20 Actors Who Played Teenagers and Adults

Jason Earles didn't just have to play a 30-something teenager for several years on Hannah Montana. He also had to do press, promotion, and engagements with cast members and other Disney Channel stars, who were well over a decade his junior. In retrospect, Earles playing Jackson Stewart was…an interesting choice.

Most of the actors in Euphoria are much older than the characters they play. Jacob Elordi joked before filming season 3 that he would get back pain walking down the halls. But Alexa Demie is significantly older than her character. She is in her early 30s before filming the next season.

Darren Barnet became famous for playing a high school student in I have never, and he was in his twenties when he began filming the role. Barnet was in his thirties by the end of the show's run.

A large part of the Riverdale The crew was older than the character they played, but Ashleigh Murray had the biggest age gap. Sure, she looked young, but it might have been a stretch to say that a 28-year-old could realistically play a sophomore in high school.

It's understandable why casting directors hire adults to play teenagers when the characters are supposed to behave very adultly, but at some point the age gap becomes too great. Most pretty Little Liars The actors had at least four years of age difference between themselves and their characters, but Bianca Lawson's was the greatest. She was 31 when she started playing 16-year-old Maya.

Several members of the Fat the actors were in their 30s when they filmed the musical. Looking at the ages of the actors at the time of filming, it appears that the casting director respected a minimum age rather than a maximum. While playing 18-year-old Rizzo, Stockard Channing was 33 years old.

Unless a teen show is filmed for Disney Channel, teens will likely be portrayed by adults (and even Disney Channel pushes the boundaries sometimes). Most of the actors in Outer Banks is at least in his twenties, with Chase Stokes in his thirties and over a decade older than his character.

It turns out that various classic teen movies feature adults as teenagers. When Stacey Dash played Dionne in Distraught, she was 28 years old and a senior in high school. The film never mentions Dionne repeating a grade or starting school late, so we can assume the character was 17 or 18 years old.

There has been a lot of outrage around the ages of the women Leonardo DiCaprio dates, but not much over the ages of the characters he plays. In the public's defense, his dating history is much longer. The actor has only played a character with a significant age gap once. DiCaprio was 28 when he played a 17-year-old in Catch Me If You Can.

Judd Nelson became a teen icon when he played the rebellious John Bender in The breakfast club. Nelson gained many teenage fans, but he was already well past that part of his 25-year life when the film was released.

Adults have been playing teenagers for decades. When Henry Winkler started playing Fonzie in Happy Days, he was 28 years old. Fonzie, meanwhile, was still in high school.

The age gaps in Dirty dance were all sorts of problems. Baby was 17 and Johnny was 25. Jennifer Gray was 27 during filming, while Patrick Swayze was 34. Gray had also just finished filming. Ferris Bueller's Day Offwhere she plays another younger character.

Timothy Granaderos began playing a teenager in 13 reasons why in his late 20s and continued into his early 30s. The actor was in good company, however. Most of the actors were significantly older than the characters they played.

Maybe part of the reason Spider Man was so amazing because the actor who played him wasn't a teenager. Andrew Garfield wasn't even close when he took his turn as a superhero. Garfield was 27 when he began playing the 17-year-old character.

As we all know, a 12 year old and a 17 year old are very different. Boundaries can be pushed slightly when a character is approaching adulthood rather than when they are about to enter adolescence. In Little womanAmy is shown as young as 12 years old, meaning Florence Pugh, at 23, had to play a character who was not yet a teenager.

The Plastics acted with more maturity than the typical teenage boy mean girls, we therefore understand why the filmmakers chose actors who were already adults. While playing Regina George, a high school student, Rachel McAdams was 26 years old.

Keiko Agena was 27 when she began playing 16-year-old Lane Kim in Gilmore Girls. Alexis Bledel, meanwhile, was 19 when she began playing Lane's best friend, 16-year-old Rory Gilmore.

As noted, Jennifer Gray was much older than her character in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, just like Alan Ruck. The actor was 29 when he played a high school student.

There's a reason why the teenagers we see in movies look nothing like the teenagers we know in real life. Jesse Metcalfe played teen heartthrob John Tucker in John Tucker must die at 28 in real life.

Ben Platt was in his early 20s when he originated the role of 17-year-old Evan Hansen on Broadway. However, by the time he reprized the role for the film adaptation, he was 27 years old. Many viewers like to have the original stage actor play the same role in the film adaptation, but in this case it seemed a bit odd.