(I see this was also discussed upthread).
Difficulty finding talented 15-year-olds (technically, Smallville started in 10th grade) compounded by legal issues with getting minors to work as many hours as were required meant that all the main characters were at least 18 years old meant that if they had hired minors, yes, it would have a different feel to it because the actors wouldn’t have been as good, and they wouldn’t have gotten as much screen time. They also, oddly enough, probably would have been taller by the end of the series, because they intentionally cast short actresses who stayed short throughout the run of the series.
From Wikipedia’s article on “The Graduate”:
There are considerable age discrepancies between the lead roles and the actors who portrayed them. Benjamin Braddock says, "I will be 21 next week "; at the time of filming, Dustin Hoffman was 29. William Daniels, who plays Hoffman’s father, was, at 39, only 10 years older than Hoffman. Mrs. Robinson states, “Benjamin, I am twice your age.” Anne Bancroft was 35, only six years older than Hoffman. Mrs. Robinson’s daughter Elaine is 19 and was portrayed by Katharine Ross, who was 27 at the time. Elaine May, who portrayed Elaine’s college roommate and delivered a note to Benjamin from Elaine, was 35 at the time and only seven months younger than Anne Bancroft. Mrs. Singleman and Miss DeWitte, party guests in one of the Taft Hotel scenes, were said to be sisters, though there was a 38-year age difference between their portrayors, Alice Ghostly (age 44) and Marion Lorne (age 82)
Just about everyone who portrayed Eva Peron was at least 10 years older than the time of her life where she is set into the film or stage show
Movies about Billy the Kid (Chisum, starring John Wayne; Young Guns, starring the Brat Pack) often depict John Henry Tunstall as a middle-aged or elderly man, who is a father figure to Billy the Kid. In the real world, he was 25 when he was killed.
North By Northwest
Cary Grant plays Roger Thornhill
Jessie Royce Landis plays his mother, but was in fact only 6 years older than Grant.
And also another reason : do you think that it would look remotely believable is half of the main characters of the show ruling kingdoms, winning battles, ordering around old veterans, making wise decisions, etc…were a bunch of 14 yo?
In fact, it’s not in line with the settings. Sure, people had to act as adults earlier, and there are some examples of young (but not that young) leaders during this era. But no, 16 yo weren’t elected master of the knights Templar, 15 yo recognized generals, 14 yo shrewd politicians. In my opinion, what Martin makes his young characters do is completely unrealistic, and on screen, it would look laughable.
See #5 above
In Riverdale, instead of being played by someone like this, Ms. Grundy is played by this actress.
Presumably, because
For a few episodes Archie has a fling with her
which would have an entirely different tone if Ms. Grundy was 70-something.
I think* Family Guy* would have a different tone if Stewie Griffin was played by an actual infant.
What?
Yes, Juliet was 13, in two weeks to turn 14:
But where do you learn that Romeo is older, and more to the point, old enough to make his interest in Juliet creepy?
People nowadays are stupid enough to believe all kinds of absolute crap.
No where. There is absolutely no mention of Romeo’s age in the play. Until recently I never encountered the claim that he was more than 16, but have found some folks online whose guts tell them he’s 21-24ish “because girls married older men back then” rather than use anything actually in the play to bolster their supposition.
I’m not sure what you mean here. Nicholas Brandon was born in 1971; he was 25 when the series started in 1997. Not 15, certainly, but definitely not 50, either.
Jack Ryan was played by actors of different ages (apparent): Ben Afleck, Alec Balwin, Harison Ford. Balwin seemed the most appropriate.
John Clark I remember was played by Lieb Schreiber and Willem Dafoe. There may be others I can’t recall but Dafoe seemed best.
This is an example of something known as hyperbole–an “obvious and intentional exaggeration” or “an extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally, as ‘to wait an eternity.’” In this case, the obvious exaggeration of the age of Nicholas Brandon used to illustrate the fact that he in no way looked like a high school underclassman.
Actually Hussey was 15 and Whiting was 17 when they were filmed. Hussey’s age in particular caused some controversy. Zefferilli needed a special permit to show Hussey topless in one scene (and led to a rumor that because of her age Hussey wasn’t allowed to attend the premiere because of her own nudity. By the time of the release, she was old enough to see it.). I saw the film in its first release when I was 17.
Wikipedia may be wrong, but it give Hussey’s birth date as April 17th 1951and the release of Romeo and Juliet as October 8th 1968. And Leonard Whiting’s birth date is given as June 30th, 1950. So only 10 months difference in their ages.
I’m not sure what point you are trying to make. Hussey was 17 when the movie was released, but most sources (IMDb, TCM, AllMovie, Encyclopedia Britanica, etc) say she was 15 when it was filmed. Her age featured considerably in the publicity for the film when it was released. Obviously the production took place some time before the film’s release when Hussey was younger.
Okay, maybe the movie had an unusually long time between production and release, allowing her to be 15 when it was filmed and 17 when it was released. But it is numerically impossible that that Hussey was ever 15 while Whiting was 17. There are 291 days in between their birthdays. When Hussey was 15 years and 364 days, Whiting was 16 years, 290 days. So for the movie to have been filmed when Hussey was 15, Whiting could not have been older than 16.