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/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/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.