OK, so that may seem like a strange question, after all she just turned 23. But she still plays teen-age girls. This came up when my wife playfuly asked me who was on my list, the list of freebies you get for sleeping with someone else. The caveats of course are that they are famous and unlikely to ever want to sleep with you. We each have three on our list and wanted to put Ellen Page, but wifey vetoed that (even though we don’t have official veto powers) becasue it made her go “Ewwww!”. Despite my protests to the contrary and the facts laid out she still thought it was creepy since she played young girls.
Yeah, I do. I mean, I’ve seen her play young girls in Hard Candy and in Juno. But I’ve heard of her other films where she seems to be playing at least late high school or possibly college–like the roller derby one or Smart People. I think if you’d asked this a few years ago around Juno I’d have said I thought of her as more teenagerish but I’d say I think of her as an adult now. The idea of someone thinking she’s hot or sexy doesn’t ping my “EW” radar at all.
She’s that old? I guess that sounds about right, but she also still looks 11. If you told me a cute little 19 year old boy was actually 35, my reaction would still be “Yeah, no.” I might be a chick thing, but I can’t get it up (figuratively, of course) for someone who reminds me of a child, whether it’s because of their actual physical appearance, or some other kiddy association I have. This reminds me when they try to sex up kid/teen girl stars the moment after they turn 18, and I always think, “Dude, isn’t that kid, like, 14?” Everyone says, “Well she was, but now she’s a grown up.” I just can’t get into it, even if they delay the sexing up until the kid is 21. They always stay that kid to me, and I can’t get past it.
When the Jonas brothers are 40, I’m still going to think, “Those little shits are too young to be sexy!” But that’s just me.
I haven’t seen any of her movies, but there was a recent commercial with her visiting a school and being amazed that their “field trip” was a video link with a school in China. She said something like “when I was a kid, we just went to a farm.” My response was “what do you mean, ‘when you were a kid’? That was last week.” So, yeah, still seems awfully young.
The other reason I remember that commercial is that it was filmed in a little town where I spent some time a few years ago. I recognized the schoolhouse in an instant.
Aren’t twenty somethings playing teenagers on screen the norm? I think she looks younger just because she looks younger. She’s rather short and that makes her still look a bit more teenager-ish than 23-ish, to me at least.
Pretty common for people in their early 20s to play high school kids in movies and TV shows. I heard that one reason is real teenagers have to be tutored on set when they act but once they are over 18 they can just act.
Oh, gods, this is the worst movie I’ve ever seen. Okay, not worst, but what made it so bad is a friend whose opinion I trust(ed) recommended it to me! After I watched it, I pretty much told her I would never take a movie recommendation from her again.
I IMDBed her to make sure I was thinking of the right person. Does she play a teen on Gossip Girl? Because I’ve seen her on Party Down, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, and Couples Retreat and she always seemed/looked mid-late 20s or so to me. Definitely older than me (I am 23).
Zac Efron is about one year younger than me and I feel dirty for thinking he was cute in 17 Again. I am not in his demographic of fans other than being female, but dayum I thought he was really good looking in that movie.
I HATED that movie. I read a lot of good reviews from people who consider themselves somewhat “literary” but for cinema (cinemary?), and they were all, “Feminism! Abuse! Thoughtful film!” It seemed like torture porn and the only vaguely interesting thing was the fact that the supposed victim becomes the victimizer. But that gets old after about ten minutes, plus I read the back of the box, and was hoping for something a little more complex.
In Smart People she’s old for her age, mainly because she’s playing a tight-ass Young Republican. She seemed like in a few more years she’d be an ugly-hearted hag like Mary Matalin or Anne Coulter with dark hair.
In Whip It she was playing 17, which surprised me. I assumed the character was in her early 20s, but then she had to lie to get on the team because she was only 17 and needed her parent’s permission, which she wasn’t going to get, which is why she lied, but she never even asked them, not even her easy-going loving father, who would have done anything in the world for her and probably would have given his permission if she’d been honest and laid it all out for him as to how important skating was to her, but she didn’t even try, she just lied to lie because she was a lying stupid bitch.
Oh, anyway, I liked the movie, but hated her character. Who was only 17 but looked older to me.
I’m sorry, what was this thread about again? Oh, yeah, she’s an adult to me. I haven’t seen Hard Candy though.
That’s essentially what it was. About half way through the movie I wondered to myself, good grief, how much longer can they drag this on? Then I demanded to the TV, “Either kill the guy already, or let him go!” Yeesh.
Eh, she hasn’t played a teenager in a while, but yes, she was playing a teen well into her twenties…
I mean, the Dawson’s Creek gang were well older than high school when they were playing high schoolers.
But Ellen Page… she’s a grown up. Yeah, she’s still pretty baby faced, still pretty young, but she’s starting to play adults. Her looks are getting more adult (look at her in the X Men movies and look at her now… she’s lost some of the kiddie softness).
In the examples you mentioned, she plays characters in their mid-20s. Check out the first season of “Veronica Mars.” She definitely looked like a teen then (admittedly, partly due to her costuming).
