Hollywood sure is cruel. 

While it's easy to view La La Land as an extension of American views and norms, the reality is that show business shapes the way audiences see things, too. Movies and TV shows are important because they have a huge influence over what we think is normal. When we see images regularly enough, they become normalized. We stop expecting media to reflect reality, and suddenly (and without recognizing it), we anticipate the inverse, looking for an outside world that seems like what we've seen onscreen.

This is particularly true of representation. When specific standards are broadcast to us, we eventually start accepting them as fact. We view certain groups and certain age brackets as less valid because of how they're depicted over and over. If, for instance, time and again, we see that women aren't cast in interesting or engaging roles after a certain age, we then take for granted that this must indicate some real-life change in people. 

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40 is not old. And yet, for decades, women in Hollywood have struggled to be seen as something other than old after they turn 40. While Doris Roberts inhabited a specific brand of matronly love on Everybody Loves Raymond, she was already perceived as an "older lady" as early as 1980.

In an interview with the Abilene Reporter-News, Roberts said she felt responsible for speaking for and representing "over-40" women through her roles on TV. 

"I am one of them myself," she said. "And I know that those women have somehow got to find a way to express themselves. Maybe they do it, somewhat, through me."

Roberts harnessed her experience and turned it into fuel in each of her roles.

"Even though I've been an actress for a long time, I have had some problems from time to time feeling inferior. Sometimes I feel that my husband is much more creative than I am. Sometimes I feel that I am less important than he is.

"That can be a burden. And it's something a lot of women feel, especially when they reach 40 and their children have flown the nest, leaving them often feeling useless."

While anybody might struggle to feel adequate in such a cut-throat industry, Roberts cemented herself as an irreplaceable legend before she was even cast as Marie on Everybody Loves Raymond. That show only served to further shape her legacy as one of the most important— and hilarious— actresses of all time.