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We’ve heard about actors going an extra mile or a whole lunar distance to fit the role of their dreams. But what if their way to stardom requires taking “age is just a number” all too literally?
You see, it turns out that there’s not just one or two actors who have played characters far from their real age. From Gwyneth Paltrow to Amanda Seyfried, some of the cases you see below are truly mind-boggling. Remember Moaning Myrtle from the Harry Potter films? Allegedly, the actress Shirley was 37 years old at the time of filming, which made her the oldest actor to play a teenage student at Hogwarts. If you ask me, I see no reason why defying age shouldn’t count as a magic power.
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#1
Thomas Brodie-Sangster Was Actually 14 When He Played A 7-Year-Old Kid In Nanny Mcphee
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#2
Laurence Fishburne Was Only 14 When He Played A Soldier In Apocalypse Now
#3
Shirley Henderson, Who Played Moaning Myrtle In The Harry Potter Films, Was Actually 37 When She Appeared In The Second Film
If you wonder why so many teenage roles are actually played by adult actors, there may be a good reason or two for this. First of all, according to child labor laws, kids can only work for up to a few hours at a time. Meanwhile, movie sets and TV productions will normally spend 10-12 hours a day working on a set.
There is also the issue of schooling that most minors are still required to complete. Plus, minors are more expensive to get insured if their job requires them to do stunts and physical work. Casting slightly older actors may be a workaround for not paying extra costs.
Moreover, the child actor can outgrow the age of their characters as their aging is more noticeable. Think of the ages 13 and 18 and how vast the difference is. And lastly, the great majority of professional actors are twenty and up, so they always already have greater experience and acting skills to compare with teenage and child actors.
#4
Audrey Hepburn 32 In Breakfast At Tiffany’s As 18 Year Old
von Funnyname 5 years ago
She was only supposed to be 18?! Suddenly her character makes much more sense...
#5
John Franklin, Children Of The Corn. The Role Of The 12-Year-Old Prophet In The Horror Movie Children Of The Corn Became A Debut For John Franklin. By That Time The Actor Had Already Turned 25
#6
Winona Ryder Was 28 When She Played An 18-Year-Old In "Girl, Interrupted" As Susanna Kaysen
For many child actors who start out at a very early age, the sudden fame and intense work load may be debilitating. Macaulay Culkin, who started acting at the age of 4 and got famous for his role as Kevin McCallister in the Home Alone films, has said multiple times how truly hard it all was.
“It started feeling like a chore. I started vocalizing that and not being heard: I was saying, ‘I wanna go to school—I haven’t done a full year of school since first grade,'” he told Esquire in a recent interview.
Culkin’s lifelong struggle with psychological problems also serves as an example that casting a very young actor for a leading role which requires a lot of responsibility may be, in some way, harmful.
#7
Amanda Seyfried Was 27 When She Played The Teenage Cosette In Les Misérables
#8
Keiko Agena Played A 17-Year-Old Lane In Gilmore Girls While Being 27-Years-Old
#9
Olivia Newton-John - 28 In Grease As Sandy Dumbrowski - 17
WilvanderHeijden 5 years ago
there wasn't a teenager in Grease younger than 28 and some of them even looked 40.
#10
Jack Gleeson, 25, As King Joffrey In Got, 17. In The Books He Was Only 13-Years-Old
#11
Alan Ruck - 30 In Ferris Bueller's Day Off As Cameron Frye - 18
#12
Keanu Reeves, Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. He Played A 17-Year-Old Schoolboy At The Age Of 25 In The Sci-Fi Comedy Of 1989
#13
Sophie Mcshera Plays The Young Kitchen Maid Daisy In "Downton Abbey" While Being 35-Years-Old
#14
Michael J. Fox - 29 In Back To The Future As Marty Mcfly - 17
#15
Cole Sprouse Is 27 Years Old, But His "Riverdale" Character Jughead Is Meant To Be Just 16
#16
Jon Heder - 25, Napoleon Dynamite - 16. He Certainly Knew How To Act Like A Teenager
#17
Jennifer Grey - 27 In Dirty Dancing As Frances “Baby” Houseman - 17
#18
Leonardo Dicaprio - 28 In Catch Me If You Can As Frank Abignale Jr. - 16
#19
Ian Somerhalder Started Playing Damon Salvatore, A Vampire Turned-At-25 When The Actor Was 30-Years-Old And Finished The Show When He Was 38-Years-Old Still Playing A 25-Year-Old
#20
Kit Harington Was 30-Years-Old While Jon Snow Is Supposed To Be 17. In The Books He Was 14
wandile dludlu 5 years ago
Actually didn't feel that disconnected with the character. I think maybe it's because GOT didn't really concentrate on age. The only person we paid attention to was Ayra
#21
Bianca Lawson, Who Played High Schooler Maya, Was 31 When The Pilot For Pretty Little Liars Was Shot
#22
Rachel Mcadams - 25 In Mean Girls As Regina George - 17
#23
Paul Wesley, The Vampire Diaries. His Character Stefan Salvatore Was 17, Actor 35
#24
Stockard Channing Was 33 When She Played High Schooler Rizzo In Grease
#25
Gabriel Union - 27 In Bring It On As Isis - 17
#26
Stacey Dash - 29 In Clueless As Dionne “Dee” Davenport - 17
#27
Jason Earles Was 29 When He Began Playing Hannah's Teenage Brother, Jackson, On Hannah Montana
Jennifer .S 5 years ago
I was gonna say, he played like a 30 year old on Kickin' It but looks the same as he did in Hannah Montana
#28
Emma Thompson Starred As 19-Year-Old Elinor Dashwood In "Sense And Sensibility" When She Was 35
Just another bot 5 years ago
Elinor was almost past the marrying age as per Victorian standards and she was pretty much regarded as a spinster. Having an older actress portray her helps convey the idea. But apart from that, Emma Thompson is phenomenal in this movie. I love the whole cast but she just shines.
#29
Denise Richards, Wild Thingsplaying A 16-Year-Old Schoolgirl, At The Age Of 27
#30
Ashleigh Murray Was 28 When She Began Shooting Riverdale As Teenager Josie
#31
Joe Keery, Stranger Things. The Actor Who Played The Role Of High School Student, Steve Harrington, Had Already Turned 24 When He Started His Work On The Sci-Fi TV Series
#32
Emilia Clark - 28 In Game Of Thrones As Daenerys Targaryen - 16
#33
Scarlett Johansson Starred In "Lost In Translation" When She Was Just 18 Years Old, Though Her Character Was Meant To Be A College Graduate
#34
Andrew Garfield Was 31 When The Second Amazing Spider-Man Came Out, Featuring His Character Graduating High School
Alan Green 5 years ago
Sorry but if Emma Stone is in a movie I won't be spending much time looking at anyone else to even notice their age. She's luuuurvly!
#35
Kristen Connolly, The Cabin In The Woods. She Played A 18 Year Old Friend Of The Main Character, Was 31 Years Old At The Time Of Filming
#36
Roberto Benigni, Pinocchio. The Movie Pinocchio That Was Released In 2002 Starred 49-Year-Old Benigni Playing The Role Of The Young Wooden Boy
Marcellus the Third 5 years ago
And THAT'S what's wrong with that movie?! You've clearly not seen that overheated pile.
#37
Gwyneth Paltrow Was Only 22 When She Played 32-Year-Old Brad Pitt's Wife In Se7en
earringnut 5 years ago
Sometimes it be like that. My dad married my mom while she was still in college. He was in his 30s.
#38
Julianna Rose Mauriello Was 16 In 2007, When She Finished Playing The 8-Year-Old Stephanie In Lazytown
#39
Christian Navarro In "13 Reasons Why". While His Character Is Supposed To Be 18, Navarro Is 28
#40
Sasha Pieterse, Who Played 15-Year-Old Alison, Was 12 When The Pilot For Pretty Little Liars Began Shooting
#41
Amy Poehler Was Only 33 When She Played The Mom Of A High School Junior In Mean Girls
#42
Nicole Kidman, Flirting. The Actress Was Pretty Far From School Aged. At The Time Of Filming, In 1991, She Had Just Turned 24 Years Old
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What do you think ?
Tiari 5 years ago (edited)
And to be fair - in most of the cases you SEE that the actor is way too old.
CbusResident 5 years ago
Also I think for some of the adaptations involved they are leaving the age ambiguous/staying silent on it, even though in the source material it was specified as some age younger than the actor or actress. In Romeo & Juliet, the text says that Juliet is 'in her 13th year.' In A Clockwork Orange, when Alex (the protagonist) has sex w/ the two girls (and they play the superfast William Tell Overture), in the book he's 16, the girls are middle schoolers, and he gets them really drunk and rapes them. In American Psycho, when Bateman picks up a prostitute in his limo (and then tortures her to death), it's supposed to be a 15 year old prostitute. The woman in the movie version playing that prostitute was clearly at least in her 20s. But yeah, you can see why Hollywood has to change some of this stuff.
Load More Replies...
Tracey Hirt 5 years ago
It makes sense for studios to cast adults as kids. Minors are very restricted when it comes to the amount of hours per day they are allowed to work, whereas adults are not.,
StormWolf 5 years ago
It took reaching my mid-thirties (many years ago) to fully appreciate looking younger than my age. Loathed it prior to that! Doesn't help being only 5'1 either...
Tiari 5 years ago (edited)
And to be fair - in most of the cases you SEE that the actor is way too old.
CbusResident 5 years ago
Also I think for some of the adaptations involved they are leaving the age ambiguous/staying silent on it, even though in the source material it was specified as some age younger than the actor or actress. In Romeo & Juliet, the text says that Juliet is 'in her 13th year.' In A Clockwork Orange, when Alex (the protagonist) has sex w/ the two girls (and they play the superfast William Tell Overture), in the book he's 16, the girls are middle schoolers, and he gets them really drunk and rapes them. In American Psycho, when Bateman picks up a prostitute in his limo (and then tortures her to death), it's supposed to be a 15 year old prostitute. The woman in the movie version playing that prostitute was clearly at least in her 20s. But yeah, you can see why Hollywood has to change some of this stuff.
Load More Replies... Tracey Hirt 5 years ago
It makes sense for studios to cast adults as kids. Minors are very restricted when it comes to the amount of hours per day they are allowed to work, whereas adults are not.,
StormWolf 5 years ago
It took reaching my mid-thirties (many years ago) to fully appreciate looking younger than my age. Loathed it prior to that! Doesn't help being only 5'1 either...
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