# Movie pet peeve: casting actors of inappropriate age for the role. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 24, 2005, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432 "2005-01-24T17:26:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/21 "2005-01-24T19:40:20Z")
> [@Rysler](#): > > **The Devil’s Grandmother** , disregard previous blathering. **Trekibilia** explained the math to me. Sloppy writing on my part really, I’m sorry. Hamlet could be anywhere from at least 25 (how many people do you know who have vivid memories of life from birth to 2?) to as old as 38 dependng on when Yorrick died. We know Hamlet was \*at least \* 24. Thanks for the info on Gump, **watsonwil**. Sometimes I think I’m the only person who hasn’t seen that movie. ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/22 "2005-01-24T19:52:18Z")
How about the original **the Manchurian Candidate**? Then-37 year old Angela Lansbury played the role of then-34 year old Laurence Harvey’s mother. Lansbury also starred as “Miss Marple” in a bigscreen treatment of Agatha Christie’s “the Mirror Crack’d.” I’m not sure when that film came out (at least the mid-70s), but in this Lansbury looked quite young to be playing the part of the octegenarian sleuth. ---
**Author:** ![DeVena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dec6dc/32.png) [@DeVena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeVena)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/23 "2005-01-24T19:58:31Z")
Has anyone here seen [Alexander](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0346491/)? Just wondering how well they pulled off [Val Kilmer](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000174/) (age 45) and [Angelina Jolie](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001401/) (age 29) as the parents of [Colin Farrell](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0268199/) (age 28). ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/24 "2005-01-24T20:01:11Z")
How about the original **the Manchurian Candidate**? Then-37 year old Angela Lansbury played the role of then-34 year old Laurence Harvey’s mother. Lansbury also starred as “Miss Marple” in a bigscreen treatment of Agatha Christie’s “the Mirror Crack’d.” I’m not sure when that film came out (at least the mid-70s), but in this Lansbury looked quite young to be playing the part of the octegenarian sleuth. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/25 "2005-01-24T20:03:32Z")
> [@The Devil's Grandmother](#): > > Sloppy writing on my part really, I’m sorry. > Hamlet could be anywhere from at least 25 (how many people do you know who have vivid memories of life from birth to 2?) to as old as 38 dependng on when Yorrick died. We know Hamlet was \*at least \* 24. Actually, if you take everything in the graveyard scene literally, Hamlet is exactly thirty. The gravedigger says he has “been sexton here, man and boy, thirty years,” and that he got his job on “the very day that young Hamlet was born.” On the other hand, Shakespeare was notoriously sloppy about such details – e.g., he establishes Lady Capulet’s age as around _twenty-eight_ in the first act of _Romeo and Juliet_, and then has her talking about her “old age” in the last scene, which takes place less than a week later. And don’t get me started on the histories 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/26 "2005-01-24T20:35:45Z")
I never notice this sort of thing. Even in teen dramadies, I’m almost always oblivious that the 16 year old protagonist is played by a 35 year old. ---
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/27 "2005-01-24T21:02:57Z")
My latest peeve is seeing 61yo Robert DeNiro playing 10yo Dakota Fanning’s father in Hide and Seek. Possible? Of course. Realistic? Hell, no. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/28 "2005-01-24T21:24:41Z")
I was very suprised when I read Dune and discovered that Paul is supposed to be 15 years old. Kyle MacLachlin was 25 when he played the role. The thing is, he was supposed to be 15. They just changed the role. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/29 "2005-01-24T21:32:57Z")
Totally warped in the recent _De-Lovely_: 60-ish Kevin Kline opposite 30-ish Ashley Judd. Which wouldn’t have been so bad, except that Cole Porter’s wife Linda was significantly _older_ than he was. ---
**Author:** ![Kaitlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/73ab20/32.png) [@Kaitlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaitlyn)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/30 "2005-01-24T21:41:06Z")
The actor’s chronological age isn’t what’s at issue, it’s whether or not they can physically look the age of the character they are playing. Add to that that a movie version might change the age of a character to better fit the actor playing said character, and you can have huge discrepencies in the age of a character in the source material and the age of the actor playing her in a movie. For example, there’s really no reason a forty year old shouldn’t play Hamlet. The story works just as well. But the entire basic plot of Romeo and Juliet revolves around their being minors; you can’t have 30 and 40 year olds playing those parts and have it work. Aging them slightly from 13 to 16 or 17 works just fine; there’s no contradiction to the main plot thread. On the other hand, King Lear has to be fairly old, or the story just doesn’t work. But going old really isn’t as difficult as going younger–Patrick Stewart did an excellent job as Lear in the updated Western version _King of Texas_. But sometimes an actor is just too young for the part–Nicole Kidman as a highly regarded neurologist in private practice in _Days of Thunder_, looking like she’s about the right age to be starting med school. ---
**Author:** ![Tracy\_Lord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@Tracy\_Lord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tracy_Lord)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/31 "2005-01-24T21:53:43Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > Totally warped in the recent _De-Lovely_: 60-ish Kevin Kline opposite 30-ish Ashley Judd. Which wouldn’t have been so bad, except that Cole Porter’s wife Linda was significantly _older_ than he was. Whoa! Kevin Kline may be getting up there, but no way is he “60-ish.” He _looks_ 45, and I think he’s only about 55. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@The\_Devil\_s\_Grandmother](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Devil_s_Grandmother)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/32 "2005-01-24T21:59:30Z")
> [@Tracy Lord](#): > > Whoa! Kevin Kline may be getting up there, but no way is he “60-ish.” He _looks_ 45, and I think he’s only about 55. A quickie websearch give his birth date as October 24, 1947, so he’s about 58, which is 60-ish, I think. Mr. Kline is 20,912 days old today. ---
**Author:** ![JerH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bb73d2/32.png) [@JerH](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JerH)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/33 "2005-01-24T22:10:20Z")
I noticed this a couple months ago while watching _The Pride of the Yankees_ - Gary Cooper was over 40 when it was made, but in all the early parts of the film he’s supposed to be an early 20s ballplayer. (Random aside: When I went to IMDB to look up this film, it gave _Bride of Frankenstein_ as the first match. I can understand “Pride” instead of “Bride”, but it would be pretty impressive to accidentally type “the Yankees” instead of “Frankenstein”.) ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/34 "2005-01-24T22:15:23Z")
> [@Jadis](#): > > In the case of **Stepmom** , all I could think was that Susan Sarandon was edging into grandmother territory for the kids that were supposed to be her own. The movie came out in 1998 and Sarandon was born in 1946, which makes her 52 at the time. She was playing the mother of a 12 year old (not a terrible stretch, but at least a little uncommon) and a 7ish year old (having a baby at 45 is fairly uncommon, I would say). I know they were going for contrast between the homebody, perfect Mom character and the hip, young Stepmom character, but I just think she was too old for the role. > > I’m sure that there are tons of other examples, but one other one that sticks in my mind was in **Sleeping With the Enemy**. The woman chosen to play Julia Roberts’ mother in that movie was _ancient_. Roberts was only 24 when that movie came out, but the actress who played her mother (Elizabeth Lawrence, I think) looked to be at least 70. Lawrence’s IMDB profile doesn’t give her birth date, so I can’t confirm their age difference, but in the movie, Roberts was putting her mother into a nursing home. It was just jarring to me. ::: shrug::: My mother was 40 when my sister was born, and 45 when I came along. I don’t see older mothers as being that unusal. > [@lisacurl](#): > > My latest peeve is seeing 61yo Robert DeNiro playing 10yo Dakota Fanning’s father in Hide and Seek. Possible? Of course. Realistic? Hell, no. Again when I was growing up, the widower across the street married an 18 year old girl at 63, and fathered a daughter at 64. :eek: Common, not really, but not unheard of either. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/35 "2005-01-24T22:19:21Z")
> [@JerH](#): > > (Random aside: When I went to IMDB to look up this film, it gave _Bride of Frankenstein_ as the first match. I can understand “Pride” instead of “Bride”, but it would be pretty impressive to accidentally type “the Yankees” instead of “Frankenstein”.) Hey, don’t be dissing the Bride. She batted .320 in her rookie year. Rachel Griffiths plays Johnny Depp’s mother in _Blow_ despite being about six years younger. As with Sally Field in _Forrest Gump_, though, the story is biographical and in early scenes where the main character is in his childhood, the actress playing his mother can appear as more-or-less her actual age, and pile on gray wigs and makeup for later scenes. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/36 "2005-01-24T22:23:17Z")
MST3K did a long running riff on this subject in _Ring of Terror_(1962). All the characters were supposed to be first year med students and yet they all looked to be in their 40’s. In fact, the star, George Mather, was 42 at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Eats\_Crayons](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Eats\_Crayons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eats_Crayons)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/37 "2005-01-24T22:33:22Z")
> [@Athena](#): > > What _does_ get to me is when things are flat out not possible. We’ve all seen the bimbos playing the 22 year old PhD or something. > > \ > > Don’t even get me started on the 26-year-old CEOs or heads in their field. Sure, they exist in real life, but come on. The one I find irksome is the police “Lieutenent” or “Captain” who hasn’t even squeaked by the age of 30 yet. I’ve always found it really hard to imagine that someone who is barely older than most of the police academy grads, has earned enough seniority and experience to be that high up in the ranks. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/38 "2005-01-24T23:05:49Z")
The actor Ted Wass (_SOAP_, _Oh God, You Devil_) was called to audition for the sit-com _Blossom_ when he was 38 and had just had some stage runs in _Grease_ and other shows as teenagers and was still getting juvenile parts. He read the description of the series- the life and misadventures of a precocious teenaged girl and her older brothers, and told the casting director that he appreciated the confidence but didn’t feel he could realistically play teenagers anymore. The casting director looked at him like he was deranged and told him “Of course you can’t, we’re interested in you for their father.” He said it was affirming he had matured and also depressing. Ellie Mae’s age on _The Beverly Hillbillies_ was never exactly given but she seemed to have been about 14 or 15 when the show began and she was played by a quite full growed and filled out 29 year old Donna Douglas. On both _The Jeffersons_ and _Good Times_, the husbands and wives were supposed to be roughly the same age but on both shows the actress playing the wife (Isabel Sanford & Esther Rolle) was old enough to be her “husband’s” mother (a 20 year and 19 year age differences respectively). One of the worst casting jobs ever was on an episode of _Who’s the Boss?_ in which the mother of 60 something Mona (Katherine Helmond) visited. The same character by extension would have been the grandmother of the 30 something Judith Light and the great-grandmother of teenager Danny Pintauro. She was played by an actress who couldn’t have been a day over 60- she looked younger than Katherine Helmond. (Judith Anderson would have been good and she was still alive and sufficiently ancient at the time.) Lorne Greene was only 13 years older than his two oldest “sons” on Bonanza. He was 21 when Michael Landon was born- old enough to be his father but Little Joe was supposed to have been born fairly late in Ben’s squiring days. In the movie _Elizabeth_ Sir Richard Attenborough played Sir William Cecil. Attenborough was 75 and the character he was playing was in his mid 30s. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/39 "2005-01-24T23:22:48Z")
The only thing that bothered me about the movie _The Lion in Winter_ (sure it’s campy, but it’s fun and high class campy) was Peter O’Toole’s age. He was just a hair too young to play Henry, a man of 50 in the 12th century (which would be similar to a man of 70 today). While there really was a sizeable age difference for the time twixt Henry & Eleanor, the fact that O’Toole was in fact only marginally older than his “sons” (Anthony Hopkins and John Castle) was noticeable. (In the movie _Troy_ O’Toole again shares the screen with Nigel Terry, the youngest son [John] from the movie who is 13 years younger than O’Toole but now looks the same age.) The movie was remade with Patrick Stewart who in some ways actually made a better Henry (though a bit subdued) but just didn’t have the chemistry with his queen (Glenn Close) that O’Toole had with Hepburn (plus Close is too young for Eleanor, who was in her early 60s [similar to mid-70s today]). An odd case of not being old enough: _On Golden Pond_ was recently remade as a reunion for Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer and while they’re not terribly young to play the roles both have had so many facelifts and tanning sessions that they weren’t believable as a crotchety old New England couple. (I would love to see the James Earl Jones/Diahann Carroll version that is slated for Broadway this year.) ---
**Author:** ![Fenwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/85f322/32.png) [@Fenwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenwick)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2005, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/40 "2005-01-24T23:56:29Z")
Kevin Spacey as Bobby Darin in **Beyond the Sea**. Spacey was 44 or 45 when they shot the movie. Darin was 37 when he _died_. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432.md?page=3)