Top 20 Oldest Actors to Play Teens in Movies
#20: Ralph Macchio “The Karate Kid” (1984)
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We don’t know if we’d call a 22 year old a “kid”, but whatever. “The Karate Kid” is one of the most famous movies from the ‘80s, and it stars Ralph Macchio as The Karate Kid himself, Daniel LaRusso. It’s established in the film that Daniel is 17 years old. Filming of the movie commenced on Halloween 1983 and wrapped the following December. Macchio was born on November 4, 1961, meaning he turned 22 just after filming began. That’s only a five year difference, but when it means the difference between high school graduation and college graduation, that’s quite a bit!
#19: Johnny Depp “Cry-Baby” (1990)
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Johnny Depp was playing teenagers back in 1984 when he starred in “A Nightmare on Elm Street”. Six years later, he was still playing teens. 1990 saw the release of the cult classic John Waters film “Cry-Baby”, which sees Depp playing the teenage rebel leader of a local greaser gang. “Cry-Baby” premiered in Baltimore in March 1990 before receiving a wide release the following month. Depp was born in June of 1963, meaning he was just two months shy of his 27th birthday when the movie released wide. Playing a teenager in your early 20s is one thing. But Depp was closer to 30 than 20.
#18: Jennifer Grey “Dirty Dancing” (1987)
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Jennifer Grey enjoyed a stellar one-two punch in the mid ‘80s, with “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” in 1986 and “Dirty Dancing” in 1987. The latter was particularly successful, grossing about three times as much as “Ferris Bueller”. The movie was filmed in both Virginia and North Carolina throughout the fall of 1986. Jennifer Grey was born on March 26, 1960, making her 26 years old throughout filming. Baby is due to start college in the movie, meaning she’s around seventeen or eighteen - making Grey nearly a full decade older than her on-screen character.
#17: Sean Patrick Thomas “Save the Last Dance” (2001)
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When Julia Stiles played 17-year old Sara Johnson in “Save the Last Dance”, she actually WAS a teenager. Born on March 28th, 1981, she was 19 at the time. But that wasn’t the case for her co-star, Sean Patrick Thomas, who played a high school senior and college hopeful named Derek Reynolds. Born on December 17, 1970, Thomas had just turned 30 when the movie was released on January 12, 2001. We don’t know if anyone bought him as a high school senior, but either way, that is one major age discrepancy.
#16: Rachel True “The Craft” (1996)
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Released in May of 1996, “The Craft” follows a group of outcast high school students who begin to experiment with witchcraft. The film contains a certifiable who’s who of mid ‘90s stars, including Skeet Ulrich, Neve Campbell, and Fairuza Balk. Also starring in the movie is Rachel True as Rochelle Zimmerman, an African American student who’s bullied by the popular white girls. True was born on November 15, 1966, making her 29 years old when “The Craft” was released in May 1996. She was by far the oldest member of the core cast. Upon the movie’s premiere, Robin Tunney was 23, Campbell was 22, and Balk 21 (albeit just a few weeks away from turning 22).
#15: Kevin Bacon “Footloose” (1984)
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Along with “Dirty Dancing”, “Footloose” was the big dancing movie craze of the 1980s. It stars Kevin Bacon as a hip teenager named Ren McCormack. Ren is from Chicago, and when he moves to the rural town of Bomont with his mother, he attempts to overrule the local minister’s ban on both dancing and rock music. Filming took place around Utah throughout much of the latter half of 1983 before the movie was released in February of ‘84. Star Kevin Bacon was born on July 8, 1958, and he turned 25 years old shortly after filming commenced in May of 1983.
#14; Michael J. Fox “Back to the Future Part III” (1990)
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Michael J. Fox is awesome, and he was spectacular as Marty McFly. But he was kinda pushing believability by the end. Fox was born on June 9, 1961, meaning he had just turned 24 when the first “Back to the Future” was released in July of 1985. “Back to the Future Part III” came out five years later, but Marty remained the same age. The third movie was released on May 25, 1990 - just a few short weeks before Fox’s 29th birthday. Imagining a mid 20s Fox as a high school student was easy enough. But things started to get a little tricky once he was pushing 30.
#13: Patrick Swayze “The Outsiders” (1983)
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Based on S.E. Hinton’s iconic novel of the same name, “The Outsiders” follows a group of teenage greasers in mid ‘60s Oklahoma. At the heart of the story is a young boy named Ponyboy Curtis, and his protective older brother Darry is played by Patrick Swayze. Swayze was born on August 18, 1952. “The Outsiders” was filmed from March to May of 1982, making Swayze 30 years old throughout principal photography and 31 when the movie was released in March of 1983. At least that sort of made the “tough older brother” angle convincing...
#12: Gabrielle Union “Bring It On” (2000)
This cult classic comedy follows a Californian cheerleading team, the San Diego Toros, as they compete against their rivals, the East Compton Clovers. Leading the Toros is Torrance Shipman, played by Kirsten Dunst. And leading the Clovers is Isis, played by Gabrielle Union. The movie was released on August 25, 2000, a few months after Dunst turned 18. However, Gabrielle Union was born in October of 1972, meaning she was just a couple months shy of her 28th birthday. In reality, these two high school cheerleaders are a decade apart in age.
#11: Shirley Henderson “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” (2002) & “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” (2005)
According to the Harry Potter Wiki, Myrtle Warren (or Moaning Myrtle as her ghost would later be known) was just 14 years old when she was killed by the basilisk. In the film, Myrtle is played by actress Shirley Henderson. Henderson was born on November 24, 1965, and “Chamber of Secrets” began filming on November 19, 2001. This means that the squeaky-voiced 14 year old we see in the film is actually a 36 year old woman. Things get even weirder in “Goblet of Fire”, as a near 40 year old Henderson was hitting on the 15 year old Daniel Radcliffe.
#10: Denise Richards “Wild Things” (1998)
In a film about crimes and sexy times, it was a deceptive high school student who ran the show. And given the provocative nature of John McNaughton’s erotic thriller, it became increasingly clear that a then little known Denise Richards was a couple of years removed from Senior Prom. In fact, she was 27 years old at the time of the film’s release. Playing the overtly sexualized Kelly Van Ryan, Richards steamed up the screen as the plot revealed much more than just the character’s love affair and scheming behavior.
#9: Sissy Spacek “Carrie” (1976)
By the time Brian De Palma’s iconic horror film reached theaters, his lead actress was just shy of her 27th birthday and perhaps best known for her role in the 1973 film “Badlands.” But after Sissy Spacek’s frightening turn as the social outcast Carrie White, well, nobody could forget her blood-curdling screams or even perhaps even more so, her blood-drenched body. Blessed with a youthful presence and schooled in method acting at the famous Lee Strasberg’s Acting Studio, Spacey stepped into the shoes of the strange puberty-stricken social outsider and effectively ravaged the psyches of frazzled moviegoers.
#8: Winona Ryder “Girl, Interrupted” (1999)
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While James Mangold’s coming-of-age film featured a teenage Elisabeth Moss long before her casting in “Mad Men,” the star of “Girl, Interrupted” was already in her late 20s and at the pinnacle of her career when she booked the role. Although years older than her onscreen counterpart, Winona Ryder's pristine appearance made her the ideal choice to play a disturbed yet talented 18-year old Susanna Kaysen, the real-life woman on whom the film was based. With a young Angelia Jolie coming into her own, “Girl, Interrupted” was an important film for Hollywood leading ladies, but also reminded us of Ryder's timeless movie star charisma.
#7: Judd Nelson “The Breakfast Club” (1985)
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Today, John Bender may seem like an over-the-top outcast to some. However, back in the mid-‘80s, he was the prototypical high school rebel that challenged his fellow breakfast clubbers to think outside the box... possibly thanks to a heavy dose of weed. The man behind this whacked out persona was a 25-year-old Judd Nelson, in what was just his third feature film. He would soon become associated with Hollywood’s “Brat Pack,” but in “The Breakfast Club,” Nelson managed to combine a sense of James Dean cool with an intellect that made John Bender wise beyond his years - and that’s because it was the truth.
#6: Stacey Dash “Clueless” (1995)
Ten years after appearing as Denise’s teenage friend in “The Cosby Show,” Stacy Dash once again played a highschool student, albeit in less organic fashion as she was 28 by the time the film hit theaters. Even so, the character of Dionne Davenport boasted a knack for both the vogue and valley girl slang, all the while etching herself into the memories of admiring moviegoers. Decades later, Dash continues to demand attention with her timeless beauty, and much like her “Clueless” character, she’s well versed on the political topics of the day.
#5: Andrew Garfield “The Amazing Spider-Man” (2012)
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When Andrew Garfield was cast as your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, North Americans scratched their heads and tried to figure out where exactly they had seen him. Oh yeah, he was Eduardo Saverin from “The Social Network”.... a natural selection for the super hero film. However, at 27 years of age when filming began, Garfield had accumulated the necessary skills to exude the youthful charm and composure of one teenaged Peter Parker while crawling his way directly to the bank; just as Tobey Maguire did when tackling the role at 26 years of age for the 2002 film.
#4: Rachel McAdams “Mean Girls” (2004)
The same year she made audiences weep thanks to “The Notebook,” Rachel McAdams appeared in another cult classic playing Regina George, the supreme diva of the clique known as “The Plastics.” At 25 years of age, McAdams channeled her inner sass to corrupt a new arrival, and she was quite convincing as the blonde princess. By 2004, it had been a couple years since McAdams had made her big screen debut, but it was “Mean Girls” that established McAdams as one of the emerging bad-ass talents of the decade.
#3: Leonardo DiCaprio “Catch Me If You Can” (2002)
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By 2002, Leonardo DiCaprio had entered the Scorsesian phase of his career, even if the world still viewed him as the pretty boy actor from “Titanic.” To mark the beginning of a new era, the 28-year old gave moviegoers two cinematic gifts: “Gangs of New York” and “Catch Me If You Can”, the latter a collaboration with Steven Spielberg, in which he played a teenage con artist. With prior too-old-to-be-a-teenager experience in “The Basketball Diaries,” DiCaprio managed to capture the same sense of unflappable, ignorant wonder in his role as real life Frank Abagnale, Jr.
#2: Alan Ruck “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” (1986)
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Sure, Matthew Broderick functioned as the obvious driving force behind “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” but it was his depressive best friend that offered a healthy amount of comic relief. About to turn 30 years old at the time of the film’s premiere, Alan Ruck sported a clean-cut look and donned a Detroit Red Wings jersey to capture the essence of Cameron Frye, who was a kid dominated by fear and unaware of his true independence. Life moves pretty fast in Hollywood, and despite this being only his third feature, Ruck stood his ground alongside a truly iconic performance.
#1: Olivia Newton-John “Grease” (1978)
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She released a dozen albums during the ‘70s, but everybody knows Olivia Newton-John for her iconic performance in the 1978 film “Grease.” At almost 30 years of age and yet still four years younger than co-star Stockard Channing, she starred as the unassuming blonde bombshell Sandy Olsson, a high school senior that charmed audiences with a sweetheart persona complemented by moments of leather-clad sensuality. With big hair, penetrating eyes and an accent that would make any American high school kid drool, Olivia Newton-John represented the high school experience and the multitude of emotions that teenagers endure in this classic musical romantic comedy.
