MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > Actors Who Were Too Old/Too Young For Th...

Actors Who Were Too Old/Too Young For Their Roles

posted 7 years ago by TheLovelyAnomaly (619)
39 replies | jump to latest

Of course, actors playing characters much older or younger than they are is pretty common in movies (especially high school movies), and sometimes it works, but other times the age difference is too noticeable. What are some movies you guys can think of where an actor was too old or too young for the part they played—that is, you as a viewer had a hard time seeing them as the age of their character?

My picks:

Ingrid Bergman as Joan in Joan of Arc (1946). I love this movie, but I think Ingrid was too old at the time to convincingly play a teenage girl.

John Mills as Pip in Great Expectations (1946). This is another one I like, but John Mills, at almost 40, wasn’t believable as 23-year-old Pip.

Jennifer Lawrence as Tiffany in Silver Linings Playbook (2012). I couldn’t see then 21-year-old Jennifer Lawrence as 39-year-old Tiffany.

Winona Ryder as Susanna in Girl, Interrupted (1999). Ryder was almost 30, playing an 18-year-old girl.

[–] Culburn (3638) 7 years ago

James Stewart as "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance." He is not a young man which they try to press upon the viewer. I cringe each time I watch this, but, I watch it a lot nonetheless.

[–] MIchiganJFrogg (-35) 7 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Culburn (3638) 7 years ago

Absolutely, MF!

That part where he and his man come up the alley thru the nightmare vision. The Duke utters just one word:::"Pompei." The rifle is passed twixt them-then a final time after Valance is shot dead. The look on Strode's face is classic.

1962 & it never grows old. And it's so sweet...because he didn't take joy in the killing. You can see it in his countenance thru this entire sequence. He had no other choice.

[–] db20db (17710) 7 years ago

In the ending scene on the train, after the conductor exclaims , " Nothing's too good for the man who shot Liberty Valance ," he still appears dismayed, conflicted.

[–] Culburn (3638) 7 years ago

Exactly. Killing and living with that killing is not as easy as most films portray it to be. It's never as cut & dry as we'd want it to be. Like in "Deliverance." The killing of McKinney isn't the end. It's just the beginning. They'll be no end. Nightmares forever, hidden secrets that the statute of limitations will not relieve. "Bobby" no longer wants to associate with these men. They've seen him get buggered. Likewise in "Valance"---Duke's character was never the same. That killing had a profound effect on that community.

That film is the goods.

[–] db20db (17710) 7 years ago

One of the best westerns I've rewatched in awhile.

[–] Culburn (3638) 7 years ago

Absolutely, db. It was a John Ford direct hit.

[–] R_Kane (15828) 7 years ago

I hate to say it, but Sean Connery was too old to play 007 in Never Say Never Again. I’m glad he got the part, because he needed the money, sadly.

But I like saying this next one: every actor or actress who played a high school student on Teen Wolf was ‘WAY too old. Somewhat related, but in reverse, and please pardon that it goes off-topic: EVERY writer who is writing for the CW seems to be writing scripts with finger paint. No maturity at all, far too young.

[–] [deleted] 7 years ago

Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane in Superman Returns. She seemed to young for this iteration of LL who has a 6 year old kid.

Conversely I felt Amy Adams was too old for the Man of Steel LL who was just meeting Superman for the first time.

[–] [deleted] 7 years ago

Gary Cooper in For Whom the Bell Tolls

[–] GlenEllyn (21642) 7 years ago

He was just a bit too old in High Noon, too. Compared to Grace Kelly anyway.

[–] MIchiganJFrogg (-35) 7 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Stratego (31048) 7 years ago

Joan Crawford on The Secret Storm!

[–] MovieManCin2 (26342) 7 years ago

Harrison Ford in "Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull". He was WAY too old, especially to survive a nuke in a fridge!

😎

[–] LetThemEatCake (2717) 7 years ago

probably Madonna in Evita, but who else could have done it? no one.

[–] somesunnyday (2078) 7 years ago

Although i love her performance, Stockard Channing as Rizzo in Grease is obviously way too old be a high school gal.