this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2025
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[–] [email protected] 60 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (7 children)

There must be some rule of film that forbids 13-19 year olds being on camera. Young children are played by actual children. Elderly people are played by the elderly. But teenagers are almost always someone between 20 and 30 and not an actual teenager. What's up with that?

[–] [email protected] 38 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

The labor laws for children (<18) in film are brutal. As they should be. Better to avoid the whole thing unless really necessary. Extras definitely won't be under 18.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Sometimes extras have to be kids, so filming can stretch out a few days.

Knowing there's kids on set can actually be nice, because you know there's only so long they can shoot for, instead of stretching a Friday night out indefinitely. Especially if it's a director like Fincher who is known for doing a lot of takes.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago

Acted as a kid, mainly in locals and some true crime shows for New Dominion Pictures, back before the true crime mania.

This one lady who was on a lot of the same projects I was on called me "her little guarantee" meaning she got to get home to her kids at reasonable hours because I was on set. Lol

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

Not to mention you don't want underage actors in explicit scenes. So with shows like euphoria is kind of impossible to use people actually that age

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You assume they follow the law

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That's exactly where it would be followed.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (3 children)

When they get caught, sure..then they partly their lobby fees and it gets sweeped under the rug. These mega corps don't play by our rules, they have no rules.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

Sigh. This is exactly where it's easily monitored (part of the regulation I'm pretty sure), observable, and thus enforceable.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

That's what unions are for, which are very strong in the movie business.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Unions are very, very strong in that industry. The regs are followed.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Something that a lot of replies are missing is how quickly and dramatically we change appearance at that age. Imagine if filming runs over a year and the 14-year-old you hired is now a foot taller and the shape of his face changed through puberty. Sure, little kids grow fast, but features don’t change nearly as much, especially for boys in their teens.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

That's what happened to Walt in Lost. The actor had growth spurts and couldn't play a 10 years old anymore and they just written his character out.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 months ago

I'd bet there's a 'sweet spot' for age where the average person watching a movie can mentally overlook the adult in a teen role, while children and elderly can't be portrayed by a different age without it being a deliberate effect choice or farcical (though when I was learning makeup effects, I saw a ~25 year old turned convincingly into a 60+ person). Maybe it has to do with ease of an adult actor compared to a teen, or maybe it's because there are just more of the 'young' adult actors in the pool than readily accessible teenage actors. Maybe the hiring team wants to ensure they have someone who can act without being taught during the production, and the slightly older actors have more proven track records?

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Perhaps something related to child labour laws making it more complicated to hire minors?

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

Shorter days for the kids also increases the cost of making a movie and makes crunch time harder too.

There are certainly incentives for using young adults in place of teenagers.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Unless they’re children?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Or teenagers give a fuck on being a movie star.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Bo Burnham’s “Eighth Grade” features a 13-year-old playing a 13-year-old. He said he wanted to capture the natural awkwardness and self-consciousness that we all experienced at that age.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (2 children)

There's a handful of movies where it totally works. The kids in Stand By Me were all the right age and Rob Reiner got incredible performances out of them. It might be a little bit harder, but it can be done.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Great point and excellent movie. Come to think of it, it was very common through the 80’s. The Sandlot, The Goonies, The Lost Boys…any Cory movies lol

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Speaking of King movies, the kids in IT knocked it out the park. King's great at taking you back to your childhood. "Yep, that's exactly how we thought, talked and acted." Sometimes though, his child characters are a bit ahead of their age.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

Directors simply like to work with adult actors more than to deal with teenagers.
Younger actors have less experience.
Teenagers are legally required to take longer breaks and can't work into the night.
And if you're planning on a sequel or a series, you have no idea what your actor will look like in 2-3 years.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

zits, probably

[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

Sometime the reverse is true.

Keira Knightley had just turned 18 when she filmed Love Actually (2003). She played a newlywed woman in her mid to late twenties. Her famous "floppy hat" was used because she had a giant teenager zit on her forehead.

Sometimes the casting is dead on.

Mariel Hemingway was 16 when she played the 17 year old love interest to Woody Allen's 44 year old man in Manhattan.

I think, in movies, a big driver in casting is trying to guide the audience. Had they cast actual teenagers in Grease, the audience would have been scandalized by the subject matter rather than focus on the comedy and music. That's why they cast a teen to play a teen in Manhattan. The entire thing is meant to feel off and uncomfortable, which would not have been apparent had they cast a woman in her mid twenties. They cast a teen Keira Knightley because they needed the audience to instantly understand why the character had a crush on her. Whether we like to admit it or not, our monkey brains register teen women simultaneously as angelic/pure and "peak breeding material" (yes, it's yuck when put that way).

Movie magic is built on multiple layers of subconscious manipulation.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Even with the casting choices, I'm flabbergasted that Grease became a cult classic. As far as I can tell the overall message of the film is: "if a woman wants to keep her man, she must act like a dirty slut."

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

To be fair, people don't really watch musicals for their plots.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

All true! And they cast older guys to give the character gravitas.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago

That's what you get for smoking as a teenager.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 2 months ago
[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago

Just like my boy Jotaro Kujo

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago

Vsauce - Did People Used To Look Older? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjqt8T3tJIE

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

So is the dude next him. Neither are passible.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Lol, that dude is John Travolta

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

Yes, that's the point.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Michael Tucci, born in '46. He was 32 here.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

Got that stereotypical leather skin boomers got from growing up with smoking indoors and no sunscreen.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 2 months ago

JAV: first time?.jpg

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I was able to grow a full beard in 10th grade so this isn’t that unrealistic.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

One of my classmates started having a receding hairline when he was 15. He was always able to buy alcohol (the age is 19 in Ontario).

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Yeah, but you got held back 4 times.