# 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:** 4
**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, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/61 "2005-01-25T14:58:55Z")
Malcolm McDowell was twenty-six when he played sixteen-year-old Alex in **A Clockwork Orange**. But for a time there, he looked young for his age. Now he looks at least ten years older than he really is. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/62 "2005-01-25T15:33:54Z")
> [@](#): > > Just wondering how well they pulled off Val Kilmer (age 45) and Angelina Jolie (age 29) as the parents of Colin Farrell (age 28). Val mostly shwos up in the scenes with young alexander, though he looks old enough to pass as his father (he’s got a fairly convincing scar and a very real beard, which makes him look older) [quote] 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). [quote] Right idea, wrong line of thinking. He hadn’t taken possession of the Ring - aand it being sealed in a letter in the backroom meant he hadn’t used it for anything and probably wasn’t geting any “benefit”. Hobbits simply live longer. While Bilbo’s 111th birthday was slightly unusual, because he looked so young for it, that age wasn’t terribly unusual for Hobbits. Although the movie showed him turning into an old man overnight without the Ring, in the book he lived many years afterward and still (tiny spoiler) had enough strength left to make the trip West. ---
**Author:** ![Early\_Out](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Early\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Early_Out)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/63 "2005-01-25T15:48:22Z")
A somewhat-related peeve: when they use an actor of the appropriate age, but dub in someone else’s voice. The most egregious example is in _Doctor Zhivago_, in which the voice of Zhivago’s son, Sasha, is clearly the voice of a woman, not a little boy. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/64 "2005-01-25T15:54:46Z")
There are entire movies in which all the major roles are cast too old. Often this is deliberate because once the star is cast in a role obviously meant for a person 10 to 15 years younger, they have to cast all the other roles as old too so that it’s not as obvious. Goldie Hawn is ten years too old for _Swing Shift_, so they had to cast the rest of the actors too old also. Julie Andrews is fifteen years too old for _Victor, Victoria_, so all the other major actors are cast too old. Norma Shearer was fifteen years too old for _Romeo and Juliet_, so they cast all the other roles too old also. It’s hard to tell what happened in _Grease_. Perhaps they decided to cast all the roles ten years too old since Olivia Newton-John was ten years too old. There are also comedies where it’s hard to tell if they’re joking about the weird age casting. Everybody in the _Naked Gun_ films is fifteen to twenty years too old for the stereotypes that they’s playing. Perhaps they did this so that Leslie Neilsen wouldn’t look so out of place, or perhaps they did it because they thought it would be funny to have everyone so obviously too old for their parts. Dustin Hoffman’s and Warren Beatty’s parts are really meant for actors in their early thirties, I think. It’s supposed to be funny that a couple of guys in their early thirties, after ten or so years of trying, still haven’t figured out that their songs are terrible. By casting two actors in these roles who are in their late forties, this situation changes from funny to downright surreal. ---
**Author:** ![Mystery\_Dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f14d63/32.png) [@Mystery\_Dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mystery_Dog)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/65 "2005-01-25T16:15:04Z")
> [@fiddlesticks](#): > > 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. Mel Torme was around 34 when he played a high school kid in the MST3K film Girls Town. He wasn’t exactly convincing. As one of the MST3K guys said, “Mel _always_ looked forty.” ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/66 "2005-01-25T16:55:07Z")
Excuse me, I was talking about the film _Ishtar_ when I mentioned Dustin Hoffman and Warren Beatty. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/67 "2005-01-25T17:15:41Z")
> [@The Devil's Grandmother](#): > > Sorry to hijack, but this is one of my hot buttons. There are clues in the text as to Hamlet’s age, mostly in the scene with the old jester’s skull. The skull of Yorick ‘hath lien in the ground these three and twenty year.’ And Hamlet remembers him vividly, so he may have been as old as 7 when Yorrick died. Hamlet certainly acts like a sullen and confused teenager, but he is an adult and should have been his father’s heir. At the time (roughly 1050 AD), succession in European countries was not absolute father-to-son, in large part because the father might well die young, leaving an son too young to become war-leader, which was the major job of a king in those days. Generally the crown would pass to a closely related person who was demonstrably a strong leader. Because Hamlet was out of the country (it would take some weeks for word to reach him and for him to return), Claudius could campaign for the job. Marrying Gertrude would help cement his claim to the throne; this may be why Hamlet was so pissed off at her. A couple of hundred years later succession became absolute, so that a child (Richard II) or even and infant (Henrys III and VI) would be crowned, leading to no end of trouble. Richard II’s uncles basically ran things until he came of age, and then some. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/68 "2005-01-25T18:28:28Z")
> [@An Arky](#): > > 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. That has to do with child labor laws-depending on the age and what state you’re in, there’s only so many hours a minor can work-if you hire people in their twenties to play teenagers, you don’t have to worry about that. What about Piper Laurie playing Sissy Spacek’s mom in _Carrie_, and then playing her _younger_ sister in _The Grass Harp_? ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/69 "2005-01-25T18:52:05Z")
In _The Rainmaker_ (1956), Lizzie is supposed to be a very shy young woman who is probably never going to marry, but stay at home with her aging father. She might be in her late twenties. In the movie, she is played by Katharine Hepburn in her late _forties_. Starbuck is, I think, supposed to be an older man - at least, he’s been around for a while - so he might be 35. Burt Lancaster was in his _early_ forties. It’s strange to see a middle-aged guy who is still younger than the spinster, try to show this sweet kid a thing or two. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/70 "2005-01-25T19:10:46Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > That has to do with child labor laws-depending on the age and what state you’re in, there’s only so many hours a minor can work-if you hire people in their twenties to play teenagers, you don’t have to worry about that. Not to mention the company has to hire a tutor for the kids, they have to pay for food for the parents, certain types of scenes with fire or smoke are not allowed, and there is theoretically no overtime. (The company pays a fine to the union if there is, which is a lot cheaper than running over.) Unless a child actor is in a role, or very well know, they might as well not even audition from 15 - 18, since it is so much easier hiring an adult. ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/71 "2005-01-25T19:11:09Z")
And I always wondered how old Liza Doolittle was supposed to be in _My Fair Lady_. Audrey Hepburn was in her mid-thirties, but you’d think the character was supposed to be twentyish. Maybe the daily hustle of being a poor Cockney flower girl in sooty Edwardian London aged you faster! ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/72 "2005-01-25T19:48:17Z")
Well, yes. Look at how much older past generations’ grandparents looked at 70 and 80 than the ones that’re alive today. Or just compare a third world teenager to an American or West European one. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2005, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/73 "2005-01-25T20:06:11Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > 40 year old David Spade is a college studen on “8 Simple Rules.” Also, Amy Davidson plays the 16 year old middle child when in real life she is a very noticeable 25. ---
**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 26, 2005, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/74 "2005-01-26T01:19:35Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > That has to do with child labor laws-depending on the age and what state you’re in, there’s only so many hours a minor can work-if you hire people in their twenties to play teenagers, you don’t have to worry about that. Oh, yeah, I know _why_ they do it; it’s still just unseemly misrepresentation. To me, it’s like how I imagine real women feel about the anorexic teenagers supposedly representing womanhood on magazine covers. ---
**Author:** ![TeaElle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8491ac/32.png) [@TeaElle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TeaElle)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/75 "2005-01-26T01:59:40Z")
> [@Jadis](#): > > I guess this is where we disagree…I think Susan Sarandon _does_ look her age, notably so in Stepmom. When not even a team of makeup professionals can disguise the huge bags under your eyes, you’re clearly past the age where you can pull off middle-aged mom roles. Uh, wasn’t Sarandon’s character in “Stepmom” dying of cancer? That would certainly explain looking older and haggard and eye-bagged, etc. Sarandon today does not have undereye bags, etc. and certainly does not appear to be her age. Today, at 59, he’s doing a makeup campaign which has her in ads alongside 44 year old Julianne Moore and Sarandon absolutely doesn’t look like she has 15 years on Moore (who doesn’t look as old as her age) at all. > [@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. Robert Deniro’s real life sons Elliott and twins Aaron and Julian are 6 and 8. Seems realistic to me. Lastly, in “Victor/Victoria” there is no indication that Victoria is a struggling _young_ actress. She was the star of a light opera company that went broke when her husband, the manager, absconded off with the money and a younger actress. She’s struggling, certainly, but not to get her break, but because her break has been taken from her. Everything about the story is about second chances, for Victoria and King, Toddy and Mr. Bernstein, even Norma gets her second chance in the end. ---
**Author:** ![Crandolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7cd45c/32.png) [@Crandolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crandolph)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/76 "2005-01-26T13:26:17Z")
If anyone remembers the movie [_Lord Love a Duck_,](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0060636/) Roddy McDowall plays a high school student at 38. His love interest is classmate Tuesday Weld, who was a rather well-developed but far more believable 23. ---
**Author:** ![lisacurl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/41988e/32.png) [@lisacurl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisacurl)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/77 "2005-01-26T14:14:51Z")
> [@TeaElle](#): > > Robert Deniro’s real life sons Elliott and twins Aaron and Julian are 6 and 8. Seems realistic to me. If he were playing a Hollywood actor in the movie, I’d buy it as realistic. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/78 "2005-01-26T15:15:21Z")
By the time they got around to making a film version of **Tommy** in 1975, Roger Daltrey (b. 1944) was probably older than would be ideal for the part. But it would have been ridiculous to have anyone else cast in the role. However, it was also pretty ridiculous to cast Ann-Margret (b. 1941), a whopping three years older, as his mum! (Not that this movie doesn’t suffer from plenty of other ridiculous things, but even so.) Okay, this was another case where the same actress had to play the mother in scenes where the hero was a child and scenes where he was an adult, but they didn’t even try to make her look older once Tommy had grown up. Oliver Reed (b. 1938) as the stepfather wasn’t all that much older than Daltrey in chronological years, but thanks to his lifestyle he _seemed_ believably older. Victoria Russel seemed much too young for the Sally Simspon role, who I think of as mid-to-late teens, but she was the director’s daughter so that explains that. ---
**Author:** ![DeadlyAccurate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac91a4/32.png) [@DeadlyAccurate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DeadlyAccurate)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/79 "2005-01-26T15:22:47Z")
I feel so invisible. ---
**Author:** ![Jadis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@Jadis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jadis)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2005, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432/80 "2005-01-26T15:38:51Z")
> [@TeaElle](#): > > Sarandon today does not have undereye bags, etc. and certainly does not appear to be her age. Today, at 59, he’s doing a makeup campaign which has her in ads alongside 44 year old Julianne Moore and Sarandon absolutely doesn’t look like she has 15 years on Moore (who doesn’t look as old as her age) at all. I just saw that Revlon commercial for the first time a day or two ago, and to be honest, my first thought was “Wow…Susan Sarandon finally had plastic surgery!” Yes, she played a sick woman in Stepmom, but her lines and undereye bags have been noticable to me for years, not just in this role (and she had them throughout the movie, before she was sick). There’s absolutely no way she hasn’t had surgery, based on how she looks in her new commercials. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/movie-pet-peeve-casting-actors-of-inappropriate-age-for-the-role/286432.md?page=5)