Hollywood is pretty infamous for casting grown adults to play teens in movies. A lot of it has to do with child labor laws, but it can still be kind of disorienting watching someone who’s past college age playing a high schooler .
Sometimes, you can really tell that the teens on screen are a lot older than they look . Here are some of the times Hollywood has tried to convince us that these older actors were teenagers.
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Judd Nelson in ‘The Breakfast Club.’
Nelson was portraying John Bender, the classic bad boy in this formative teen film. But while his character was supposed to be around 17 or 18 years old, Nelson was already 24.
Lisanne Falk in ‘Heathers.’
Cast as one of the Heathers, Falk portrayed Heather McNamara. She was meant to play a teenage girl, but at 23, she was already looking a little too old to convince us that she was still a high schooler.
Robert Romanus in ‘Fast Times at Ridgemont High.’
Romanus was portraying an 18-year-old high schooler in this 1982 flick. While filming, he was already in his mid 20s (around 24 or 25). His performance is pretty solid, and he didn’t look that old, at least.
Keanu Reeves in ‘Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure.’
Portraying Ted of Bill & Ted, Reeves was already 23 by the time he landed the role. And while his character is only supposed to be 18, Reeves definitely does Ted justice.
Sean Patrick Thomas in ‘Save the Last Dance.’
Thomas portrayed an 18-year-old in the film, despite already being 29 in real life. But approaching 30 didn’t stop him from being a surprisingly convincing teenager in this iconic film of the early aughts.
Paul Walker in ‘She’s All That.’
Two years before he became an undercover cop in The Fast and the Furious , Walker was playing an 18-year old in She’s All That . And at 24, he wasn’t really fooling any of us.
Shannon Elizabeth in ‘American Pie.’
Appearing in both American Pie and American Pie 2 , Elizabeth’s character was 18 and 19, respectively. Her real-life age while filming the first film was 25, and she was 27 during the sequel. Though, her fake Czech accent was probably worse than her age.
Alan Ruck in ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.’
Ruck was 29 when portraying his 18-year-old character. Unlike a lot of other actors approaching 30, he pulled off being a teenager surprisingly well. Like, a little too well if you ask me.
Stacey Dash in ‘Clueless.’
Dash was already either 27 or 28 when she portrayed 16-year-old Dionne in the 1995 film. Though the year she was born may be unconfirmed (some say 1966, others say 1967), the one thing that’s for sure is that she still managed to be a fairly convincing teenager.
Michael J. Fox in ‘Back to the Future.’
As the trilogy released, Fox aged, while Marty McFly remained 17. And though he was between the ages of 23 and 28 when he film Back to the Future and its sequels, Michael J. Fox looked like a teenager throughout the whole thing.
Sissy Spacek in ‘Carrie.’
Carrie White was a 16-year-old girl with psychic abilities. The actress who portrayed her in the 1976 adaptation, Sissy Spacek, was neither psychic, nor was she 16. In fact, she was already 26 during filming for the movie.
Rachel McAdams in ‘Mean Girls.’
McAdams may have been playing one of the most iconic movie mean girls of all time, but that doesn’t mean she looked age appropriate for the part. She was 25 when she took on the role of Regina George, who would’ve been around 17 in the film.
Matthew Lillard in ‘Scream.’
Lillard was 26 when he appeared as the 18-year-old killer, Stu. And yeah, he was already looking a little too old to play a teenager, but he still delivered a pretty fun (and terrifying) performance in the movie.
Dave Franco in ’21 Jump Street.’
The premise of this comedy reboot is a couple of grown men, played by Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill, pretending to be high schoolers (while looking like obviously grown men). But what’s even funnier is the fact that Franco was portraying an actual high schooler in the film, but was 26 during filming.
This is even funnier when you take into account the fact that he’s only, like, two years younger than Jonah Hill.
James Spader in ‘Pretty in Pink.’
James Spader was a 25-year-old playing an 18-year-old in this 1986 film. And you know what? He really did come across as a 25-year-old trying to act like an 18-year-old. So, there’s that.
Tobey McGuire in ‘Spider-Man.’
Though Peter Parker did age in the film’s two sequels, he started out as a 17-year-old. While McGuire was already 26 when filming Spider-Man , he wasn’t the least convincing teenager out there. But not the most convincing, either.
Andrew Garfield in ‘The Amazing Spider-Man.’
Because apparently, actual teenagers aren’t allowed to play Peter Parker on film. This reboot saw another 17-year-old Parker, played by 27-year-old Garfield. I can’t tell if he was more or less convincing as a teenager than McGuire.
Gabrielle Union in ‘Bring It On.’
Portraying a high school senior, Union did it surprisingly well, especially since she was already 28 when filming. The fact that she looks so much younger than she is (even today) really helped make her a convincing teenager.
Shirly Henderson in the ‘Harry Potter’ series.
Appearing in both Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire , Henderson portrayed Moaning Myrtle, the ghost of a 15-year-old deceased Hogwarts student. Except, she was 35 the first time she played the ghost, and 38 the second time!
Stockard Channing in ‘Grease.’
17-year-old Rizzo isn’t the only character in the film portrayed by an adult (in fact, pretty much every teen in the movie was played by much older actors in real life). But Channing was the oldest cast member, at 33 years old.
