Actors Playing Parts For Which They Were Too Old

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Alan Ruck was 29 when he played 17/18-year-old Cameron in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Matthew Broderick was 23, but still looks very young.

Being late to the Succession party I've just had cause to realise that Ruck is only ten years younger than Brian Cox, who plays his father.

This could have gone in either of these threads (too old / too young) - Cox's character is supposed to be 80 at the start of the first series, but Cox is still only 74 now, nearly three years on. Ruck at 64 is 22 years older than the actor playing the next oldest sibling (Jeremy Strong / Kendall) and 31 years older than the youngest (Sarah Snook / Shiv) - but the opening credits show a photo of what appears to be the four kids together, and there is some reminiscing about their time growing up together.

[Satchmo Distel]

Wilfred Brambell was only 13 years older than Harry H Corbett in Steptoe and Son

...and 30 older than grandson Paul McCartney in A Hard Day's Night

[Gangster Octopus]

Yeah, but normal for Ireland...

[Satchmo Distel]

Colm is my secret dad (making the second father/son relationship on the Thon)

[Hot Pepsi]

Being late to the Succession party I've just had cause to realise that Ruck is only ten years younger than Brian Cox, who plays his father.

This could have gone in either of these threads (too old / too young) - Cox's character is supposed to be 80 at the start of the first series, but Cox is still only 74 now, nearly three years on. Ruck at 64 is 22 years older than the actor playing the next oldest sibling (Jeremy Strong / Kendall) and 31 years older than the youngest (Sarah Snook / Shiv) - but the opening credits show a photo of what appears to be the four kids together, and there is some reminiscing about their time growing up together.

I thought Ruck’s character’s mom is different that the mom of the other three, right?

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

I thought Ruck’s character’s mom is different that the mom of the other three, right?

She is, and if they'd left it at that it would have plausible - but its the kids' group photo and shared childhood memories that confuse things. There seems to be a bit of online debate about this (for example whether that is supposed to be him in the photo or not), and there is also a line in one of the episodes where he talks about getting high listening to Fleetwood Mac in 1986 which can be read to have him being born in the early 1970s at the latest.

[Hot Pepsi]

I think he’s supposed to be about 50, so he’s playing about 10 years younger, as he did in Ferris Bueller.

[Jobi1]

Four pages into this thread and seems there's no mention yet of the gloriously naff Dawson's Creek. I would have been about 17/18 when it first aired, and I genuinely didn't get for a while that the main characters were supposed to be younger than me (high-school students of around 16) despite the fact they appeared way older (IMDb suggests the actors were around 21 at the time). The scripts certainly didn't help, as from memory the dialogue had them speaking more like world-weary 30-somethings than schoolkids in their mid-teens.

[Hot Pepsi]

Four pages into this thread and seems there's no mention yet of the gloriously naff Dawson's Creek. I would have been about 17/18 when it first aired, and I genuinely didn't get for a while that the main characters were supposed to be younger than me (high-school students of around 16) despite the fact they appeared way older (IMDb suggests the actors were around 21 at the time). The scripts certainly didn't help, as from memory the dialogue had them speaking more like world-weary 30-somethings than schoolkids in their mid-teens.

It's rare for anyone under 18 to have a regular part in a show like that. There are all kinds of special rules for employing minors, so they usually use people in their early 20s. It's just one of those things the audience is supposed to accept with some suspension of disbelief.

Sounding "more mature" than they really are is also often the point. Kids' internal life is more complicated than we usually give them credit for.

But, as you suspect, it's written by people in their 30s and 40s who are projecting their own issues into teenagers. There's more of an audience for TV about teenagers than there is for middle-age people's problems. At least, that was certainly true 20 years ago. But middle-aged writers need to make a living so they wrote shows about teenagers having middle-aged problems. I think that really hit its peak in the early UPN/WB (now CW) days. It also finds an outlet in all of those teenager-in-Indiana-with-cancer romances that get turned into movies. John Green, celebrity Wimbledon AFC fan, has made a lot of money off of those.

Riverdale has decided to push all of those tropes to the point of absurdity. I've only seen the first season and a half, but in the first one, Betty, working for a school paper, does Pulitzer-caliber work tracking down a serial killer who turns out to be her dad. Jughead is neck deep in some serious gang warfare. Archie goes to fucking jail for a crime he didn't commit. In real life, all of this would attract the attention of the state police and possibly the FBI and be a massive national news story, but in Riverdale, the only authority is a sheriff and a few deputies. The only media is the school paper and a small local paper that often gets scooped by the school paper.

All of the kids are dealing with shit that would, in the best outcome that could be hoped for, put most adults into intensive psychiatric therapy for years. But in Riverdale, it's just all part of high school life.

But it's so absurd and OTT that it's really a parody of high school shows from the 90s like 90210 and Dawson's Creek rather than just trying to be one of those shows. Or at least, it isn't pretending to be a serious exploration of teenage angst. It's just a ripping yarn for its own sake in the tradition of old-fashioned soap operas or, of course, comic books.

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina takes this even further by being a full-on supernatural blow-out about satan and what not.

[Antepli Ejderha]

Mickey Rourke was meant to be playing Gareth Thomas, aka Alfie. Rourke is 68 and Gareth Thomas is 46.

[Various Artist]

68?! Bloody hell. I didn't think he was significantly north of 58.

I mean, obviously still too old to be playing a pro rugby player. But you see what I mean.

I suppose though his actual face has been invisible for so long it's hard to tell.

[Various Artist]

Four pages into this thread and seems there's no mention yet of the gloriously naff Dawson's Creek.

That's weird, I could swear I already mentioned the TV Tropes page 'Dawson Casting', which describes the phenomenon of older-actors-playing-younger and for which that show is the trope namer. Must've been on some other thread, though goodness knows which if not this one.

Here it is, though:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.p.../DawsonCasting

[Hot Pepsi]

But that was not the first show to do that, so I don't know why it gets the credit/blame.

The most obvious example was Gabrielle Carteris playing a high school kid on Beverly Hills 90210 at the age of 30, a full-fledged adult. The rest of the cast were playing three or four years younger. She's now mostly known for her involvement in the union.

One possibly "couldn't do that now" example is the sadly shortlived but beloved My So-Called Life. Dreamboat dummy Jordan Catalano, was played by Jared Leto* who was 22 or 23 at the time. But the lead character, Angela Chase, was played by Clare Danes, who really was just 15 at the time she was playing a 15-year-old. In fact, she may have been 14 when they were shooting it. Most of the other actors were late teens/early 20s.**




*It was clear then that Danes could be a massive star, but there was no reason to think Leto would turn into anything. Now he's made a very nice living and earned lots of acclaim for playing weirdos and serial killer types. He also fronts an emo band.


**For Trivia Fans! I noticed that show is also notable for the unusual recurrence of the name "Devon." It featured both an actor, Devon Gummersal, and an actress, Devon Odessa. Not really a common name. Not only that, but AJ Langer - who I thought would end up being a bigger star - married English lawyer Charles Peregrine Courtenay, who is now 19th Earl of Devon, making her the Countess of Devon. I also recalled that it was set in Pennsylvania and there's a fairly posh town called Devon near Philadelphia, but the streak ends there because the setting was supposed to be the nice suburbs of Pittsburgh - Mt. Lebanon or Upper St. Clair or one of those. However, those creators most famous show Thirtysomething was set in the posh suburbs of Philly. I'm sure all of it was shot Pasadena or the Valley, of course.

[Jah Womble]

68?! Bloody hell. I didn't think he was significantly north of 58.

I mean, obviously still too old to be playing a pro rugby player. But you see what I mean.

I suppose though his actual face has been invisible for so long it's hard to tell.

I'm certain I read somewhere not long ago that the then-teenage Rourke had a cameo in some classic cult movie in the late sixties.

Blessed if I can remember which one, though.

[Various Artist]

IMDb doesn't list anything before 1976, alas. Rather disconcerting to discover he's almost exactly the same age as my mum!

[Various Artist]

HP, I suspect the TV Trope got named for Dawson's Creek is that when the site got going that show happened to be a big one among the user demographic who were most active in creating and naming the various 'tropes'. The original 90201 in contrast was a bit earlier and its moment in the cultural spotlight had presumably slipped by then. The current page image there shows the Buffy cast, meanwhile, who are a fine mass example as 20-27-year-olds playing 15-year-olds when the series started.

**For Trivia Fans! I noticed that show is also notable for the unusual recurrence of the name "Devon." It featured both an actor, Devon Gummersal, and an actress, Devon Odessa. Not really a common name. Not only that, but AJ Langer - who I thought would end up being a bigger star - married English lawyer Charles Peregrine Courtenay, who is now 19th Earl of Devon, making her the Countess of Devon. I also recalled that it was set in Pennsylvania and there's a fairly posh town called Devon near Philadelphia, but the streak ends there because the setting was supposed to be the nice suburbs of Pittsburgh - Mt. Lebanon or Upper St. Clair or one of those. However, those creators most famous show Thirtysomething was set in the posh suburbs of Philly. I'm sure all of it was shot Pasadena or the Valley, of course.

That is pleasingly random. Would the actors and the town all be pronounced like the county ("DEVV'n"), or would some or all of them be "DEE-von", do you know?

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

It's got to be tom hanks in greyhound. He would be the second oldest man in the navy after the fucking commander in chief, Admrial King. A sailor as old as tom Hanks actually is during Greyhound, would have fought in the Spanish-american war.

[Snake Plissken]

Not only that, but AJ Langer - who I thought would end up being a bigger star - married English lawyer Charles Peregrine Courtenay, who is now 19th Earl of Devon, making her the Countess of Devon.

Wasn't so keen on the acting thing after I saved her from her dad in Escape From L.A

[Jah Womble]

IMDb doesn't list anything before 1976, alas. Rather disconcerting to discover he's almost exactly the same age as my mum!

That’s disconcerting for a few others around here...

Anyways, I also did a Google/Wiki/other and couldn’t find owt, either. Trust I didn’t just hallucinate the entire thing.

[elguapo4]

Grace Park was 36 when she was supposed to be 20 at the start of the Hawaii 5-0 reboot. This was something that became more obvious after a couple of seasons when she was a 40 year old playing a 24 year old.

[Hot Pepsi]

HP, I suspect the TV Trope got named for Dawson's Creek is that when the site got going that show happened to be a big one among the user demographic who were most active in creating and naming the various 'tropes'. The original 90201 in contrast was a bit earlier and its moment in the cultural spotlight had presumably slipped by then. The current page image there shows the Buffy cast, meanwhile, who are a fine mass example as 20-27-year-olds playing 15-year-olds when the series started.

That is pleasingly random. Would the actors and the town all be pronounced like the county ("DEVV'n"), or would some or all of them be "DEE-von", do you know?

It's Devv-on or Devv-un, as far as I know. I've never heard it Dee-von.

That's a good point about the timing of TV Tropes coming into existence.

It seems like all high school shows pitch their characters as 15-16 high school sophomores. That way, they're at least old enough to sort of look adult, but young enough that they can keep them in high school for three seasons.


As I've mentioned before, being "over age" is especially common in Shakespeare. Romeo and Juliet should probably be 15-18, Hamlet should be about 21, Ophelia should be a teenager. The real Henry V wasn't yet 30 at Agincourt. Richard III was 33 when he died at Bosworth Field.

But these characters are usually played by older actors because becoming a really good Shakespearean actor takes years of experience and training.

OTOH, the real MacBeth died in his 50s, but as I understand it, the play isn't really based on his life or reign.

[Hot Pepsi]

It's got to be tom hanks in greyhound. He would be the second oldest man in the navy after the fucking commander in chief, Admrial King. A sailor as old as tom Hanks actually is during Greyhound, would have fought in the Spanish-american war.

I suspect that's an example of a big star wanting to make the movie somehow and the studio told them they had to be the star. The Natural was the same with Robert Redford, I think.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

I suspect that's an example of a big star wanting to make the movie somehow and the studio told them they had to be the star. The Natural was the same with Robert Redford, I think.

Well he did write the screenplay. Maybe he had himself in mind all along. Does Baby boomer star quality transfer to Apple Tv I wonder?

[Hot Pepsi]

Well he did write the screenplay. Maybe he had himself in mind all along. Does Baby boomer star quality transfer to Apple Tv I wonder?

I don't think the original plan was to release it on Apple TV. It was supposed to be in theaters, but they made a deal when the pandemic made that impossible/unprofitable.

It's definitely a "dad movie" and Hanks is king of Dadcore.

[Lang Spoon]

Liam Neeson for Angry, weirdly over-protective Dads.