10 Oldest-Looking Teenagers in Movies

It appears inevitable, when watching films about youngsters, that you just’re going to get examples of actors trying a lot older than the characters they’re presupposed to be enjoying. It occurs somewhat extra usually on TV, significantly when extra years go in actual life than go within the present ( you, Stranger Things), however sure movies have considerably notoriously featured actors who’re clearly adults enjoying youngsters.

Now, to preface all this, it must be careworn that typically, hiring a teen to play a teen is both inappropriate or too taxing for somebody who’s nonetheless younger, which makes hiring an older actor extra smart. Moreover, some excessive schoolers typically seem like they’re of their 20s; individuals develop and mature at totally different charges, in any case. However, the next films are noticeable for casting older actors within the roles of youngsters, with all the next examples involving at the least one character who’s presupposed to be a teen, however was in the end performed by somebody who didn’t seem like one.

10 ‘American Graffiti’ (1973)

Richard Dreyfuss as Curt Henderson

To begin off with a milder instance, American Graffiti (directed by a pre-Star WarsGeorge Lucas) featured a great many actors over the age of 20 enjoying youngsters on the final evening of their summer time trip. Ron Howard did at the least flip 19 the 12 months the movie got here out, making him comparatively near his character’s age, however Richard Dreyfuss wasn’t fairly as convincing, turning 26 in 1973.

Once more, it’s not the worst instance, however Dreyfuss did slip extra naturally into the position of a father with three children simply 4 years later, in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, enjoying a personality at the least as previous as he was on the time (29/30). Elsewhere, there are a number of different actors in American Graffiti who look somewhat over 20 reasonably than somewhat below 20, however to not so nice an extent that it ruins the film or something.

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9 ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ (1986)

Alan Ruck as Cameron Frye

Ferris Bueller’s Day Off has 4 most important characters who’re in highschool, with solely considered one of them – Sloane, performed by Mia Sara – being below 20 on the time of the movie’s launch. Within the titular position, Matthew Broderick turned 24 the year the film came out, Jennifer Gray (who performs his youthful sister) was two years older than Broderick, after which Alan Ruck was the oldest, turning 30 the 12 months Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was launched.

His character, Cameron Frye, actually seems to be the oldest, however Cameron can be significantly awkward and has bother becoming in, so having him look somewhat older works to make him stand out extra… possibly. That’s should you’re being charitable, however Ruck can be so good within the position that he typically makes it work, until you actually cease to consider it and/or get somewhat nitpicky.

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8 ‘Spider-Man’ (2002)

A lot of the solid

It took till Tom Holland’s casting in Captain America: Civil War for there to be a live-action Peter Parker who regarded genuinely like a teen. Earlier than then, Tobey Maguire first performed the position in 2002’s iconic and genre-defining Spider-Man whereas in his mid-20s, and Andrew Garfield performed the position on the age of 27 in 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man.

It’s price highlighting Spider-Man over The Wonderful Spider-Man, although, on the subject of barely questionable teenage casting, as a result of Spider-Man has a great many scenes set in and round highschool early on the place nearly nobody seems to be like a excessive schooler. It’s not simply Maguire by any means, with Joe Manganiello (as Flash Thompson) most likely trying the oldest, regardless of Tobey Maguire really being born the 12 months earlier than him.

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7 ‘Coal Miner’s Daughter’ (1980)

Sissy Spacek as Loretta Lynn (at numerous ages)

When you’re making a biopic, or any type of epic movie, and also you need it to span a number of years, you’ve a few choices. You’ll be able to hold one actor within the central position (or supporting roles) and attempt to make them look youthful when wanted and older when wanted, or you possibly can solid totally different actors to play the identical character at totally different ages. Generally, films do a little bit of each (see As soon as Upon a Time in America).

So, with Coal Miner’s Daughter, the casting is not actually questionable all through, first off as a result of Sissy Spacek’s performance as Loretta Lynn is great, and in addition as a result of a lot of the movie depicts Lynn’s grownup life. Spacek was capable of decently play a 16-year-old (in Carrie) a number of years earlier than Coal Miner’s Daughter, however 4 years on, she was required to briefly play Lynn at simply 14 years previous within the movie’s earlier levels, and it didn’t solely work.

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6 ‘Romeo and Juliet’ (1936)

Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer because the title characters

There are many Romeo and Juliet films on the market, with some even doing an alright job at maintaining the casting correct, as seen in the 1996 version, for instance. In any case, the title characters are each presupposed to be youngsters, with Romeo generally being in his late teens and Juliet being at the least a few years his junior.

Casting youthful actors wasn’t tried within the 1936 movie adaptation, it appears, with the lead actors being a lot older than the characters normally are. As Romeo, Leslie Howard was in his 40s, and as Juliet, Norma Shearer was about 34 on the time. However the casting of Mercutio, who’s Romeo’s closest good friend, was much more excessive, as he was played by John Barrymore, an actor who turned 54 the 12 months Romeo and Juliet got here out.

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5 ‘The Quick and the Livid: Tokyo Drift’ (2006)

Lucas Black as Sean Boswell

The entire Fast and Furious franchise was in an odd place pre-2011 (when it actually discovered its footing with Fast Five), with the primary three films not feeling significantly linked exterior of some recurring characters. Issues modified most dramatically in The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, which largely occurred within the titular metropolis and tried to re-energize the collection by following youthful characters than the opposite two films had.

The protagonist of the movie is meant to be a excessive schooler, however Lucas Black seems to be extra like he’s nearing the tip of school, or perhaps a younger grownup who needs to be getting into the workforce. The early scenes have another characters who’re presupposed to be excessive schoolers and don’t actually look it, with Black solely standing out as a result of he’s within the film way more and since Tokyo Drift frequently (and awkwardly) reminds viewers that his character’s a teen.

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4 ‘The Blob’ (1958)

Steve McQueen as Steve Andrews

Steve McQueen had a reasonably constant look all through the Sixties and even into the Nineteen Seventies, however going by The Blob, he did appear to tackle the look of somebody of their 30s pretty early on (after which hardly ever regarded a lot older). Even when he’d performed somebody of their early 20s in The Blob, he would possibly’ve regarded somewhat too previous on the time, however being a highschool pupil was a bridge too far.

The casting doesn’t forestall The Blob from being a fun 1950s B-movie, and will arguably add some unintentional humor/leisure to the entire thing, but it surely positively stands out. There’s a motive he didn’t play characters this younger fairly often; he simply wasn’t convincing as a teen, and customarily excelled in a lot of the different performances he gave later in his performing profession.

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3 ‘The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser’ (1974)

Bruno S. as Kaspar Hauser

The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser is one of Werner Herzog’s best films, and may also be considered one of his strangest, too (which is actually saying one thing). It was impressed by the story of a real-life man named Kaspar Hauser, who was imprisoned till he was 17 years previous and stored locked up inside a single confined location with out entry to the surface world, and with out interacting with some other particular person past his captor.

Hauser solely lived till he was 21, and so was performed from the age of 17 to 21 by an actor who glided by the identify Bruno S., and who turned 42 the 12 months The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser. The movie’s odd tone and typically uncanny tackle a real story type of promote it, although, and those that are accustomed to Herzog’s work can be effectively conscious that the filmmaker typically makes out-there inventive choices that normally repay. Right here, though their ages fluctuate wildly, Bruno S. is compelling within the titular position, along with his efficiency and Herzog’s course making it work.

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2 ‘Pricey Evan Hansen’ (2021)

Ben Platt as Evan Hansen

These looking for a great movie musical won’t discover it with Dear Evan Hansen, which clumsily tries to adapt the Broadway musical of the identical identify for the massive display. There are many issues discovered all through, each distinctive to the difference and maybe discovered within the authentic textual content, however essentially the most jarring facet of the movie is probably going the casting of Ben Platt within the titular position.

Platt was in his early 20s when he performed Hansen on stage, and in his late 20s by the point he performed the character in movie. He does look older than a teen to start with, however a few of the makes an attempt the filmmakers appeared to make use of to “de-age” him actually didn’t work. Additional, a lot of the different actors enjoying excessive schoolers within the movie both regarded youthful or had been significantly youthful, which simply makes the casting of the lead character stand out all of the extra.

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1 ‘Grease’ (1978)

Virtually everybody

Maybe the gold commonplace for a way to not solid a film full of youngsters, Grease is full of characters who’re presupposed to be of their late teenagers, however had been performed by actors of their 20s and even 30s. Stockard Channing was one of many oldest, being 34 when the film got here out, and sufficiently old to have been in highschool again when the movie itself was really set (1958).

The members of the T-Birds most likely look older than Channing, although, and on the subject of the leads, John Travolta was in his mid-20s and Olivia Newton-John was nearly 30. The casting is far from the only ridiculous part of Grease, however it’s simpler to criticize and chuckle at, to the purpose the place the casting director, Joel Thurm, has even responded – a long time after the actual fact – to criticisms relating to which actors had been chosen.

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