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Dawson Casting: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''"This is just like ''[[The OC]]'', [[Dissimile|except without 25-year old teenagers and 35-year old parents.]]"''|'''Jack''', ''[[Will and Grace]]''}}
High school students in television look nothing like high school students in real life ([[Older Than They Look|well, not always]]), for one good reason: they're played by actors who are upwards of ten-to-fifteen years older. This dates back to the earliest days of Hollywood, if not further, making it [[Older Than Television]].
Despite this trope being a prime source for ridicule, mockery, and parody, there are actually a lot of legit reasons this is done.
# Labor laws and regulations are probably the biggest reason. They apply to acting just as they do any other profession. There are a whole string of laws that child actors are subject to, including; (in the UK and the USA) education requirements and night shoot and work hours restrictions. These aren't the ideal condition when trying to meet the deadlines for finishing a film or a TV season.
# The vast majority of professional actors are twenty and up anyway, so if you hold an audition for a teen role, nine out of ten of the actors you see will be an inappropriate age, and they'll be the ones with good CVs.
# The pressures of stardom are harder for a teen actor to handle than a young adult. An actor in his or her twenties is less likely to leave a show after one season (or film series after one entry) to focus on his or her education than an actual teenager is.
# It's easier to see the difference between a teen and a young adult if you are a teen or young adult. Casting directors are often middle-aged or older; to them a 16-year-old ''doesn't'' look noticeably younger than a 21-year-old.
# Puberty tends to be extremely fickle; a cute 14-year old can transform into a gawky, gangly 16-year old with rather shocking celerity. [[Hollywood Nerd|Or vice]] [[She's All Grown Up|versa]]. Of course this won't happen if you've already been through puberty.
# [[Paedo Hunt|Obscenity and child porn laws.]] In the US, it's generally illegal to do anything that even simulates sex on film<ref>And in many countries, even in animation.</ref> unless everyone involved is 18 or older. Therefore, having older actors allows the filmmakers to depict various acts on camera that would get them thrown in jail if the actors were underage.
# Related to the above, this allows for [[Fan Service]], which is legal as long as it's non-nude.
# Most successful teen actors -- i.e the ones with the most experience and impressive resumes -- [[Teens Are Short|tend to be physically smaller than other actors]], and look younger than their actual age, because they are the child-analogues of [[Dawson Casting]] (due to more experience, more able to remember lines, less likely to go completely [[Off the Rails]] [[Cloudcuckoolander|on some random whim]], etc.), better-suited to playing younger children than real children would be.
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Note that many works can end up on both the examples and exceptions due to either mixing casts or the aging of cast members over a series. Be sure to specify which performers fit the examples and which fit the exceptions.
And because voice acting has nothing to do with appearance and everything to do with vocal performance, only notable aversions should be mentioned in that regard (it would be like complaining they didn't get an actual alien to voice an alien). Likewise, this is intended primarily towards adults playing teenagers and not about simple age discrepancies. There's a good explanation for why this may be done for voice acting, too - having actual children to voice actual child characters is sometimes complicated because kids age, have their own lives ahead of them, enter puberty (and voices change) etc. This is also part of why we have [[Cross-Dressing Voices]] - see below.
This trope is less noticeable with females as it is with males as females tend to fully mature physically at an earlier age by 14 or 15. Where as Males tend to not full mature until their late teens. Which makes a Male actor in his 20's playing a 15 year old less believable than it is with a female of the same age playing a 15 year old.
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* Inverted in ''[[Crazy Stupid Love]]'' with 22 year old [[Emma Stone]] playing a character who is at least 25.
* ''[[Eurotrip]]'': Most of the actors playing 18 year olds were in there 20s even Kristin Kreuk was in her 20s playing a 17 year old.
* ''[[The Roommate]]'' is pretty bad. Minka Kelly, born in 1980 and Leighton Meester, born in 1986, play college freshmen. Freshmen born during the setting of this film would have been born in 1992.
* Teen idol [[Elvis Presley]], in his 20s and beyond, would portray characters that were explicitly adolescent, such as in ''King Creole'' and ''Love Me Tender'', or age-unspecified young adults who live with their parents, aren't yet married, headed for college or the military, are newcomers on the entertainment scene, hold down jobs suitable for high school dropouts, and enjoy youthful beach parties.
* In the original 1958 version of ''[[The Blob]]'', high-schooler Steve Andrews is played by 28-year old [[Steve McQueen]] in his first starring role.
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* ''[[Mr. Holland's Opus]]'' - Rowena, the high school senior who tempts Mr. Holland because she's intellectually mature and looks older than her years? She looks mature for her age because she was played by 23-year old Jean Louisa Kelly. The baby-faced 13-year old freshman clarinet player who later becomes governor? Played by 20-year old Alicia Witt.
* All of the "kids" from ''[[Easy A]]'' are between 21 and 25 years old. This actually presents a minor problem, as one of the characters is ''supposed'' to be too old for high school, having been held back repeatedly, but appears indistinct from the other actors. Additionally, they had gotten age-appropriate actors for the flashbacks, and this meant that, in the four years between the past and present, the characters seemed to have aged ten years.
* The [[Saturday Night Live]] movie ''[[Superstar]]'' had high school students who were mostly in their 20s. Leading roles go to Elaine Hendrix, 29, [[Will Ferrell]], 32, and Molly Shannon, 35. Apparently, that was supposed to add to the humor.
* ''Female Trouble'' - Mink Stole, in her late 20s, plays a 14-year old, and it's heavily [[Lampshade|lamp shaded]].
* In ''[[Dirty Dancing]]'' Frances is 17 years old; Jennifer Grey, who played her, was 27 but looked suitably young. Johnny is 25 years old, and played by 35 yr old [[Patrick Swayze]], who unfortunately looked his age, making it look a bit squicky.
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* In ''Rock 'n' Roll High School'', all the "teen" actors are, at the youngest, in their mid twenties. The main character, Riff, was played by 29-year old P.J. Soles. The sequel ''Rock 'n' Roll High School Forever'' also features a teen cast of twenty somethings.
* In the 1954 ''[[White Christmas]]'', 32-year old Vera Ellen plays Judy Haynes; Judy's age is never expressly given, but based on comments made by other characters (she is repeatedly called "kid" and "little Judy"), that she orders a malted when the others order alcohol, and that 25-year old Rosemary Clooney plays her ''older'' sister Betty, it appears that she's supposed to be about 19.
* In ''[[Peggy Sue Got Married]]'' 32-year old Kathleen Turner plays 40-year old Peggy Sue. So far, so good. [[Peggy Sue]] is then transported back to her senior year of high school, and Turner also plays the 18-year old version of Peggy Sue.
* 16-year old [[Judy Garland]] was cast as the 11-year old Dorothy Gale in ''[[The Wizard of Oz (film)|The Wizard of Oz]]'' (indeed, most people who haven't read the books don't realize Dorothy ''isn't'' supposed to be a teenager). Legend has it the studio forced her to [[Suppressed Mammaries|wear a tight band around her breasts to make them less noticeable]] during the filming, among the many other nasty things they did to her and other actors of the day.
* The movie version of ''[[The Wiz]]'' has 33-year old Diana Ross managed to get herself cast as Dorothy, pushing out 20-year old Stephanie Mills (who was the stage Dorothy) in the process.
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* ''[[Porky's]]'', probably the prototypical teen sex farce, featured an entire cast over 20 playing high school students, so that it could actually show nudity.
* ''[[Cry Wolf]]'' features Lindy Booth (in her mid-20s at time) as an 18-year old.
* ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'': Juliet is explicitly said to be 13, and Romeo is repeatedly called a "youth," so he's probably not much older. Mercutio is a good friend, so he's probably a comparable age to Romeo. Examples of noticeably older actors taking the roles:
** Leslie Howard, at 43, played Romeo in a 1936 version and Juliet was played by 34-year old Norma Shearer). Even more geriatric was John Barrymore, Sr. as Mercutio, who was ''fifty-four'' at the time.
** At the time of filming of the 1968 Franco Zeffirelli film, Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting were 15 and 17 respectively. This was considered a radical innovation at the time, and much of the film's success was due the stars' very believable youthful passion. Ironically Olivia Hussey wasn't allowed to attend the debut of the film because the film had nudity and she was too young. It was ''her own'' nudity that she was prevented from seeing.
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* ''[[Clueless]]'':
** Stacey Dash was 28 portraying a 16-year old in the movie and then came back for the TV show where she played a 16-year old until she was 31. (Dee, Stacey's character, [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] this in one episode when she mentioned when they were 27 they'd be "old enough to play teenagers on TV.")
** The rest of the teen cast had an average age of 21, but 19-year old Alicia Silverstone and 18-year old [[Brittany Murphy]] work fairly well as 16-year olds.
* In [[The Film of the Book]] of ''The World According To Garp'', Garp is played from age 15 and up by then-30-year old [[Robin Williams]].
* [[David Lynch]] loves this trope.
** ''[[Twin Peaks]], [[The Movie|Fire Walk with Me]]'' [[Prequel|takes place days before the TV show]] and all the 20-something actors (mentioned in the TV section) are a few years older, with some flashbacks taking place years before the TV show, and Sheryl Lee playing 15. There were some additions to the movie that weren't in the TV show, such as 24-year old Moira Kelly as 17-year old Donna Hayward, and 27-year old Pamela Gidley as 17-year old Teresa Banks.
** In ''[[Wild at Heart]],'' 23-year old [[Laura Dern]] plays her character as a 13-year old in flashbacks, and [[Laura Dern]] had trouble passing as a teen when she was one, for instance when she was 19 in ''[[Blue Velvet]].''
** In ''[[Dune]]'': Sting (then 33) and Kyle MacLachlan (then 25), play Paul Atreides and Feyd Harkonnen, notwithstanding that both those characters are between the ages of 15 and 18 for the entirety of the original novel. To be fair, the makers of the TV miniseries of ''Dune'' also went for this trope as well, citing the availability of credible 15-year old actors to play the lead part.
* ''[[Mean Girls]]'' had 25-year old [[Rachel McAdams]] and 21-year old [[Lacey Chabert]] and Lizzy Caplan playing [[High School]] Juniors. On the other hand, [[Amanda Seyfried]] and [[Lindsay Lohan]], both also playing 16-year olds, were 18 years old and 17 years old respectively. [[Amy Poehler]], who played McAdams' character's mother, is only six years older than she is.
* ''[[Carrie]]'':
** The eponymous character was a high school senior and portrayed by a 26-year old [[Sissy Spacek]], the same as P.J. Soles, who played Norma Watson. As well as the other teenagers, who were, oddly enough, only a few years younger than the actor playing Miss Collins.
** [[Angela Bettis]] was 29 when she portrayed Carrie in the remake.
* Four years later, Spacek played Loretta Lynn in ''Coal Miner's Daughter'' -- starting at the age of 14.
* Parodied in ''[[Walk Hard]]'', where the 14-year old version of Dewey Cox is played by 42-year old John C. Reilly, and his 12-year old child bride Edith is played by 34-year old Kristen Wiig. The other students in the scene are a grab bag of realistic and hilariously inappropriate age. This scene was intentionally made even sillier by the fact that it is immediately preceded by 8-year old Dewey being played by actual 8-year old Conner Rayburn.
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** Famous for pulling it off, too. In ''Sparrows,'' she is 34, but she plays a young teenager. Her co-stars for most of the film are children ranging from about age six to age 10, so if she were obviously much older, it would show up in contrast to the real children, but it doesn't.
* The best example has to be ''[[Hating Alison Ashley]]'', which centers around a year 9 (though it was grade six in the book) camping trip. The actors in the movie version were 20 and 21 at the time of its release.
* ''[[Yentl]]'', with a 40-year old [[Barbra Streisand]] in the title role. In the original short story by I.B. Singer, Yentl seems to be younger than 20, although Streisand made the character 28 years old in the movie. Interesting in that the plot revolves around the main character [[Sweet Polly Oliver|disguising herself as a young man to study in a yeshiva]], which when done by a 40-year old woman stretches the imagination a bit. Then again, so does Streisand's [[American Accents|Brooklyn accent]] in a movie set in Poland around the turn of the century. (The ''[[Mad]]'' satire "Mentl" summed it up perfectly by having her disguise be seen through by a blind man!)
** Mandy Patinkin was 30; his character Avigdor's age is never given, but he's young enough to be eagerly awaiting his wedding night.
* In the 1962 film ''[[The Manchurian Candidate]]'', [[Angela Lansbury]] plays the mother of Laurence Harvey's character, despite being only two years older than Harvey; both actors were in their mid-30s when the film was made.
* The satirical 1966 film ''Lord Love a Duck'' has high-schoolers played by 23-year old Tuesday Weld and ''38-year old'' Roddy McDowall.
* In the first ''[[Spider-Man (film)|Spider-Man]]'' film, Tobey Maguire and James Franco were about 26 and 23, respectively, playing high school seniors.
** [[Andrew Garfield]], who portrays the character in [[The Amazing Spider-Man|the 2012]] [[Continuity Reboot|reboot film]], is 27 playing what will be a high school student.
* ''[[Willow]]'' inverts the trope by featuring then-17-year old [[Warwick Davis]] as a father of two who must be in his 30s at least.
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* Most of the high school freshman class in ''[[Freedom Writers]]'' were played by actors ridiculously too old to be playing 14-year olds. The most prominently featured student was played by April L. Hernandez, who was fourteen ''in the time period the film is set''. This makes her just six years younger than [[Hilary Swank]], who played the teacher.
* In the 2007 movie ''The Namesake'', based on the book by Jhumpa Lahiri, Kal Penn is Gogol/Nikhil in high school(as well as throughout his life). Kal Penn is 32, and he is only 7 years younger than the actress playing his mother (Tabu). Also, Moushumi Mazumdar is played by Zuleikha Robinson when Moushumi is in high school and in her 30s, but Robinson seems to pull it off better.
* Played with in ''Suspiria'': For his horror classic, Dario Argento wanted to have the students of the girls' boarding school to be prepubescent to increase the emotional impact and play into the dark fairy tale theme. His producers nixed the idea because of the difficulties of hiring and working with so many child actors on such a project. Argento compensated by having all the students (played by actresses in their 20s) behave immaturely and building sets that made them look small.
* ''[[The Girl in Gold Boots]]''. Buz is supposed to be college age, but the actor is clearly in his early 40's.
* ''[[Attack of the Eye Creatures]]''. John Ashley was 30 when he played high school student Stan Kenyon.
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* In the film adaptation of ''[[My Fair Lady]]'', [[Audrey Hepburn]] was 34-years old while playing the 21-year old Eliza Doolittle.
* In ''[[For Your Eyes Only (film)|For Your Eyes Only]]'', 22-year old Lynn-Holly Johnson played the 14-year old Bibi Dahl, though this was likely done to reduce the [[Squick]] of her infatuation with Bond.
* Lampshaded in ''What's New, Pussycat?'' as flashbacks depict Peter O'Toole's pivotal experiences with women in grade school, high school, and college, all with O'Toole in character (his twelve year old self in school uniform looking very Angus Young).
* For ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]: [[Prince Caspian]]'', 25-year old Ben Barnes was cast as the 17-year old titular prince. (He's 13 in the book.)
** In ''[[The Voyage of the Dawn Treader|Dawn Treader]]'', Eustace is supposed to be 10. He's played by 17-year old Will Poulter. The main four get some of this as well, though not as bad. In the first book, they're 13, 12, 10, and 8. In the first movie, the actors playing them were 18, 17, 14, and 10.
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* ''Marvin's Room'' - 22-year old Leonardo DiCaprio as a teen arsonist.
* In ''[[Catch Me If You Can]]'', 27-year old [[Leonardo DiCaprio]] plays real life former con artist Frank Abagnale from age 15 to his mid twenties. [[Younger Than They Look|However, Abagnale did look much older than his age during that time,]] [[Justified Trope|which helped him get away with his various cons.]]
* In ''[[Titanic]]'', [[Kate Winslet]] was 21 and playing a 17-year old.
* Most live-action adaptations of ''[[Alice in Wonderland]]'' have this problem. The titular role is usually played by a woman at least in her late teens. Alice is supposed to be ''seven.'' The youngest actress was at least twelve.
** The 2010 [[Tim Burton]] [[Alice in Wonderland (film)|production]] plays with the subsequent expectation on the part of the audience, leading us to believe at first that this is just another "adult playing Alice" film only to reveal after she tumbles down the rabbit hole that this is a ''sequel''.
** Funnily enough, the [[Disney Animated Canon]] [[Alice in Wonderland (Disney film)|version]] used a child voice actress (12-year old Kathryn Beaumont) even though animation provides the perfect excuse for using an adult. Beaumont was also the physical model for the character, so Alice ended up being drawn looking like she was about eleven or twelve rather than seven. Played straight decades later when Beaumont, in her sixties by this time, voiced Alice in ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]''.
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* Jackson Rathbone age 25 plays 15-year old Sokka (at least in the series) in ''[[The Last Airbender]]''
* In the 1996 film ''[[The Craft]]'', coven member 16-year old Rochelle was played by 30-year old Rachel True. The other three 16-year old girls were all played by actresses in their 20s, but were all at least half a decade younger than True.
* Justin Long has made a career of playing almost exclusively characters a good 10+ years younger than he is. He can make it work though, since he has a rather youthful face.
* In perhaps one of the most extreme examples of this trope, ''[[The Lovely Bones]]'' cast 22-year old Rose McIver as the character of Lindsey Salmon, who is supposed to be a 13-year old girl. The incongruity was made even worse by the fact that the character of Susie Salmon, who is Lindsey's 14-year old sister, went to 15-year old Saoirse Ronan, who actually looked like she was about the right age - so the audience was treated to a 22-year old playing the younger sister of an obviously-younger 15-year old. This lead to widespread confusion among audience members as to which sister was supposed to be older.
* The [[Carry On]] Film 'Carry On Camping' featured a school girl played by the 32 year old Barbara Windsor.
* Used distractingly in ''Running With Scissors'', in which the audience is expected to believe that 20-year old Joseph Cross is Augusten Burroughs at as young an age as about 13. [[Evan Rachel Wood]]'s character is supposed to be of a similar age, and she's no more convincing. Considering that neither of them look nor act at all like middle schoolers, what age they're supposed to be is straight-up confusing -- and then surprising, once Augusten is stated late in the film to be fourteen.
* In ''[[Goodfellas]]'', Henry and Tommy are played by child actors in the opening fifteen minutes, then the film jumps forward a few years and they are replaced by 34-year old Ray Liotta and 47-year old [[Joe Pesci]]. The story covers a period of nearly thirty years, so the choice of actors makes sense (it's considerably harder for someone in their twenties to make a believable 40-year old than in the opposite situation), but it does produce a bit of an "er, what?" moment when the narration identifies Ray Liotta as a "21-year old kid." Similarly Jimmy, played by [[Robert De Niro]] who was well into his forties by that point, is first introduced as a 28 year old.
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* Sally Ann Howes was in her mid-30s when she played the 20-something Truly Scrumptious in ''[[Chitty Chitty Bang Bang]]''. Years later, she would describe herself as having been "the world's oldest virgin".
* ''[[Scott Pilgrim vs. the World|Scott Pilgrim]]'' plays this trope straight with Knives Chau (17) and Stacie Pilgrim (19), both are played by actresses who are (or almost) 25. Making both older than Michael Cera, who is 22. <ref>Scott's given age is reduced from the Graphic Novel's 23, probably to match Cera's age. Or to make his relationship with Knives less sketchy.</ref> "Young" Neil (20) is a borderline case, his actor is nearly 24. The rest of the cast largely averts this, if their ages are known.
* 20-year old Sally Thomsett played 11-year old Phyllis in ''[[The Railway Children]]'', and was forbidden by contract to reveal her age during the making of the film.
* In ''[[Cherrybomb]]'', the three 16-year old protagonists are played by Kimberley Nixon (who was 22 at the time), [[Rupert Grint]] and [[Robert Sheehan]] (both of whom were 20). It generally gives the audience a bit of a jolt when Sheehan's character confirms how old they are towards the end of the movie, firstly because the cast are blatantly older than this, and secondly because we've just watched said character engage in a sex-and-drugs orgy and {{spoiler|violently murder someone.}}
* In ''[[Push (novel)|Precious]]'' 16 year old Precious Jones is played by 26 year old Gabourey Sidibe. Not quite that obvious because of the way she was dressed and the fact that Sidibe does not look her age.
* [[Kevin Bacon]] was 25 when he played teenager Ren McCormack in ''[[Footloose]]''.
** Most of the other teen actors are in their mid to late twenties as well. However, [[Sarah Jessica Parker]], who was 19 at the time is more believable as a high school senior than the others. Chris Penn was also around eighteen at the time.
** The remake looks set to play this trope straight. The "teens" are all comfortably in their twenties, with Ren being played by a 26 year old.
* In ''Catch That Kid'', Corbin Bleu, Max Thieriot, and [[Kristen Stewart]] play 12-year old kids who rob a bank. At the time, the actors were 15, 16, and 14, respectively.
* The 1981 Italian zombie flick ''Le Notti del terrore'' (US title: ''[[Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror]]'') has a disturbing example with a then 25-year old midget (Peter Bark) playing a 10-year old child with a serious [[Parental Incest|mother fixation.]] He not only [http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_tngWMToWtCc/SJ945Vi9M4I/AAAAAAAAFW0/9NHecvz2KWI/s400/Peter+Bark.png doesn't look like a child at all,] but was cast apparently so they could have a scene where {{spoiler|the zombified child comes back to see his mother, who ''offers him a bare breast and is killed when he starts chewing the nipple off.''}} [[Squick|Ew.]]
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* A particularly ironic example is ''[[Logan's Run]]'' in which the film's hook is that it's about a society where people are killed once they reach 30. Predictably, much of the cast were well into their thirties and looked it as well.
* [[Selma Blair]] was subject to this a lot.
** ''[[Can't Hardly Wait]]'' featured many old teens, especially Selma Blair at age 26.
** ''Debutante'' - 26-year old [[Selma Blair]] plays a 17-year old.
** ''Girl (1998)'' - 26-year old [[Selma Blair]] plays bookish high school senior Darcy.
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** For more, see the Television section.
* ''Earth Angel (1991)'' was a movie about a prom queen who dies in the 1960s and then has to do a good deed 30 years later. It was seemingly influenced by movies such as ''[[Back to the Future (film)|Back to The Future]]'' and ''[[Peggy Sue Got Married]]'', and like those movies, needs actors that can pass as both teenagers and middle-aged people. Of course, no real teens were cast, and most of the actors were in their 30s and 40s, most notably 42-year old Erik Estrada.
* In ''[[Remember the Titans]]'', most of the actors playing the 16-18 year old high school football players were well into their twenties, and Wood Harris was 31, a year older than the actress who played the wife of [[Denzel Washington]]. However, [[Ryan Gosling]] as one of the players was about 19 and [[Kate Bosworth]] as the girlfriend of one of the players was 17.
* ''[[Natural Born Killers]]'' - 21-year old [[Juliette Lewis]] plays Mallory Knox from ages 15 to 19 (according to the novelization)
* ''The Other Sister'' - 26-year old Juliette Lewis as 18-year old Carla Tate.
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** Katherine Heigl's friends in ''Bride of Chucky'', in their late 20s.
* In ''[[Texas Chainsaw The Next Generation]]'', [[Renee Zellweger]] is a 24-year old high school senior. Her friends look older.
* ''The Burning Bed'' covers a specific period in Francine Hughes's life from age 15 to age 29. You would think that they would cast someone around the age of 22, someone halfway between 15 and 29. Instead, they cast 37 year old Farrah Fawcett.
* ''Varsity Blues'' starring the guy from ''[[Dawson's Creek|Dawsons Creek]]'' and a bunch of other people in their 20s as beloved high school jocks.
* ''Devil in the Flesh'' - 25-year old [[Rose McGowan]] plays a teenaged murderess.
* ''Dean Koontz's Phantoms'' - 25-year old [[Rose McGowan]] plays a character that was 14 in the book.
* ''[[Jawbreaker]]'' - Some high school girls accidentally kill another high school girl during a high school prank. Starring 24-year old Judy Greer, 26-year old [[Rose McGowan]], 27-year old Julie Benz, 28-year old Rebecca Gayheart.
* The ''[[Charlie's Angels|Charlies Angels]]'' movie features a flashback montage at the beginning with Charlie's voiceover, "Once upon a time there were three very different little girls..." They then show three adults dressed as girls up to high school age. In the sequel, three years later, they do it again with 28-year old [[Drew Barrymore]], 31-year old [[Cameron Diaz]], and 35-year old [[Lucy Liu]]. Apparently, this is humorous.
* ''Drive Me Crazy:'' 23-year old [[Melissa Joan Hart]] stars as a teenager with prom problems. Co-starring 23-year old Adrian Grenier as her high school sweet heart.
* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film)|Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]:'' 23-year old Kristy Swanson as Buffy, and 27-year old Luke Perry as her high school boyfriend.
* ''[[A Cinderella Story]]'':
** While averted with [[Hilary Duff]] (her character is 17 and she was 16 at the time), this was played straight with Chad Michael Murray, who was 22 and playing a high school senior.
** In ''[[Another Cinderella Story]]'', [[Selena Gomez]] was 15 at the time of filming and was therefore younger than her high school junior character. Played straight with 25 year old Drew Seeley playing a high school senior. Drew does kinda look his age while Selena looks somewhat younger than her age, so it's got some squicky vibes when their characters become the [[Official Couple]].
*** Played very straight ''A Cinderella Story: Once Upon A Song'', with 21-year old (at the time of filming) Lucy Hale playing the 17-year old heroine.
* In ''[[The Lost Boys]]'' 21 year old Jason Patric played 16 year old Michael, and 16 year olds [[Corey Haim]] and [[Corey Feldman]] played 12 year olds.
* ''[[Fired Up]]:'' has 23 year old Sarah Roemer, 27 year old Nicholas d'Agosto and 30 year old Eric Christian Olsen playing high school cheerleaders.
* ''[[True Grit]]'' 1969 has 21 year old Kim Darby playing 14 year old Mattie Ross.
* Randy Quaid was 23 when ''The Last Detail'' was made. It is never specifically stated how old his character is, but he isn't old enough to drink.
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* ''Breaking Away'': The four lead characters are supposed to be 19. [[Jackie Earle Haley]] was 17 at the time, then there was [[Dennis Quaid]] (25), Dennis Christopher (24), and Daniel Stern (22).
* Caroline Munro played a high school student in the 1986 slasher flick ''Slaughter High''. Munro was born in 1949. You do the math.
* In ''Warlock'', a 30-year old Lori Singer played a 20-year old character.
* [[Johnny Depp]] was 46 when he starred as John Dillinger in ''[[Public Enemies]]''. The real John Dillinger was killed at the ripe old age of 31.
* [[Anna Paquin]] was roughly 23 when she played a seventeen year old in ''Margaret''. Due to the film going through a lengthy period of post-production [[Development Hell]], she was 29 when it was finally released in 2011.
* ''[[David And Lisa]]'', 1962, starred then 26-year old Keir Dullea and 19-year old Janet Margolin in the title roles -- respectively sixteen and thirteen.
* ''[[Stand and Deliver]]'' features a 25 year old Lou Diamond Phillips playing a high school senior.
* ''[[Wet Hot American Summer]]'' has hilariously age inappropriate actors including Amy Poehler and Paul Rudd playing high school aged camp counselors. I believe it was intentional.
* The casting of ''[[Moonstruck]]'' is all over the place in terms of age. Cher was a 42-year old playing a 37-year old (not a stretch). Danny Aiello was 54, playing a 42-year old. [[Nicolas Cage]] was just 23, and although the age of his character is never mentioned outright in the film, the plot (involving his romance with Cher's character) just wouldn't make much sense unless we assume he's significantly older, at least mid-30ish.
* Played with quite a bit in the movie of ''[[21 Jump Street (film)|Twenty One Jump Street]]'':
** Justified: As with the series, the main characters are adults passing off as teenagers to investigate youth crimes. Jonah Hill somewhat looks the part, even at 27; but Channing Tatum is over thirty and looks like it.
** Not quite as Hill and Tatum are still at least a few years older then the real age of the characters they are playing which is 24 or 25. Hill not as bad at about 27 at the time of filming but Tautum over 30
** Lampshaded: Channing's character is handwaved as having repeated two classes; similarly, his secret identity is supposed to have repeated a year. {{spoiler|After he exchanged secret identities with Jonas' character}}, he's called out three times as looking too old.
** Inverted: On the other hand, Channing's character accuses another student of looking too young: this particular character is indeed a 15-year old actor... playing a senior in high school.
** Played straight: With the rest of the "high-schoolers" cast, especially the main drug dealer played by 26-year old Dave Franco which if he played one of the title characters he would still be playing this trope slightly straight as Tatum and Hill's characters graduated in 2005 Franco likely graduated in 2003 based on his age.
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* Back to the [[Trope Namers]], ''[[Dawson's Creek|Dawsons Creek]]'': Much worse than ''Dawson'''s leads were the actors introduced later on: Kerr Smith (26) and Meredith Monroe (29) playing siblings (and high school sophomores) [[Suddenly Sexuality|Jack]] and [[Genki Girl|Andie]] McPhee starting in Season 2. Worse considering that Andie was likely the ''younger'' sibling.
** On the behind-the-scenes parts of the [[Series Finale]] movie, James Van Der Beek was amused that it was the first time he and Dawson were the same age (because there was a five-year time skip from the last episode to the movie).
* The Creek was not the worst offender. That title might well go to ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', where the tenth-graders (16-year olds) were played by Nicholas Brendon as Xander (25), [[Alyson Hannigan]] as Willow (22) and [[Charisma Carpenter]] (26, making Carpenter the same age as her teacher played by Robia LaMorte. Possibly [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] when Wesley first meets her and mistakes her for a teacher.). On the show's spinoff, ''[[Angel]]'', the role of Angel's 16-year old son Connor was portrayed by then-22-year old Vincent Kartheiser.
** The most jarring example from the series might have been when 27 year old Elizabeth Anne Allen played a 16 year old cheerleader (then again Allen is actually several months ''younger'' than Carpenter).
** Also Oz and Jonathan, played by 23-year olds [[Seth Green]] and Danny Strong. Also appearing was 26-year old Jason Hall as 18-year old Devon. Though the show did feature 18-year old Mercedes McNab as a teenaged Harmony later in its run.
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*** Though she was originally intended to be a preteen, which is very clear in the first few episodes she appears in, before the scripts were written with Michelle Trachtenberg in mind.
* ''[[Beverly Hills, 90210]]'' is well-known for this sort of thing, but [[Common Knowledge|believe it or not]], quite a few of the cast members were actual teenagers. Of course, some of the core cast of high school juniors (ages 15-16) were well into their twenties: Luke Perry (25), Ian Ziering (26), and, most famously, Gabrielle Carteris, who was 29. Series star Jason Priestley was comparatively young at 21. Still, these examples alone are so [[Egregious]], coupled with the fact that ''90210'' predates the [[Trope Namers]] by several years, that it is also called "90210 Syndrome".
** This trope is played ridiculously straight on the reboot ''90210''. The youngest cast members were 19 when the series started, and the rest range from their early twenties to Trevor Donovon who was ''30'' when he began his stint. Honorable mentions are Michael Steger (28 at the beginning) and Matt Lanter (25 at the beginning). What's even crazier is that those three "teens" are all older than actor Ryan Eggold who plays the English lit. teacher!
* Inverted in ''[[Samurai Sentai Shinkenger]]'' with 14 year old Runa Natsui playing 17 year old Kaoru Shiba
* Inverted with [[Hiknin Sentai Akibaranger]] with 16 year old Karin Ogino playing 23/24 year old Yuko Yamada aka Yumeria Moegi
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** Similarly, she played a 16-year old computer genius in an episode of ''[[Vengeance Unlimited]]'' two years earlier (at 25).
** And in 2009, at 35, she's playing an apparently early 20-something computer tech on ''[[General Hospital]]''.
* ''[[Roswell]]'': not one of the members of the younger cast (supposedly 16-17 at the start) was a teenager, with the exception of 18-year old Majandra Delfino and Emilie de Ravin. Shiri Appleby, Nick Wechsler and Katherine Heigl were 20, Brendan Fehr and Colin Hanks were 21 and Jason Behr was a whopping 25 years old when the first season premiered.
* 24-year old Tom Welling, and (let's face it) pretty much everyone else from ''[[Smallville]]'', except Lex Luthor, who is supposed to be several years older. But Tom is particularly noticeable, as the character is fourteen in the pilot. [http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-y2JaOhXV0Lw/Tb2QmF3JvmI/AAAAAAAAAF4/9vs3gXIdmvo/s1600/clark-kent.jpg How many fourteen year olds are built like a tank?]
** In one episode, Lex was stalked by a servant girl about 10 years younger than he. She was played by Azura Skye, who in real life is indeed about 9 years younger than Rosenbaum; but in ''[[Zoe Duncan Jack And Jane]]'' she played his fraternal twin sister.
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* 31-year old Gerard Christopher was cast as the title character in the live-action ''[[The Adventures of Superboy|Superboy]]'' series which ran from 1988-1992. Superboy/Clark Kent was supposed to be a 19 or 20-year old college sophomore at the time.
* 25-year old John Hensley playing 16-year old Matt on ''[[Nip Tuck]]'' (made glaringly obvious off-screen when Hensley began dating Joely Richardson, the actress, only 13 years his senior IRL, who played his mom on the show). Also made glaringly obvious when he started getting a receding hairline.
* ''[[The OC]]'' is guilty of this, as mentioned in the quote at the top, with teens in their late 20s and parents in their early 30s.
** ''[[The OC]]'' [[Lampshade Hanging|hangs a lampshade]] on this trope, among many others, with their show-within-a-show, "The Valley."
* The teenage characters of ''[[The Vampire Diaries]]'' are played by 20something actors, starting with Nina Dobrev (20), Steven R. McQueen (21), Katerina Graham (20), Caroline Accola (22), Kayla Ewell and Zach Roerig (both 24). All of them play high school students. Stefan and Damon Salvatore, who [[Older Than They Look|got vamped]] at the ages of 17 and 24 respectively, are played by Paul Wesley (27) and Ian Somerhalder (31).
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* ''[[iCarly]]'': The actor who played Gibby inverts the trope, being 3 years younger than the character when introduced. The filming schedule stretch has actually brought both the character and the actor to almost the same age, and the actor is going through the same growth spurt that Freddie went through in between Season 1 and Season 2.
** Griffin, Carly's love interest in "iDate A Bad Boy", was played by a 23 year old and looked like it, especially in some shirtless scenes, is supposed to be a high school senior. The episode involved some heavy make out sessions with the star of the show [[Miranda Cosgrove]], who was 15 when they filmed them. Miranda apparently got to choose which guy they casted.
* On ''[[Big Time Rush]]'', Carlos Pena (21), Logan Henderson (21), James Maslow (20) and Kendall Schmidt (20) play 16 year olds. It sort of works out, though, because of their rather boyish yet still mature good looks and their mid-pitched voices. Kendall and Carlos could pass as a bit older, though.
* This trope is subverted in ''[[21 Jump Street (TV series)|Twenty One Jump Street]]'', where the main characters are clearly identified as adults, but they are assigned to this undercover unit because they all look young enough to pass as teens.
* Julianna Rose Mauriello was 13 when she took on the role of 8-year old Stephanie on the children's show ''[[LazyTown]]'', and is still playing her at 17. By the second season, filmed when she was 15, it was obvious that Julianna was no longer a little girl, and in ''LazyTown Extra'', filmed when she was 17, the character mentions she's lived in [[LazyTown]] for a year, which would make her 9.
** And if rumors are to be believed, ''[[LazyTown]]'' is returning in 2011 and might even have Julianna reprise her role as Stephanie...despite the fact that she is now 20 years old and will still be playing a 9 year old.
* ''[[Power Rangers]]'' is a common offender, with the [[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers|original season's]] 15-year old characters being played by actors as old as 24. ''[[Power Rangers Operation Overdrive|Operation Overdrive]]'' had an 18-year old [[The Smart Guy|Smart]] [[The Chick|Chick]] being played by a 28-year old actress (who, however, looks quite young and seems to actually be able to get away with it) and a guy of 19-20 being played by a 29-year-old.
** The early seasons had most actors between 18-21, with subsequent seasons going off in many different directions.
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** [[Atop the Fourth Wall|Linkara]] summed it up nicely in his ''[[History of Power Rangers]]'' series: "Clearly, the casting director has never seen a teenager."
* Both [[Disney Channel]] and [[ABC Family]] loves to use this every now and then. And yes, they're not ashamed to use it.
** ''[[Lizzie McGuire]]'' mostly avoided this with the main characters, but Adam Lamberg (who played 14-15 year old Gordo) was a college student. Kyle Downes (who played Tudgeman, in the same grade as Lizzie et al) is even worse...in his previous series (''[[Higher Ground]]'') he played a troubled ''high schooler''.
** ''[[Hannah Montana]]'' has Jackson Stewart, who is (currently) depicted as a high school senior, while Jason Earles (who plays Jackson) is actually, {{spoiler|35 as of 2012}}
** Likewise, ''[[The Suite Life of Zack and Cody]]'' also premiered in 2005, with then 20-year old [[Ashley Tisdale]] playing then 15-year old Maddie Fitzpatrick. The show is also a subversion, as Dylan and Cole Sprouse were (and continue to be) exactly the same age as their characters, which actually required some suspension of disbelief, as their voices took some time to crack.
** Slightly inverted on ''[[The Secret Life of the American Teenager]]'': Some cast members actually were teenagers when the series started (the youngest being 15 ([[India Eisley]], at the time the show was first aired)), and were only a couple of years older than their characters. Played straight with other members of the cast who were all in their early twenties from the get-go (the oldest member being a then 24-year old Greg Finley playing a high school sophomore).
** Lampshaded in the TV version of ''[[
*** Indeed, the only teenage role actually played by a teenager is 16-year old Bianca, played by 18-year old Meaghan Martin.
** ''[[That's So Raven]]'' had very obvious examples of this: [[Raven-Symone]] was 18, Orlando Brown was 17, and Anneliese van der Pol was 19 and they were all playing high school freshmen.
** ''[[Pretty Little Liars (TV series)|Pretty Little Liars]]''. The four main characters are 16 but their actresses are between the ages of 20 and 25. The most egregious example is the character of Maya, who is 16 but is played by 31-year old Bianca Lawson.
*** Bianca Lawson was in ''[[Saved by the Bell]]: The New Class'', a show that is even older that the [[Trope Namers]], actually. This fact raises this example [[Up to Eleven]].
** The four main teen characters on ''[[Make It or Break It]]'' are played by actresses between the ages of 20 and 25.
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** They try to disguise his aging... but in the season 4 finale, they ''don't'' disguise it, since {{spoiler|it's in flashforwards set three years after he left the island}}, which still doesn't work because he's too old for {{spoiler|13}}. Prior to his appearance in {{spoiler|the flashforwards}} he had appeared a few times and the show began to lampshade the changes to Walt, for instance Locke described how Walt suddenly showed up, but was taller, more so than the few months that had passed on the show to explain.
* Inverted to the point of absurdum on ''[[Rome]]'' where Vorena the Younger and little Lucius are played by children under the age of ten throughout the series, in spite of nearly 20 years passing from the pilot to the finale. Especially odd when Octavian ages properly, and when Caesarion, who is born when Lucius is at least four or five years old, appears to be played by someone ''older'' than the actor playing Lucius when he appears in the second season.
* The cast in ''[[The Middle]]'' are a ''lot'' older than they actually are. However to be fair, Brick's actor (Atticus Shafer) has Type IV Osteogenesis Imperfecta and is a ''lot'' shorter than someone his age would be otherwise.
* The star of [[Nickelodeon]]'s ''[[The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo]]'' was extraordinarily unconvincing as a "kid detective," even to the target audience.
* A five year [[Time Skip]] between the 4th and 5th seasons of ''[[Desperate Housewives]]'' has led to this trope being inverted for several of the characters: 23-year old Danielle Van de Kamp and 24-year old Julie Mayer are now several years ''older'' than the actresses playing them (19-year old Joy Lauren and 18-year old Andrea Bowen).
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** Several of the doctors on the team invert this to some extent, [[Doogie Howser, M.D.|at least presumably]], being played by actors who would be extraordinarily young to be in their position.
** The episode "Not Cancer" had an ''incredibly'' obvious example, with an alleged 4-year old (who was only seen briefly) being played by a kid who was clearly, like, eleven.
* ''[[Friday Night Lights (TV series)|Friday Night Lights]]'' is way guilty of this; many of the actors playing juniors and seniors in highschool are in their mid-to-late twenties.
* The six main characters of the short-lived show ''[[Life As We Know It]]'' were all supposed to be high school sophomores (15/16), but all of their actors were 21 or 22 during filming, except for Jessica Lucas, who was 19.
* ''[[Glee]]'' is extremely guilty of this with half of their cast being [[High School]] characters. The youngest member of the "teen" cast is 21-year old [[Chris Colfer]] with the oldest being 29-year olds Cory Monteith and Mark Salling.
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* The Channel 4 docudrama series ''The Queen'' had a mild case with the 26-year old Katie McGrath playing the 21-year old Princess Margaret (though she is 25 by the end of the episode). More extreme is the 35-year old Emilia Fox playing the 25-year old Queen Elizabeth II.
** The same two actresses played sisters again in the BBC's ''Merlin'', although this is arguably more [[Justified Trope]] as the Arthurian legends tend to suggest a fairly wide age gap between Morgause and Morgan le Fay/Morgana
* ''[[That '70s Show]]'' -- Danny Masterson (Hyde), Topher Grace (Eric) and Ashton Kutcher (Kelso) were respectively 22, 20 and 20 in 1998 when the show debuted. [[Mila Kunis]] was 14, younger than her character was meant to be. However, because it ran for 8 years but was set between 1976 and 1979, she soon caught up with her character's age, then overtook it.
* Then-18-year old Olivia Burnette was cast as a preteen Justine O'Neil in the miniseries ''The Thorn Birds: The Missing Years''. While someone of her petite height could plausibly have passed for someone younger, her... ''development'' made it painfully obvious she was well past puberty.
* All the older teenage characters in the HBO adaptation of ''[[Game of Thrones]]'', such as Jon Snow, Danaerys Targaryen, Robb Stark, Sam Tarly, Theon Greyjoy, Loras Tyrell, Gendry and for Season Two {{spoiler|Margaery Tyrell, as played by Natalie Dormer, and Brienne of Tarth, as played by Gwendoline Christie}}. The characters are all between 16 and 20 (aged up roughly two years from the books), the actors between 20 and 29.
** Peter Dinklage (mid 40s) playing Tyrion Lannister (early 20s) is a rather extreme example, even though the character is out of his teens. [[Justified Trope]], as casting a dwarf in a serious drama is rather difficult. This should also become an issue as the actors who play the younger children, such as Arya Stark, who are now relatively close in age to their characters, grow up.
* In series three of ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)|Robin Hood]]'', 29-year old Clive Standen played 20-year old Archer and 30-year old Joanne Froggatt played Kate, whose age was never stated but it was heavily implied that she is supposed to be a young teenager.
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** 19-year old Lara Flynn Boyle as 17-year old Donna Hayward
** 20-year old Mädchen Amick as 18-year old Shelly Johnson
** 21-year old Phoebe Augustine as 17-year old Ronette Pulaski
** 23-year old Sheryl Lee as 17-year old Laura Palmer
** 23-year old Dana Ashbrook as 17-year old Bobby Briggs
** 23-year old James Marshall as 17-year old James Hurley
** 25-year old Sherilyn Fenn as 18-year old Audrey Horne
* Mexican comedy ''[[El Chavo
** Considering all the [[Amusing Injuries]] that the "kids" go through in the show, it'd be pretty disturbing otherwise.
* In ''[[CSI: NY]]'' "Grounds For Deception", Stella Bonasera is revealed to have been born in 1975, making her character 35. Melina Kanakaredes who portrays Bonasera is currently 42.
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* More [[Selma Blair]] examples:
** ''[[The Adventures of Pete and Pete]]'' almost avoided this until 23-year old Selma Blair arrived in the episode "Das Bus."
** ''Amazon High'' with 25-year old Selma Blair as a high school student.
** ''Zoe, Duncan, Jack & Jane'' starring 27 year old Selma Blair as high school student Zoe.
** The American version of ''[[Kath and Kim]]'' with 36-year old [[Selma Blair]] as twenty-something Kim (though this wasn't nearly as bad as the Australian version; see below.)
* ''[[Maddigans Quest]]'' is full of this: Jordan Metcalfe and Rose McIver were 18 and played Timon, aged 15, Garland, 14, respectively. Olivia Tennet was 14 and Zac Fox was 15 when they played 11-year olds Lilith and Eden.
* ''The Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries'' had Parker Stevenson and Shaun Cassidy (24 and 18, when the series started filming) playing the [[Hardy Boys]], who were supposedly 17 & 16.
** Inverted in Disney's adaptation for ''[[The Mickey Mouse Club]]'', in which the actors Tim Considine and Tommy Kirk were younger than the books -- 12 and 11.
* ''[[Boston Public]]''
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* Gabe Kaplan stated [[Word of God|in interviews]] that he believed part of the reason the ratings for ''[[Welcome Back, Kotter|Welcome Back Kotter]]'' began to decline in series three was that the Sweathogs, whose actors were now 24-29 years old, were simply too old to still be believable as high school students.
* Both averted and played straight in ''[[What I Like About You]]''. Extremely averted with Holly (who's in-universe birthdays were near her actress, Amanda Bynes'); played straight with Henry, Vince, and Gary, all of whom were played by actors who were 24/25 at the time of their introductions, and Tina, whose actress was 28 at the time of her introduction.
* [[Lincoln Heights]] has quite an extreme example with the 27-28 year old (during season 1) Erica Hubbard playing 16 year old Cassie Sutton. What makes this particularly interesting is that the actors portraying her parents where born in 1970 and 1974, making them only 9 and 5 years older than her. Even more interesting is the actors playing her younger sibling were born in 1992 and 1993, making her 13 and 14 years older than them!
** Erica Hubbard's original birth date was thought to be January 3, 1984 which would have made her about 22-23 during season 1.
* ''[[Kath and Kim]]'s'' Kim is supposed to be in her mid-to-late 20's. Gina Riley, the actress who plays her, is pushing 50.
* An inversion seems to have been the original four series of [[Upstairs, Downstairs]], which covered thirty years of historical period but only four years of real time. The characters remained the same age throughout the series, frozen in time between 1903 and 1930. The only attention paid to the passage of time seemed to be James, who grew grey about the temples. In the modern remake, Jean Marsh, now forty years older, reprises her role as Rose Buck, meaning Rose ages forty years in only six between the end of the Bellamy era in 1930 and the beginning of the Holland residence at Eaton Place in 1936. It does help, however, that the cast changed periodically, with Hazel and then Virginia replacing Lady Marjorie as "her Ladyship" and the introduction of another young lady, Georgina, to take on Elizabeth Bellamy-Kirbridge's role in the story. In the servants' hall, the cast similarly gains and loses members (adding Frederick and Daisy in the 1920s), but as the series progresses we still never see Rose, Edward, Hudson, Mrs Bridges or Ruby age.
* In the Canadian series ''[[Student Bodies]]'', all the actors playing teenagers were in their early 20s.
* Annie Edison on ''[[Community]]'' is in her late teens, in real life Alison Brie is in her mid-twenties.
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* [[Alice Cooper]], born in 1948, has been singing "I'm Eighteen" for over 30 years.
* [[Pat Benatar]], born in 1953, built an entire discography around singing about how "we are young" back in the 1980s.
* [[Marilyn Manson]], born in 1969, has been singing, in a first person narrative, of being a disgruntled youth, since 1994 when he was 25, though he has trouble passing for a teen no matter how much grease paint he pancakes on, or how smooth he shaves his body, and seems even more ridiculous now that he's in his 40s.
* [[Madonna]]'s early musical career centered around insinuating that she's a troubled youth, being a material "girl" who was "like a virgin" and juggling youthful crushes and youthful rebellion and wants to know "where's the party", contrasted with tougher issues such as whether or not her "daddy" would be angry that she's pregnant, and running away from home because "daddy" is abusive. She was 25 years old when she released her self-titled debut. 3 years after that, she still considering herself young enough to kiss a 13-year old in the music video for "Open Your Heart", but her critics disagreed.
* Belinda Carlisle had a youthful-sounding voice and used it to make references about being a "kid" in "school" finding love for the first time with her band The Go-Gos. In the late 1980s, she became a solo artist to make album after album where every song was about finding love for the first time yet again, replete with air-brushed album covers to make her look like someone born after 1958.
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=== Theater ===
* In most productions of ''[[Rent]]'', the nineteen-year-old Mimi Marquez will be played by women in their 20s, most notably in [[The Movie]], where she was played by the then 26-year-old [[Rosario Dawson]].
** The movie in general is a good example of this trope, with most of the original cast reprising their roles eight years after they'd created them onstage.
*** Forget Rosario Dawson - there was a New Zealand production of RENT this year. The person who played Mimi was Annie Crummer. Granted, Annie Crummer is awesome, but she's in her forties. She's more than twice the age Mimi is in the production. Good grief.
* Likewise, sixteen-year-old Johanna in ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (theatre)|Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street]]'' gets this frequently. In the 1982 stage recording she's played by 28-year-old Betsy Joslyn. Lisa Vroman, who played her in a 2001 concert production, refuses to give her age but it's definitely well past the teen years. 20-year-old Jayne Wisener, who plays the role in the movie, is pretty close by comparison.
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* All the main characters of ''[[The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee|The Twenty Fifth Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee]]'' are around twelve years old--any theater productions of this will obviously have a cast that is much, much older.
* In ''[[Wicked (theatre)|Wicked]]'', eighteen- or nineteen-year-old Glinda and Fiyero were played by 35-year-old Kristin Chenoweth and 36-year-old Norbert Leo Butz. Then again, Kristin looks very young for her age, but not really Norbert.
** The characters do go through a timeskip, though not nearly as large a one as in the books, so they eventually become closer to their actors ages.
* Need we even mention ''[[Peter Pan (theatre)|Peter Pan]]'', in which a prepubescent boy is traditionally played by a very obviously post-pubescent woman?
** Oh, yes, you must!
** Oh, no, you mustn't! ([[The Fast Show|OK, OK, coat...]])
*** How about [http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/cc/Mrb5.jpg/300px-Mrb5.jpg Mr. B Natural?] ([[Nightmare Fuel]])
* The main characters in ''[[Grease]]'' are high school students. Unless it's high school production, this trope is going to be invoked.
* The role of eleven-year-old Iris in Morris Panych's ''Girl in the Goldfish Bowl'' was written for an actress in her mid-thirties, and is always played by an adult.
* In ''[[Blood Brothers (theatre)|Blood Brothers]]'', you get a single actor play a character from childhood to adult, i.e. Edward at 25 is played by the same guy who plays him at 8. You get used to it.
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* In the world premiere of ''Pilgrims Musa and Sheri in the New World'', Sheri, early 20's, was played by Carol Roscoe, age 39.
* Almost all productions of ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]''; Juliet's supposed to be turning fourteen, but she's usually played sixteen or upwards.
* The 2004 Off-Broadway version of bare: a pop opera had then-26-year-old John Hill, 22-year-old Michael Arden, 29-year-old Jenna Leigh Green, 26-year-old Natalie Joy Johnson and 27-year-old Aaron Lohr playing seventeen-year-old seniors.
* ''[[Next to Normal]]'' had 26-year-old Aaron Tveit in the role of 18-year-old Gabe Goodman. Natalie, however, was played by 17-year-old Jennifer Damiano.
* In ''[[Pokémon Live]]'' the preteen and teenaged protagonists are played by full-grown adults. It shows.
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** This was the subject of a misaimed parody in ''[[Friedberg and Seltzer|Epic Movie]]'', where the "kids" were all in their forties, and "Hermione" was nine months pregnant. It gets even more inappropriate: "Hermione" was shown smoking.
* The title role in ''[[Babe]]'' was played by 48 different piglets, because they grow so quickly. A ''makeup artist'' was employed to make the pigs look similar.
* All the lead actors of ''[[
* [[Lindsay Lohan]] is the same age as her characters in her early films, particularly ''[[Freaky Friday]]'' and ''[[Mean Girls]]''.
* Sue Lyon was 14, and playing 14, when she filmed ''Lolita''. (In the original novel, Lolita was 12; the character's age was raised to comply with the censors. Nabokov himself had said "to make a real 12-year-old girl play such a part in public would be sinful and immoral.") Many are under the mistaken impression that she was 16, because the film was released in 1962, and Lyon was born in 1946. The film was, however, filmed between November 1960-May 1961, and she was born July 10th, 1946, making her 14 for the duration of filming.
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** Interestingly (according to an interview with Dunst shortly after filming), the director called cut before they actually kissed on almost all takes (you'll notice she has her hand between the camera and their mouths when she leans in for the kiss, presumably to cover this) but there was one time when cut wasn't called early enough. Dunst was not pleased about this.
** The book version of Claudia (Dunst's character) is assumed to be between three and six years old at the time of her turning. The character was likely aged up for the movie because the filmmakers would have had difficulty casting such a young child into the role.
* ''[[The Virgin Suicides]]'': The actresses playing the younger Lisbon sisters were close in age to their characters, from [[Kirsten Dunst]] (16) as 14-15 year-old Lux, to Hanna R. Hall (14) who played 13-year-old Cecilia, to Chelse Swain (15) as 15-16-year-old Bonnie.
* ''[[Lost in Translation (film)|Lost in Translation]]'': [[Scarlett Johansson]] was not yet 18 when she played Charlotte, who is in her early-to-mid twenties (going by her reference to having graduated from college a little while previously). Johansson had just graduated from ''high school'' when she got the part.
* In ''Somewhere'', 11-year-old Cleo is played by 11-year-old Elle Fanning (she was 12 by the time of its release).
* Yet another [[Sofia Coppola]] film, ''[[Marie Antoinette (film)|Marie Antoinette]]'', features a partial subversion - it starts off playing the trope straight by having 23-year-old [[Kirsten Dunst]] portray the future queen of France at age 14, but Dunst continues to play her all the way into her thirties.
* [[The Film of the Book]] ''[[Twilight (novel)|Twilight]]'': [[Kristen Stewart]] (Bella) was actually seventeen and Taylor Lautner (Jacob) was fifteen during filming. [[Robert Pattinson]] is twenty-two, in contrast to the eternally 17-year-old Edward. The rest of the actors playing the Cullens are mostly in their early twenties, but it's justified as their characters aren't even really of high school attending age to begin with.
* Chloë Moretz, at 11, plays 10-year-old Hit Girl in ''[[Kick-Ass (film)|Kick-Ass]]''. 17-year-old Kick-Ass himself is played by 19-year-old Aaron Johnson.
* ''[[Matchstick Men]]'' is an unusual case in that an actress in her twenties plays a 14 year old girl with surprising believability, yet {{spoiler|in the end it's revealed that her character really ''is'' in her twenties.}}
* In ''[[Apocalypse Now]]'', [[Laurence Fishburne]] played a 17-year-old soldier, but he was only 14 years old when filming started (due to the film's long period of production and post-production, Fishburne was 17 when the movie was released).
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* ''[[Freaks and Geeks]]'' had a good percentage of its cast close to or of the high school age (24-year-old Linda Cardellini and 21-year-old James Franco being exceptions). John Francis Daley, playing a very small and scrawny 14-year-old, was the same age as his character.
** Also, in ''[[Bones]]'', in which a now 24-year-old John Francis Daley plays 24-year-old [[Replacement Scrappy|wunderkind]] psychologist Lance Sweets.
* In ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined]]'', Kara "Starbuck" Thrace is about 28-29 years old by the end of the third season, going by a reference to her having graduated from the military academy six years previously. [[Katee Sackhoff]], the actress who played Kara, was only 26 at the time.
** For that matter, the fact that she was cast could be considered an [[Inverted Trope|inversion of this trope]]: the original script for the miniseries described Starbuck as being in her thirties. Katee was 22 when she tried out for the part and eventually got it, despite initial objections from the casting directors that she was too young.
* ''[[Firefly]]'' has twenty-year-old [[Jewel Staite]] playing Kaylee, who is implied to be older than 17-year-old River (played by [[Summer Glau]], who IRL was a year older than Jewel).
** There's also a 27-year-old [[Sean Maher]] playing Simon, who's around 25, going by the age of the child actor who portrayed a young Simon.
*** And a brief look at Mal's ID shows us that he's 49, despite the fact that [[Nathan Fillion]] was only 31 when the show went on air. Fans are still divided over whether this means people in the future age really slowly, or someone just got the last two digits of Mal's year of birth mixed up.
* ''[[F Troop]]'''s "Wrangler Jane", presumably a character in her twenties, was played by Melody Patterson. Melody got the part after lying about her age initially, and was only 15 years old at the start of the show.
* On ''[[That '70s Show]]'', the 15-year-old character of Jackie Burkhart was played by the actually 15-year-old [[Mila Kunis]]. Mila lied about her age to be allowed to play the character. Thus, she was 14 when they started filming the series, but the producers thought she was 16.
** The story goes that when asked how old she was, Mila said, "I'll be 18 on my birthday." She just didn't say which birthday. The producers liked her so much that they decided to keep her even when they found out the truth.
** When the show started, [[Laura Prepon]] and Wilmer Valderrama were also teens; however, they aged normally, while their characters did not.
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** Not many, since the age of consent in the United Kingdom is 16.
** The American version landed in hot water with the [[Moral Guardians]] for casting teenaged actors. Most notably, a nude scene was shot involving a 17-year-old actor... and then the producers realized that [[Squick|it was child porn.]]
* ''[[Gilmore Girls]]'' featured 33-year-old Lauren Graham as 32-year-old Lorelai Gilmore, and 18-year-old (at the time of casting) [[Alexis Bledel]] as 16-year-old Rory Gilmore.
* Lucy Griffiths, who played Marian in the BBC's 2006 version of ''[[Robin Hood (TV series)|Robin Hood]]'' was 18 and playing a 21-year-old character in the first series.
* On ''[[The Wire]]'', Jermaine Crawford (Duquan "Dukie" Weems), Maestro Harrell (Randy Wagstaff) and Michael B. Jordan (Wallace) were the same ages as their characters (15, 14, and 16 respectively).
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** Melissa Joan Hart was fifteen when she started playing [[Clarissa Explains It All|Clarissa Darling]], and her character aged up accordingly.
* Claire in ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' was 17 years old - and played by 16-year-old (when the series started) [[Hayden Panettiere]] - until the writers noticed fans enjoying the chemistry displayed between Claire and 26-year-old Peter and writers docked her age down one or two years to make them less comfortable with the pairing until [[The Reveal]] of {{spoiler|Peter and Claire being related.}}
** The kids who play Molly Walker and Micah Sanders are about the same age as their characters, or at least they ''were'' until the show took some time off. Micah is supposed to be eleven, and the actor is now fourteen, which is very noticeable as puberty has begun to kick in and his voice changed. Deepest voice on an eleven year old ever.
* In ''[[Home Improvement]]'' the actors playing the kids were all of appropriate age: Zachary Ty Bryan (Brad) was the same age as his character, Jonathan Taylor Thomas (Randy) was a year older than his character and Taran Noah Smith (Mark) was a year older than his character.
* ''[[Arrested Development (TV series)|Arrested Development]]'' had [[Michael Cera]] and [[Alia Shawkat]] at almost the exact age of 14-15.
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** In ''[[What a Girl Wants]]'', Bynes was a sixteen-year-old playing a seventeen-year-old.
* [[Neil Patrick Harris]] was more or less the same age as his character when he was in ''[[Doogie Howser, M.D.]]'', although the show does illustrate why [[Dawson Casting]] exists -- he really grew from season one to season two.
** Harris was in fact, the same age as Doogie. He was only about 3 months older than his character.
*** However, Max Casella was 22 years-old when he began playing 16-year-old Vinnie.
* Most of the ''[[Boy Meets World]]'' cast (with the already-mentioned exception of Trina McGee) were fairly close to the ages of the characters they portrayed. In the first season, Will Friedle was 17 and playing a 15-year-old and 11-year-olds Cory, Shawn, and Topanga were portrayed by Ben Savage (13), Rider Strong (13), and Danielle Fishel (12). But the timeline actually moves ''faster'' in the ''BMW'' universe than in real life: The gang takes five years to graduate high school instead of seven, making Savage and Strong the same ages as their characters (and Fishel a year ''younger''). Matthew Lawrence joined the cast in the fifth season at age 17, playing Shawn's older brother, despite being two months younger than Strong.
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** Mischa Barton was 17 when Marissa was 16 in the first season.
* ''[[Malcolm in the Middle]]'' cuts this fairly close; 15-year-old Frankie Muniz played 14-year-old (at the start) Malcolm; 9-year-old Erik Per Sullivan played his younger brother Dewey; 20-year-old Christopher Masterson played his graduated and world-hopping brother Francis; but his older brother Reese was played by ''14''-year-old Justin Berfield (who was taller than Frankie, and remained so throughout the entire series, to the producers' probable relief).
** At least later on. At first, Francis was 15 and at military school, and the younger three brothers were in elementary school. But then the producers had to tweak things when the teen actors couldn't maintain the appearance of being pre-teen.
** Invoked in one episode, an adult woman in her early 20s poses as a student in order to bust drug dealers. Nobody is fooled.
* ''[[Growing Pains (TV)|Growing Pains]]'' had their [[Cousin Oliver]] characters played by actors around their ages. By the final season in 1991, [[Ashley Johnson]] was eight, playing the [[Soap Opera Rapid Aging Syndrome|suddenly six-year-old Chrissy Seaver]]. Luke Brower was fifteen years old, played by sixteen-year-old [[Leonardo DiCaprio]].
* Matthew in ''[[One Life to Live]]'' is canonically about a year ''older'' than actor Eddie Alderson.
* Richard [[Castle]]'s daughter Alexis is fifteen, as is her actress Molly Quinn.
** The whole Castle family falls under this trope. The actors portraying Richard Castle and his mother ([[Nathan Fillion]] and Susan Sullivan) were 37 and 66 when filming began. That makes Castle a young father, but it does work out.
* ''[[Lie to Me (TV series)|Lie to Me]]'': Cal Lightman's daughter is 15/16; the actress playing her 18.
* Although the flagship character of ''[[Caprica]]'' (Zoe Graystone) is played by someone about six years older than the character, Tamara is herself a semi-exception. [[Genevieve Buechner]] ''is'' older than Tamara Adama but she's much closer than her colleagues to her character's age, being only 18 while her character is about 15.
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* Averted in ''[[Earth 2]]''. 8 year old Uly Adair and 10 year old True Danziger were played by actors aged 8 and 10 respectively.
* The kids on ''[[Full House]]''
* Unlike almost all of her costars, Michelle Trachtenberg in ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' was the same age as her character, Dawn (14 years old when she first appeared on the show).
** Another aversion: at the time of Faith's first appearance in ''Faith, Hope and Trick'', [[Eliza Dushku]] was actually seventeen, Faith's age at the time (she had to apply for legal emancipation so she could work on the show unencumbered by child labour laws).
* ''[[Skins]]'' has mostly averted this trope. As a rule, most of its main characters aged 16-18 have been played by actors that same age or a tiny bit older, 20 at the most. However, Series 6's guest character Poppy Champion was meant to be 13 but was played by 19 year-old Holly Earl, who was therefore older than a lot of the main cast (but was arguably more convincing in her downplayed age than many examples of this trope), including Alo who she had a storyline with involving him having sex with her unaware of her age, dumping her instantly when he finds out, then being accused of paedophilia when she reports him out of anger.
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** Nonso Anozie at 22.
** Sir John Gielgud at 26, 46, 51, and finally at 90(!), as part of an all-star radio production.
* Both ''[[
** Ditto for certain stage productions of ''[[High School Musical]]'', notably those by real high school theatre departments.
* Amy Nuttall was 16 when playing Christine in ''[[The Phantom of the Opera]]'' on the West End, and to date is the youngest leading actress ever featured in the London production.
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* The Full Cast Audio book recordings, which was founded by Bruce Coville, ''always'' uses age-appropriate voice actors for every book they record.
* In the notorious "[[Friday (song)|Friday]]" video, 13-year-old Rebecca Black and her real-life friends (who are presumably in the 12-14 range) play characters who are at least 16, as ''one of them is driving a car''. This has been observed and [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in many parodies.
* In the music video for [[Aerosmith]]'s song "Crazy", 17-year old Alicia Silverstone and 16-year old [[Liv Tyler]] play two students who skip class and go on a road trip together. The fact that this is an exception is surprising because the video is [[Fan Service]]-heavy and even features Liv doing a striptease at one point. Not to mention the fact that Liv is lead singer Steven Tyler's ''daughter''.
=== [[Real Life]] ===
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