that it’s difficult. It’s hard, [in] the industry, because you’re constantly, already, even at a young age, comparing yourself,” Scherzinger explained. “It’s difficult that the industry, kind of, puts an expiration date on you when you’ve actually lived a life and actually have something really meaningful to say and because you have experienced life and career and heartache and love and loss. It’s a bit of a pity, I think, but I think that hopefully things are changing now.”
Scherzinger previously told Us Weekly that the Sunset Blvd. script “penetrated my heart and soul” when she first read it.
“Jamie asked me in the beginning when he asked me to do this, to read the script, read the story, and when I did, I looked at the words and they just penetrated my heart and soul, and they spoke to me,” Scherzinger recalled to Us in October 2024, referring to the acclaimed director. “I’ve lived a life. Then I was able to bring my own life to these words, and my own breath to this story.”
She added at the time, “I honestly feel like it was written for me. I feel like it was meant for me. Everybody should keep an open mind no matter what you do in life, because you never know where your answered prayers and dreams are going to come from.”
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