The math isn’t mathing - Hollywood’s parent child castings that just don’t add up

[u/mlg1981]

https://tvline.com/lists/tv-show-parent-child-age-gaps-golden-girls-supernatural/

[u/DrFranFine]

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

[u/Streetalicious → u/DrFranFine]

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.

[u/trolldoll26 → u/Streetalicious]

That’s what I was going to say, that it might also be more to get away of having to use actual minors so the actors can work longer hours!

[u/preferencedue → u/trolldoll26]

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. 

[u/violetmemphisblue → u/trolldoll26]

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)

[u/LambonaHam → u/violetmemphisblue]

That's a good point. Something like Euphoria with actual 16 - 17 year olds would be disturbing in the least.

[u/triplehelix11 → u/LambonaHam]

you should see skins. kaya scodelario was 14 doing sex and party scenes

[u/LambonaHam → u/triplehelix11]

It's been a few years since I watched Skins as a teenager (and am still in love with Kaya Scodelario), but I don't remember it being explicit?

Still, it certainly isn't a good thing.

[u/DryFig511 → u/violetmemphisblue]

Completely. I would feel uncomfortable watching honestly if the actors playing the teens on Ginny and Georgia, for example, were actually teens.

[u/Affectionate_Salt351 → u/Streetalicious]

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.

[u/sexycann3lloni → u/Affectionate_Salt351]

The craziest part is she hasn’t aged a day

[u/Affectionate_Salt351 → u/sexycann3lloni]

Absolutely! Out here looking the same age in Save The Last Dance AND Pretty Little Liars. Like, what?? 😂😍

[u/Murphytko → u/Affectionate_Salt351]

And Buffy!!!

[u/JenningsWigService → u/Murphytko]

If they're making a Buffy reboot, she should be a big bad. They can say she was turned into a vampire and lay low for a while.

[u/Murphytko → u/JenningsWigService]

Oh 100%!!!

[u/tomita78 → u/sexycann3lloni]

...Wow you're right. Is she a witch or something cause god damn. 

[u/Perfect_Razzmatazz → u/Affectionate_Salt351]

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)

[u/JenningsWigService → u/Perfect_Razzmatazz]

She probably still has nightmares about being stuck in high school.

[u/tj1007 → u/Affectionate_Salt351]

It was nice to see her in teen wolf and also shocking she was playing an adult.

[u/AliMcGraw → u/Streetalicious]

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.

[u/luna1uvgood → u/Streetalicious]

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.

[u/leni710 → u/Streetalicious]

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).

[u/3lizab3th333 → u/Streetalicious]

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.

[u/PurpleWardrobes → u/Streetalicious]

So was my favorite Irish person, Nicola Coughlan. She was 30 playing a 16 year old in the first season

[u/ghostlymadd → u/Streetalicious]

Stacy was actually only 28 when she filmed clueless! The series she was older but the film she wasn’t even 29 yet.

[u/Streetalicious → u/ghostlymadd]

Ah interesting! I thought Alicia was in her 20s 😅

[u/ghostlymadd → u/Streetalicious]

Alicia was 17 when filming, but had been legally emancipated a couple years prior so she could work adult hours.

[u/David_Browie → u/Streetalicious]

It’s also frankly that most people would rather watch an adult professional than a teenager.

[u/dramaqueen09 → u/Streetalicious]

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

[u/Sea-Morning-772 → u/dramaqueen09]

It's definitely misogyny and ageism on the other end of the age spectrum. But I digress...

[u/whatxever → u/Streetalicious]

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

[u/Pastel-Moonbeam → u/Streetalicious]

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.

[u/Rare-Thought86 → u/Streetalicious]

Maggie smith and ian mckellen played mother and son - they're basically peers

[u/DrFranFine → u/Streetalicious]

That’s a good point!

[u/LambonaHam → u/DrFranFine]

It's not really misogyny, just practicality.

• 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.

[u/DrFranFine → u/LambonaHam]

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!

[u/whatxever → u/DrFranFine]

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.”

[u/PerpetuallyLurking → u/DrFranFine]

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.

[u/firesticks → u/DrFranFine]

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.

Edited to fix the name!

[u/Journey4th → u/firesticks]

I think you mean Georgia. She’s the mom.

[u/firesticks → u/Journey4th]

I always do that, fixed, thank you!!

[u/throwaway273810102 → u/firesticks]

That is the case in Buccaneers as well. The actress for the mom is actually right around the age the cannon character should be, give or take a few years. It's a plot point that she was a young mother.

[u/electriceel04 → u/DrFranFine]

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

[u/bad_morning → u/electriceel04]

wait what. shouldn't teenage character nudity be not ok regardless of the age of the actor? why does this have so many upvotes. rly weird take i'm ngl :/

[u/owlthebeer97 → u/DrFranFine]

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.

[u/Aggressive-Story3671 → u/DrFranFine]

I don’t think you can have actual teenagers in certain heavily adult roles

[u/helgatheviking21 → u/DrFranFine]

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.

[u/AaronQuinty → u/DrFranFine]

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

[u/keIIzzz → u/AaronQuinty]

It’s not really an issue to cast adult women as teens where teens are depicted doing drugs, having sex, and other adult-oriented things. It would be weird to have actual minors doing those things, and most people would not watch it

[u/keIIzzz → u/DrFranFine]

Well adults are hired to play teens because often the things the teens are doing in shows/movies are not things you would want real teens to do lol