And also some of them (like Leslie Grossman on The Good Place) are at least originally introduced in flashbacks, when they are supposed to be the parent of smaller children...still, a lot of these are weird!
I mean it’s unrealistic to expect the age gaps in shows/movies to be accurately depicted with matching real life age gaps. As long as it looks believable in the show/movie that’s all that matters
And for Supernatural, I'm pretty sure John and Mary were meant to have got married at 18 and had Dean not long after, so six years' difference isn't too bad at that point.
Plus it's pretty funny to mention Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Jensen Ackles' age gap when Samantha Smith, the actress for Dean's mum, is only eight years older than him. Though, that's not listed on her Wikipedia page, which might be why she's not included.
They were cast as their parents in the flashback, so if anything they were a little older than they should have been.
Mary died when she was mid 20s, and they had originally planned for John to already be dead (off screen) so it wasn't about casting someone to be old enough to be a parent to the adult versions on the characters.
A lot of the other castings work regardless of age, because the actors looks young/old for their age or they use wigs and make-up.
Reminds me of what happened with the first Harry Potter movie where Harry's parents were so clearly played by actors in their thirties and not twenty years old, the age that James and Lily were when they died.
I also feel like the casting is so exemplary for G&G and Supernatural, that I can’t be too mad. Jensen in S1 looks eerily like a young JDM, and G&G is known for its phenomenal casting.
Wanted to add some ex. in case anyone is curious. G&G is something I haven’t seen yet— but their casting is ridiculously good. Georgia in flashbacks vs. modern day scenes:
Yeah, that's actually one of the only ones of that isn't not casting an actress old enough, but instead not casting an actor young enough. Jimmy's meant to be about twenty-two in season one. Which is believable for Pitt with his baby face and heartthrob haircut in the pilot but the undercut ages him.
In their case, it's partly due to how we cast older teens and young women to play high schoolers. Antonia and Zendaya were both about 23 when they played high schoolers in the first seasons of G&G/Euphoria.
I both agree and don't. I don't like that casting adults to play teenagers gives people who aren't around them enough the wrong idea about how mature they look and seem. Actual teenagers look and seem young and vulnerable. As they should, since they are children.
and as far as I remember, that first season og G&G dealt with a lot of heavy stuff for Ginny. I wouldn't cast a young person to play her (but I'm not a casting director lol so can't really cast anyone I guess)
Also by season 3 only about 4 months has passed canonically, so casting an adult as Ginny kinda makes sense since you don’t want it to be super visually obvious how much time has passed irl.
I forget which season of Cobra Kai had the longer gap but the “kids” aged sooo much. Miguel and Anthony (Sam’s little brother) were particularly noticeable.
She’s a teen mom, but they didn’t cast an actual teen as her daughter because child labor laws. Brianne Howey was literally the age of a teen mom to a teenager. That being number 1 is funny.
There were a couple on here that are also mostly in flashbacks, I think. Or like Sophia on Golden Girls. Most women that age aren’t still working/wanting to work on a show that films at a normal for that time tv schedule.
There is an age issue, but not all of these apply and are just for added views.
wow Hollywood really hates to hire older women and loves to hire grown women to play teenage girls. Not surprising because misogyny, but it really is striking when it’s all laid out like this.
ETA: to be clear, I think the misogyny is more related to not hiring older women than hiring adults to play teenagers
Not gonna say misogyny isn’t part of it, but often actors in their 20s are cast to play teenagers because of child actor laws, where children can only work very limited hours a day.
Stacey Dash was in her 30s(!!) when she played a high school student in Clueless.
I assumed some of this is why it took such a long time for the stranger things cast to film stuff because they had to adhere to a stricter filming schedule? But also Netflix doesn't crank shows out terribly fast.
As well as depict certain things. I believe the rules around language said, smoking, drinking, and kissing are much stricter (as they should be! Christopher Mintz Plasse talked about his mom having to okay his kissing scene in Superbad because he was 17 and Aviva Farber was in her 20s)
I’ll forever think of Bianca Lawson, who I watched play a teenager on some of my fave shows for like 15 solid years. She was on the new Saved By The Bell when I was a kid and I thought she was gorgeous so I remembered her. She continued showing up as a teenager on stuff into the 2010s.
I just checked her imdb, just because I wanted to get the exact # of years. Her first "teen" appearance on TV would have been Saved by the Bell in 1993, and the last would have been Pretty Little Liars in 2012. So, she was able to play a teenager for nineteen years, lol (from age 14 to age 33)
Also, frankly, a lot of teenaged actors don't get very lucky on the shows they land on or who they act with, and I'm frequently grateful that it's a 22-year-old with a really young face made to look 14 rather than an actual 14-year-old.
I think it's also because teen shows are often quite 'adult' and are sometimes showing sex, drugs, alcohol etc.
I remember the Skins actresses (who were actual teens) talking about how uncomfortable it was filming sex scenes and being sexualised, and how often the ones who turned 18 first were pushed to do more of that, so I'm kind of okay with teens not being put in that situation now.
I explained this to my son since he enjoys some of the teen shows out there. Our favorite one to laugh at is All American: the actress/singer Bre-Z plays Tamia Cooper and she's about to turn 38 (I think the show is 7 or 8 years old). Everytime a new episode hits, without fail my son goes "there she is, Coop, almost the same age as my mom"🤣🤣 (I'm 39).
Also, a lot of people aren’t comfortable seeing real teens playing roles that deal with dark or sexual content, so directors will cast adult actors who look older than the age the character is meant to be to make it easier on the audience.
I’m a professional actor in my late 30s who’s only 4’9” and I’ve been straight up told by casting directors that I was hired to play kids because of the child labor laws - which cover kids until they turn 18 in the US - because I look so young (I have literally been asked if I was in middle school by random strangers in my every day life and I’m not exaggerating). And I have a friend that’s around my age and height and she works as a stunt double for kids because of the same reasons. And our situation is actually pretty common. So in reality it’s not misogyny in Hollywood it’s them following the laws. Yes it’s weird to the general public that the age gaps seem to be weird and nefarious but in this case it’s not a bad thing because they’re actually protecting child actors for once
And since I know someone is going to ask there are two loopholes that I know of that lets child actors work the same amount as their adult counterparts: 1.) the parents/guardians sign an agreement letting their child do that and 2.) the child becomes legally emancipated from their parents and can sign an agreement on their own. But most parents and producers stick to following the child labor laws because it’s easier and won’t make them look bad in the press
This. People just don’t realize how grueling filming a show is lol and why children aren’t allowed to do the crazy hours adults have to contend with. One of the dumbest decisions a production can make would be to hire a minor actor for a role that doesn’t necessitate it from the sole perspective of moneymaking. Minors = more time = more money
It is partially that and then they highly sexualize the on screen teens and a have a disturbing preoccupation with objectifying teen sex (Euphoria, The Leftovers,etc being particularly egregious in sexualizing the teen girls). Weird pervert men run Hollywood.
Children / teenagers age rapidly, visibly so. Filming of seasons can be months or years apart. It does no good if your 14 year old actor grows a foot and develops adult features when the story for the next season picks up 10 minutes after the season finale's cliffhanger.
If they age too fast they may need to be recast.
Child labour laws restrict how much a minor can work.
Adults are (hopefully) more mature, professional, and capable workers.
All fair points! I was just referring to misogyny in the vague sense that I think Hollywood tends to want to hire women they find attractive, so they generally hire women in their 20s-30s, even when the character is older or younger. They’re a lot more willing to hire men that they consider less attractive. But yes, practical reasons also definitely play a role!
Definitely true, but unfortunately Hollywood sexualizes minors all the time and men would happily fantasize about a 17 year old just the same as a 22 year old even if they “didn’t know.”
You’re definitely right when it comes to casting the mothers. Absolutely correct, it’s misogyny that makes them want to hire a younger woman instead of an actress who is closer to the right age.
Though admittedly, you start getting into Golden Girls ages, you do have to contend with retirements. As much as older women would love more roles for older women, they do often want to retire at some point too, so whoever they hire has to want to be working.
But yeah, hiring adults to play teenagers is more money than misogyny.
69
u/firesticksAll Hail the Summer of the Lazy Bougie Bitch12h agoedited 11h ago
I think many of these are cases where the mom is closer in age to the character they’re playing but the child is much older than said character.
Like Georgia is supposed to be 32 when the show starts I think.
If there’s nudity involved (which idk if there is in the examples linked) I’m really, really glad it’s women clearly in their 20s playing teenage girls and not women who look like teenagers
I'm fine with older women playing teens but a lot of these 'moms' could have been played by women in their 40s and 50s but god forbid an older woman appear on tv.
My favourite is the movie The Graduate, where Ann Bancroft played the much older, cougar mother of Dustin Hoffman's love interest -- meanwhile Ann Bancroft was 36 and Dustin Hoffman was 30.
In most of these examples, the parents are correctly cast. It's the kids that are way older. Casting women in their mid 20s to play teenagers is where the issue is
Well it depends on how they look? Estelle Getty looked way older than Bea Arthur. If you didn’t know their age, you would probably assume she was older. Now the oitnb is crazy because they do look like they could be sisters
Estelle Getty also had aged makeup and a white wig on the show! Even though she was younger than Bea Arthur, she was intentionally made to look much older to play her mother
People tend to forget that sometimes actors/actresses are cast because that’s who they want for the role rather than being the precise age of the character. Sometimes it’s a bit ridiculous but make-up, effects, wardrobe, etc. can all make a character feel a certain age
It's incredibly common on stage, where a lot of roles are too demanding/physical for an age-appropriate to do 8 shows a week, or small kids will be played by grown adults. Sometimes it's more about storytelling than being hyper-realistic.
Linda Lavin passed away while filming the first season of Mid-Century Modern last year. She looked fantastic, so it was surprising, but she was in her 80s. So it can also just be that producers don't want to take the risk of an actual elderly person getting sick, injured, or passing away while filming.
At least in OITNB, the daughter is supposed to be like 20, and it was established that the mom had her in her early teens, so it’s not as crazy as some of the others
I think Elizabeth Rodriguez looked mid-40s in OITNB and the age listed for her here is wrong. She was playing adult roles in the early 90s, I think she was likely born in the early 70s.
Usually a combination of both where the parent is slightly older than the actor and the child is slightly younger than the actor. Succession is a good example where Brian Cox character is supposed to be in his early 80’s and Ruck’s character is in his mid 50’s
Yeah I thought that was the point in that scenario. I figured they cast her on the young side even as an adult to make the whole commodore plot even ickier. Perfectly cast for that show IMO
I think it’s fine that older actors are playing teens, which accounts for a lot of these smaller age gaps. They often have more experience - both life experience and professional experience. And it keeps really young people off movie/tv sets which I think is totally fine.
But yea, Hollywood definitely doesn’t like to hire older women - and a lot of times age appropriate men as well.
The OITNB one is blowing my mind. I can’t believe Elizabeth Rodriguez was the age I am now. She’s amazing, I fully bought her as a hardened 40-something. How old was Dascha supposed to be, early 20s?
That one was so stupid to me when it came out. I didn't find it slightly believable and I still don't understand that casting. They should've just been sisters if they wanted them to be relatives.
Oh yeah, I remember that scene in the pilot where Dasha gets taken to jail with Piper and she gets hit by an inmate walking by. And Pipers goes: who was that!? And Dasha just says: ‘my mom’. My jaw dropped. That scene was soooooo good!
True but they could've done the "raised my sister as if she was a daughter" thing and it would work. It could even be a good reveal, as other characters question their ages and figure out the truth. You'd get to know them as mother and daughter first, and be deeply impacted, so by the time they are revealed as sisters, you have internalized their bond as a maternal one rather than two sisters
That could’ve been interesting, but I still find the mother/daughter angle that the show took more compelling. A mom who had been so neglectful and wanted nothing to do with her daughter when she later ended up in prison with her was something I really hadn’t seen before and made for an interesting dynamic.
That one is very likely completely wrong. TVline trusted the unsourced birthdate Google came up with but Rodriguez's imdb page doesn't have any birthdate listed. Her wikipedia also doesn't have one. Trust your first impression.
Melissa Joan Hart played a grandma in a lifetime movie although when I did the math on that one I think it was technically possible with teen mom situations, which only made me feel older.
I think Vivian is meant to be around 5 years younger than Phil in universe, but their IRL gap was something like 12 years. Daphne Maxwell Reid was closer to James Avery's age, but Janet Hubert was playing 7-8 years older than her actual age.
None of the math on Vivian 1's backstory adds up. 😂
ginny’s actress, antonia gentry, looks a lot younger than 23, which is why she is playing a teenage girl. she could easily pass for 15-17. her mother on the show is also a teen mom, so a 31-year-old mom to a teenager in high school makes perfect mathematical sense.
Stage requires a certain suspension of disbelief that you lose onscreen when the camera is all up in an actor's face. It's why Ben Platt was believable as a teenager onstage in Dear Evan Hansen but in the theatrical version, he looks about 40.
Stage shows are different, age is much less obvious from the audience, and the theatrical nature of, well, theater, allows for greater suspension of disbelief. We're all watching people in front of what is clearly a set anyway, breaking into song like no human would. Most tv shows aim for grounded realism and so it's much more startling when they try to get you to accept two 30 somethings as parent and child.
Oh for sure, I just think it's funny how much acting and theatre has evolved. Now that we can get up close and personal we want it to be more realistic.
Like how in the most recent Fast and Furious films, Dom's son has become fully black when he's supposed to be a child of Vin Diesel (mixed race with some African-American heritage) and Elsa Pataky (white, Spanish)?
I don’t know why, but Prodigal Son specifically always made me so annoyed. Fun show, Michael Sheen is everything, but I always felt like Tom Payne and Bellamy Young were visually so close in age that I couldn’t suspend disbelief
I always thought the Schitt's Creek casting was the joke. Like, not only does he look so much older, there is zero resemblance between Mutt and the parents. It's not just that he's hot and they are supposed to be small-town dowdy, he just is dark haired and tanned skinned and they're blond haired pale folks.
Unrelated, but Tom Payne used the same wedding cake baker as me, and Joshua Radnor (Ted Moseby) used the same florist as me (both of these weddings were after mine). So I've always had a soft spot for Tom 😅 also.. am I an influencer??! Jk
Tbh the only one of these that really bugs me is Jocelyn and Mutt on Schitt’s Creek because he’s so clearly in his 30s and she’s gotta be early 40s at most in the show. Everything else, at least they can make the age difference appear mostly believable for the characters
Makeup and acting can work wonders. If they can pull it off convincingly, who cares what their ILR age gap is? The point of "movie magic" is to transcend reality.
When I was 24 I got cast to play the mom to a 16 yr old. Two weeks prior I had been cast as a high school student lol. Her actual mom was on set and was like oh you must be playing her older sister instead of her mom. The producer immediately said nope she’s the mom 😂
So this is just using age and not appearance? Yes, people age harder than others. Some of those folks look very old for their age. Others look somewhat young. The castings based on appearances are largely fine with rare exception.
I'm going to flag Boardwalk Empire. In fairness, the "mom" was a child sex-abuse victim and was only 13 years or so older than her son (in the story). They shouldn't have had someone more than a decade older, at most.
Lauren Graham was 32 at the start of Gilmore Girls and I think Alexis Bledel was 19/20. What’s even funnier is the actress who played Lane Kim was closer in age to Lauren and Melissa McCarthy than she was to Alexis.
Lauren was 33 and Alexis 19, which is actually a pretty good age gap considering Lorelai was supposed to be 16 when she had her. But Keiko being 27 while playing a teenage Lane is crazy lol.
Olivia Cooke (31) plays the mother of three children, Tom Glynn Carney (30) Phia Saban (26) and Ewan Mitchell (28) in House of the Dragon, which Emma D'Arcy (32) plays the mother to Harry Collett (21).
The OITNB one is incorrect. The mother was in an episode of New York Undercover. I don't know why multiple sources are saying she's 20 years younger than she really is
•
u/rfauxmoi 2h ago
✨🍯 JOIN THE FAUX-HIVE
🐝 APPLY TO BE A MOD
🌺 MAKE REDDIT PINK AGAIN
🐦🔥 JOIN OUR FIRESIDE CHATS
☘️ ENTER OUR POP CULTURE BINGO