I’ve heard talk here and there about the fact that, at the current rate the Harry Potter films are being made, the three “kids” will be in their early twenties by the time Book 7 is put into film.
In a word, SO???
Actors in their twenties play teenagers all the time. Furthermore, older teens play adolescents and younger teens all the time. Meet Amy Davidson, age 23, who plays 15-year-old Kerrie on Eight Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter. [Interseting side note]Though she plays a younger character, Amy Davidson is actually five years older than Katey Cuoco, who plays the older sister in Eight Simple Rules…[/Interesting side note].
Meet Frankie Muñiz, age 18, who plays 15-year-old Malcolm on Malcolm in the Middle. [Another intersting side note]Frankie is actually about three months older than Justin Berfield, who plays Malcolm’s older brother in Malcolm in the Middle[/Another intersting side note].
Bottom line is that having actors much older than their characters, particularly when it comes to teens, is nothing new and is actually quite standard in filmmaking. I see no need to hire new, younger actors as the Harry Potter film franchise progresses. I say, keep Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and the rest of the kids until the franchise is finished.
I have no idea why such a big deal is being made about it. I think the producers are getting a bit nervous about locking into these (still) unknowns, and are making all this noise to coverup a possible future change.
I think the issue is that Amy and Frankie actually look that young (never watched 8 Simple Rules, but Malcolm definitely looks younger than Reese). While just from these two HP movies, you can tell that the kids they cast are skyrocketting through puberty.
Isn’t Harry Potter going to get older anyway? I haven’t read but the first book so far but I thought that he was basically going through a new school year every book so he’d be getting older anyway.
Of course some actors can play younger than they are. But can these particular actors? Daniel Radcliffe, in particular, seems to be growing too fast for the part.
Ehh, my English teachers only exptected clarity in our writing. And we weren’t supposed to write our papers in first person, so they never had the chance to give us that particular handy hint.
On the plus side, I got a perfect verbal on the SAT, so I think it worked.
What’s funny, the actress they hried to play Moaning Myrtle (The ghost who died at Hogwarts while a student there, for the one or two of you who don’t know) is 37. So even the very franchise doesn’t appear to have an issue with using older actors.
Apparantly its just a matter what they want to do with the main characters.
24 when the first one came out, then 28 and 29. So yeah, he’s a good example. He kept playing teenagers for a while, too. With some hair dye he could still pull it off, I think.