Gaynor Faye on Hot Flash, menopause - and why midlife women deserve to be seen

Putting midlife women centre stage

Gaynor Faye is on a mission to honour her family legacy. Her late mother, Kay Mellor, built a career telling stories that placed complex, relatable women at the heart of the action. Gaynor's latest role as Geri - a single mum and accidental entrepreneur striving to establish a business while facing the challenges of perimenopause - continues that tradition, celebrating the resilience and humanity of women whose stories deserve to be told.

Hot Flash was written and produced by Yorkshire filmmaker, Jan Birley, inspired by her own first-hand account of launching a new business. Filmed in Bridlington and Jan's hometown of Scarborough, the film is set for an autumn 2026 release, and follows Geri's journey to reignite her dreams while grappling with the physical and emotional realities of menopause.

It's no surprise the project immediately appealed to Gaynor, offering the perfect opportunity to champion midlife women and help them feel acknowledged, valued, and far less alone.

"Hot Flash explores the impact of menopause and the effect it has on women's confidence, their sense of visibility, and the fact that we can be written off at a surprisingly young age, just as we're coming into our prime," says the Leeds-born actress. "Society can make us feel like we're past it, yet nothing could be further from the truth.

“That's essentially what the film is about. It's one woman's quest to remain visible at a life stage when so many of us start to feel overlooked at the tender age of our mid-forties.”

When life experience meets the screen

Gaynor is refreshingly open about the fact that, like her character Geri, she is living through menopause herself. It was another reason she was drawn to the title role in Hot Flash - she recognised so much of her own journey in Jan Birley’s script.

In fact, she says she's dealt with every symptom of perimenopause portrayed in the film, making the role far more personal than just another acting job. While actors don't need to have lived through an experience to portray it convincingly, in Gaynor's case, that shared reality has brought an added depth to her performance.

“My lived experience of menopause really helped bring Geri to life,” she says. “It’s a bit like giving birth. If you’ve done it, you instinctively know how it feels on screen. That’s not to say you can’t do an amazing job if you haven’t, but you’re still drawing on someone else’s experience.

“So many of my friends have been through it, and now I’m experiencing it too, which gives you a much deeper understanding. I knew exactly what Jan was describing. Take a hot flush, for example. If you’ve never had one, you might think it’s just feeling a bit hot. But unless you’ve experienced that sudden surge of heat, you can’t fully understand the sensation - you genuinely feel as though you’re going to combust from the inside.”

The confidence crisis no one talks about

Although Jan’s film is titled Hot Flash - an American-style nod to one of the better-known physical symptoms of perimenopause - it’s really the emotional toll of the condition that steals the spotlight. Those psychological symptoms are often minimised, and their impact is frequently underestimated.

Gaynor explains that while conversations about the mental health effects of perimenopause are becoming more common, they still don’t go far enough. In Hot Flash, Geri is navigating brain fog, anxiety, and a loss of confidence while trying to get a company off the ground and cope with major stresses in her personal life.

“The anxiety, the depression, the low mood, the feeling of inadequacy and invisibility is crushing during perimenopause,” says Gaynor. “Geri goes through a real crisis of confidence. However, Jan also wanted to show the other side of the journey - how Geri comes through it.

“She gains this incredible self-confidence, but it takes a lot of work, self-reflection, and acceptance. We’re all growing older - or, as I like to say, becoming ‘rich in years’.

"So don’t think everything that’s happening is only happening to you. Embrace it, because half the population will go through this at some point.”

Celebrating women who refuse to be overlooked

One thing that becomes immediately clear when talking to Gaynor is how much she admires writer Jan Birley. Seeing a story rooted in Jan’s own experience make it to the big screen is a remarkable achievement for any writer, regardless of the life stage or transition they happen to be in.

“I think what she's done is incredible,” says Gaynor. “She's a tenacious woman who’s gone out there and made her first feature film. She's basically done everything off her own back - with the help of a very supportive husband and a really good team around her.

“I love the fact she's written a script with a strong female lead, that’s got menopause running all the way through it. It's not all about menopause, but it is the main topic. It’s the first feature film to put menopause at the heart of its story.

“I hope women and people use this film as an empowerment tool - to think, ‘Yeah, I’m strong, and I can handle this.’ That point is so precious. Geri experiences some really crushing blows that test her resilience, but they ultimately lead her to do amazing things. She takes the world by storm and, having faced adversity, she triumphs.”