Age Lift: Difference between revisions

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Basically a [[Pragmatic Adaptation]] to take into account factors such as child labour laws and how demanding a role may be for a younger actor. The two most common forms of this appear to be aging pre-teen characters to teenagers so twenty-somethings can feasibly play them (see the entire child/teenage cast for ''[[A Game of Thrones]]'') and aging thirty-something parents by about a decade to counter the potential [[Values Dissonance]] relating to [[Absurdly Youthful Mother|young parents]] (see the adult characters in ''[[A Game of Thrones]]'').

* Similarly, the age of one of Shakespeare's other great tragic leading men, ''[[Macbeth]]'' varies wildly depending on the aim of the production. In the 2006 Australian film version, he is a young man (30-year-old Sam Worthington), because he is portrayed to be a hotshot young drug lord; this age is not unusual in most film (and some stage) productions, which cast Macbeth in his early-mid thirties. However, in the recent stage production that moved from London to Broadway in 2008, he is an older man (68-year-old [[Patrick Stewart]]), because <s>the point of the production was to star [[Patrick Stewart]]</s> he is portrayed to be an aging general with a much younger trophy wife; Macbeth is rarely ever played by an actor of Stewart's age because it means the "old" King Duncan needs to be aged up even further.

** It is also worth noting that the average age of a film Macbeth is actually younger than the average age of a film Hamlet.

* Ang Lee's 1995 adaptation of ''[[Sense and Sensibility (film)|Sense and Sensibility]]'' is full of this trope. Colonel Brandon, who was supposed to be 35 or 36, was played by 49 year old [[Alan Rickman]]. The 19-year old-Elinor Dashwood was played by 35-year-old [[Emma Thompson]], and 17-year-old Marianne Dashwood was played by 20-year-old [[Kate Winslet]]. However, the movie implies that the Dashwood sisters are in their late and early 20s, respectively and that Colonel Brandon is an older world-weary gent that we would associate with someone nearing 50. Lee and (scriptwriter) [[Emma Thompson]] made a conscious decision to age Elinor up to at least her mid-twenties, because they didn't think the audience would accept a 19-year-old worrying about [[Old Maid|being left on the shelf]].

* In the film adaptation of the [[James Patterson]] novel ''Along Came a Spider'', Alex Cross is played by [[Morgan Freeman]]. Cross is implied by the text to be in his forties or early fifties, and Freeman was ''sixty'' at the time. It's even more jarring that his love interest is played by the then ''thirty'' year old Monica Potter.

* In the BBC film versions of [[Philip Pullman]]'s books ''[[Sally Lockhart|The Ruby in the Smoke]]'' and ''The Shadow in the North'', actor [[Matt Smith]] plays street kid Jim, who is 11 in the first book and 16 in the second, as a man in his late teens/early twenties. Which could cause problems if they ever get around to filming the fourth book, ''[[The Tin Princess]]''.

* In ''[[Forbidden Zone (film)|Forbidden Zone]]'', all the children are played by adults. The most [[Egregious]] example being Flash Hercules, who is played by a ''70 years old man!!''

* This probably has to do more with legal compliance than artistic reason, but no matter what actress is playing her, the character of ''[[Lolita]]'' always starts the movie at age 14 or 15 rather than 12, which she is at the beginning of the book.

* In the film version of ''[[Logan's Run]]'', the mandatory death age was increased to 30 (compared to the book's 21) for this reason.

* In the book of ''[[Interview with the Vampire]]'', Claudia was changed at the age of five. In [[The Movie]], Claudia was played by Kirsten Dunst, who was twelve upon the movie's release. Asides from narrowing down the [[Squick]] factor, a five-year-old would not have been able to understand the character of Claudia to give an effective performance, while a child several years older WOULD be able to play the role well (And believe you me, Dunst DID).

* None of the actors who've played [[Dune|Paul, Leto II and Ghanima Atreides, or Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen]] have been under 20. Of course, since Paul and Feyd-Rautha were 15 during ''Dune'' itself and Leto II and Ghanima were ''8'' this is understandable. Generally, Paul and Feyd's ages are not mentioned in the adaptations, which makes this arguably a case of [[All There in the Manual]] and [[Dawson Casting]], but for the [[Syfy]] version of ''Children of Dune'', Leto and Ghanima's ages were upped to around 18. The 1984 adaptation of Dune also has the 4 year old [[Creepy Child|Alia]] played by the 9 year old (at time of release) Alicia Witt.