# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/41 "2005-01-25T00:03:08Z")
Faye Dunaway as _Evita Peron_. Evita died at 32; Faye played her when she was 40 and the movie started when Evita was 15. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/42 "2005-01-25T00:25:40Z")
> [@](#): > > 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). No, that would be similar to a man of 50 today. Life expectancy was lower in those days, but that’s just because you were more likely to die young of disease or other calamity. If you were lucky enough to die of old age, it’d be in your 70s or 80s, just like nowadays. One that I’ve often heard cited in discussions like this is Elijah Wood (then 19 or 20) as Frodo, but that one actually works. He’s supposed to be 50 at the time of his great adventure, but he’s had the Ring (which stops aging) since he was 33, the age at which a Hobbit is considered a full adult (so equivalent to about 18-21 for a human). ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/43 "2005-01-25T00:30:44Z")
> [@watsonwil](#): > > The casting of Sean Connery as Harrison Ford’s father was interesting. Not as interesting as casting Connery as Dustin Hoffman’s father. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/44 "2005-01-25T00:43:52Z")
> [@Jadis](#): > > Last example… **Big Fish** , which starred Albert Finney (67) as Billy Crudup’s (35) father and the husband of Jessica Lange (54). The issue of “does having children at that age make sense?” doesn’t really apply here, but it _was_ annoying to me that based on the story, Finney’s character appeared to get married and have children very young…at the very least, by age 25. Yet, he’s 32 years older than the actor playing his son. Plus, he and his wife were supposed to be approximately the same age, yet they chose actors as husband/wife that are 13 years apart (and look it). If you’re sitting in the movie theatre and doing the math, or looking at IMDb before you see the movie to see if it all checks out, you’re going to come up with nitpicks. The only thing that matters is if the actor looks and acts the right age. It sounds like you’re suggesting that the two parents should’ve been exactly 60. On the other hand, if you got enough data I suspect you might be able to say something about the roles middle-aged women get to play in movies… ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/45 "2005-01-25T00:56:02Z")
> [@Rysler](#): > > :eek: > > Almost any version of **Hamlet** has a 50 year old playing a sullen teenager. Derek Jacobi and Kenneth Branagh, I’m looking at you. Who’s next, Anthony Hopkins? Ethan Hawke’s version is the only recent memory to even try getting this correct. Speaking of Anthony Hopkins—1969 he was in a “Hamlet” movie playing Claudius at the age of 31. The person playing Hamlet was roughly the same age as Hopkins (a few months younger). ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/46 "2005-01-25T01:05:24Z")
What kind of sticks in my craw is how they use older runts to play children. That’s fucked up. Also, it was rather disconcerting for me as an adolescent to see Epstein and Barbarino on _Welcome Back, Kotter_ represented as my peers, with all that chest hair, etc. I prefer authenticity; figures that I loathe most movies and TV shows. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/47 "2005-01-25T01:06:53Z")
> [@Fenwick](#): > > 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_. Yeah, but poor Kevin’s been trying to get that movie made for 20 years. Speaking of Julie Andrews, her playing a “struggling young actress” in _Victor/Victoria_ when she was 47 was just sad and creepy. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/48 "2005-01-25T01:45:10Z")
> [@Kaitlyn](#): > > For example, there’s really no reason a forty year old shouldn’t play Hamlet. The story works just as well. Hamlet is a university student at the start of the play. If you’re doing a normal Hamlet, I do think it’s important that he’s a young man. Casting somebody who looks 40 is a problem, and Branagh was definitely too old for the part. ---
**Author:** ![Achren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/898d66/32.png) [@Achren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achren)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/49 "2005-01-25T01:57:38Z")
> [@Garfield226](#): > > Alan Ruck was 30 when he played Cameron Frye in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. I just had to look that one up. Ye gods. I had no idea. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/50 "2005-01-25T03:33:17Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > Speaking of Julie Andrews, her playing a “struggling young actress” in _Victor/Victoria_ when she was 47 was just sad and creepy. She reprised the same role on Broadway when she was 61. When she left it was filled by the not-exactly-every-youthful Liza Minelli and the late-50s star of the late 50s Racquel Welch. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/51 "2005-01-25T03:34:39Z")
(The above should read “late 50s star of the early 60s”- thank you.) ---
**Author:** ![Mister\_Rik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mister_rik/32/491_2.png) [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/52 "2005-01-25T04:41:18Z")
How about any Jesus movie where Mary looks 30 in the manger scene? ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/53 "2005-01-25T05:17:14Z")
_Gone With the Wind_ Vivian Leigh was 26, playing a 16-yr old Scarlett. Her mother Ellen was played by 29 yr-old Barbara O’Neil, done up to look more mature I guess. A Actually, O’Neil’s age was quite close to the age Ellen O’Hara was supposed to be by the time the book started. Ellen married Gerald O’Hara when she was 15, and he 41 ---
**Author:** ![DeadlyAccurate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@DeadlyAccurate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadlyAccurate)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/54 "2005-01-25T05:48:20Z")
> [@An Arky](#): > > What kind of sticks in my craw is how they use older runts to play children. That’s fucked up. I think that’s because of the rules regarding the amount of work child actors can do at certain ages. If a 16-year-old that still looks young can work twice as long as a 12-year-old, then it only makes financial sense to use the 16-year-old. (I don’t know the real numbers; I’m just making up examples.) ---
**Author:** ![buns3000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/c89c15/32.png) [@buns3000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buns3000)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/55 "2005-01-25T06:13:58Z")
I am unable to suspend disbelief to the extent necessary to overlook Mary being just 6 years older than Jesus in [The Passion of the Christ](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001029/). I just can’t see why its necessary to cast someone in a role that they’re obviously way too young for. Why, Mel, why? [Hijack] Also, I had some trouble getting past the sight of a Christ with a completely hairless upper body. WTF? [\Hijack] ---
**Author:** ![LifeOnWry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/96bed5/32.png) [@LifeOnWry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LifeOnWry)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/56 "2005-01-25T07:03:12Z")
I did not see this movie, but when a friend told me about it, my jaw dropped. In Spy Game, Robert Redford pairs up with his former Vietnam protege, Brad Pitt. Redford is currently 67, Pitt is 41 - during most of the Vietnam Conflict, Pitt was a toddler! ---
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 7:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/57 "2005-01-25T07:39:11Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#): > > 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. That seemed to be a running theme in a lot of the high school set movies from the 50’s & 60’s that MST3K did. Darn if I can’t think of any particular titles. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/58 "2005-01-25T14:37:34Z")
> [@LifeOnWry](#): > > . . . during most of the Vietnam Conflict, Pitt was a toddler! . . . and _that’s_ why we lost the damn war! ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/59 "2005-01-25T14:38:53Z")
40 year old David Spade is a college studen on “8 Simple Rules.” ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/60 "2005-01-25T14:54:31Z")
Stephanie Powers is playing Anna in a stage version of The King And I. Stephanie Powers was born in 1942. Anna had been married, true; but she sure as hell wasn’t 60 years old. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432.md?page=4)