I'm 34

[JoeZhang]

So the missus and I are watching the TV last night and it turns off that Stella on CSI:NY is suppose to be 34!!! (So was suppose to be 29 when it started...) WTF?

Any other characters where the difference between their character age and the real age of the actor pulls you out of the story?

 

[OmahaStar]

What are you talking about?

 

[Harvey]

That a character on CSI: NY, Detective Stella Bonasera, said she was 34 years old in a recent episode, when the actress is in fact 42? Seems pretty straightforward to me, and I don't even watch the show. The thread could use a better title, though.

 

[Teelie]

I just looked up her age, she's 42. So definitely a bit of "youthifying" going on there. There aren't too many actors off the top of my head I can think of who were much younger or older than their characters were in tv shows or movies but I do have vague recollections of finding it a stretch to believe.

 

[Harvey]

Well, depending on how the timeline for the first six Star Trek movies goes, the actor's ages could be pretty messed up. But the films are pretty shifty as to when they take place--so it's not as blatant.

 

[RoJoHen]

Most movies about highschoolers bother me because the actors are usually in their mid-20s. There's a big difference there.

 

[Harvey]

^^
Starship Troopers! Although, to be fair, I've always read the ages of the actors in that movie to be part of how tongue-in-cheek the entire enterprise is.

 

[Aragorn]

What about grown men like Tom Hanks (Forrest Gump) and Tom Cruise (Born on the Fourth of July) playing high schoolers in the first act of their movies? No one seemed to have a problem with it then.

 

[Harvey]

^^
Cruise was in his late-20s when he made Born on the Fourth of July. I'd rather have him in the high school scenes than another actor (and, in his defense, Cruise has always looked youthful).

The less I have to say about Gump, the better.

 

[Aragorn]

How do you feel about Jeff East turning into Christopher Reeve in Superman: The Movie?

 

[bigdaddy]

Everyone on 90210 has about 55 when the show started.

 

[Starbreaker]

What are you talking about?

Age differences in the actors and the characters they're supposed to be playing.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Yeah, I think there's definitely a line where it then becomes ridiculous. It all depends on how a person looks though, and some people can easily pull it off. Others, not so much. It reminds me of a trailer I had seen for a kids movie. The focus of the story was a 16 year old girl. Was she 16? No. Was she 18? No. Was she 20? No. She was in her late 20's and looked about 30, and she's 30 now, this for a movie filmed in 2006. And we're supposed to believe she was playing a 16 year old. She looked 30.

 

[Harvey]

How do you feel about Jeff East turning into Christopher Reeve in Superman: The Movie?

It's been a while since I've seen the film, to be honest, so it's hard for me to say. But I don't remember Reeve being an actor who could pull off being younger. It was probably the right call.

I have to add, on another note, that Walk Hard was pretty funny when it made fun of a trope like this and had older actors pretending to be much younger than they looked.

 

[Top41]

So the missus and I are watching the TV last night and it turns off that Stella on CSI:NY is suppose to be 34!!! (So was suppose to be 29 when it started...) WTF?

Any other characters where the difference between their character age and the real age of the actor pulls you out of the story?

The ages on CSI: NY are ridiculous! Mac, who is played by Gary Sinise, is supposed to be in his mid 40s. Sinise is in his early or mid 50s. Another character, Lindsay, was supposedly 24 in the third season of the show--when the actress who plays her was 34 at the time. It's kind of nuts.

 

[Worf2DS9]

How do you feel about Jeff East turning into Christopher Reeve in Superman: The Movie?

It's been a while since I've seen the film, to be honest, so it's hard for me to say. But I don't remember Reeve being an actor who could pull off being younger. It was probably the right call.

And it helped that Reeve himself redubbed East's dialogue.