Why are (and why have been) some television characters written not to be from the same places or of the same ages as their portrayers, and some otherwise?
For example, in Hardcastle and McCormick, Judge Milton C. Hardcastle (played by Brian Keith) was written as being a product of Clarence, AR (and one first-season episode, a 2-parter [and the only one of the series], touched on that), despite Keith being from Bayonne, NJ. He was also written to be about 3 years older than Keith (Keith was born in 1921, and Hardcastle was written to have been born in about 1918, I think).
By the same token, Mark McCormick was written as being from New Jersey (the same place as his portrayer Daniel Hugh-Kelly), although 2 years younger than his portrayer (DHK was born in '52, and McCormick was written as being born in '54).
I don’t know why you think a character must necessarily be the same exact age and come from the same exact background as the performer. It’s called acting for a reason.
I’ll admit it can be jarring when there’s a huge discontinuity – say a 45-year-old woman playing Juliet or the Virgin Mary – but situations like that are rare anyway.
Honestly I tend to see questions like this as stemming from a failure on the viewer’s part, not the actor or writer’s. If you’re not prepared to suspend disbelief in such a small way as to, for example, allow for a gifted English thespian with a spot-on American accent to portray a disturbed doctor from New Jersey, you shouldn’t be watching television.
And by the same logic, no one can play any character in any science fiction story set in future; likewise aliens are disallowed. Lord of the Rings would never have been made, which even I concede would be a tragedy.
I would think that relatively the character details are written in before casting, and matching these exactly is not as much of a priority compared to casting somebody who can handle the basics of what the role will require, has good timing and chemistry with the rest of the cast, and will take the job for the pay available.
And when the details are written in later in contrast to the actor’s specifics, I’d expect that’s because there’s a story somebody wants to tell that hinges around the character coming from Queens and having their 30th birthday, or whatever.
It would be a strange world, in which actors could only play themselves – or perhaps also their twin brothers or sisters. It would certainly be a world where, for example, Laurence Olivier could not play Othello, for multiple reasons.
That’s not the point. If they really can ACT a part, it’s not an issue. But, if they can’t, then get someone else or adapt the parameters of the part.
And I can sum up the problem in two-and-a-half words:** Jean-Luc Picard**.
The writers have told the story how Patrick Stewart just could not manage a french accent. Okay, I can understand that, and I too would want to keep him as Captain (instead of casting some generic Gallic Gerard Doopey-dieux).
But how long would it have taken to change the word “French” in the script to “British”?
