https://actinginlondon.co.uk/how-old-is-too-old-to-start-an-acting-career Yet, it’s where the warped idea of what a female body -- regardless of age -- looks like. That’s right — the meanest teen in modern film was actually 25 years old. In her final season as Joey on Dawson’s Creek in 2003, her character was college-aged. Be friendly and say hello, but don’t get caught up in that energy. Children’s playtime has been taken away and replaced with rigorous instruction and standardized tests. Notably, Kristen Hatch casts doubt on the idea that consuming portrayals of high-schoolers by adult actors could warp viewers’ understanding of teenage immaturity. Take Saved by the Bell, which began with characters around the age of 13 and 14. “The lived reality of puberty does not play well on screen,” said Rebecca Feasey, who teaches gender, media, and film studies at Bath Spa University in the U.K. “This is not about aesthetics, but rather about continuity—continuity which would be challenged by developing bodies and deepening voices.”. This can be a revelation to regular bookworms, but also a real boon to reluctant readers. When it first started, Pretty Little Liars had a core cast that ranged in age from 20-24, The Vampire Diaries' Nina Dobrev began starring in the show when she was 20. Actor Trevor Donovan, who played the handsome jock Teddy Montgomery, was almost 30 years old when he first appeared on the show, playing a high school student. High school students in live-action films and shows very often look a lot older than their real-life counterparts for a very good reason: they are often played by actors who are old enough to have finished high school. “In contemporary teen shows today, they have actors who don’t even physically resemble teenagers,” Daniels said in a phone interview. But it’s also an inevitable upshot of an industry that routinely casts actors in their mid-20s or even their 30s as bumbling pubescents. Photos by the CW, Fox Television, 20th Century Fox Television. Jackie Burch, who cast the film, explained that director John Hughes was fine with the limitations surrounding her working as a minor, as she was 16 during filming. Bianca Lawson has made a career out of taking on memorable roles in film and television. “That leads to all kinds of body-image and social-comparison issues,” Greenberg says. Their faces are framed by high-relief Adam’s apples and square, stubbly jaws; their smooth-skinned, un-stretchmarked bodies have no trouble filling out adult-size lingerie. Older actors can also perform the kinds of sexual situations that provide much of the drama of contemporary teen narratives without raising ethical concerns. In 1978, “Grease” became an instant classic musical about 1950s high school life. “My producer wanted our show to be realistic, so kids watching could relate and identify to all the situations and grow with the actors playing them.” That said, all of the cast members were between the ages of 12 and 17 at the time of the show's premiere. Regardless of whether young viewers aspire to one day have the moral rectitude of a cheerleader in the second half of Bring It On, or pine after the glowing complexion of the 39-year-old Olivia Newton-John playing Grease’s Sandy, one thing’s for sure : Teens are paying attention. All this is to say that high-school students don’t exactly do a lot of light reading. With Fox's production of "Grease: Live!" But pretty much the entire cast was… If teens are truly seeing the people on screen as romanticized physical versions of themselves, couldn’t they also aspire to the personality, confidence, and attitudes of these characters? It is based on the 1999 book The Freedom Writers Diary by teacher Erin Gruwell and it could give the property wider appeal, leading to possibly more exposure and success. This then continues in the same way until you feel the group begin to tire. Alan Ruck somehow pulled off a high-schooler in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. They look like KIDS, they don't look like a guy who graduated College and is your co-worker in your office job. “There’s nothing more depressing than a high schooler with a bald spot,” he said when he announced the plan. Lastly, she realized that an executionthat utilizes things that the victim is familiar with and comforting in their daily life will bring about the greatest despa… When Roman Polanski pleaded guilty to unlawful sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977, his probation officer submitted a report that said the survivor “was not only physically mature, but willing.” The judge in the case, Laurence J. Rittenband, qualified his admonishment of Polanski with the assertion that the girl “looks older than her years,” as if her body shape or proclivity for makeup made her a likelier target, as if poor Polanski simply could never have known she was way underage. Clearly, we’ve been living a lie. All on-screen fiction demands some suspension of disbelief—maybe there’s not such a big difference between making teenagers look old enough to run for Congress and making college quads look like nonstop ultimate Frisbee and flip-cup tournaments. Fille Fatale: Regulating Images of Adolescent Girls, 1962-1996, casting young actresses as middle-aged moms. There's no reason why they can't find talented 18- to 20-year-old actors to play these angst-ridden roles and, as the networks and studios often prefer to keep the high school experience going as long as they can get away with, it would make the stories that much more credible as the actors age in the course of the series length. https://www.teenvogue.com/story/problem-teen-characters-played-by-adults Ask the pairs of students to read through the scene together using no expression. Romantic affairs between high school girls and assistant district attorneys old enough be their fathers are not, and should not, be the norm. A person in their 20s is more likely to have a consistent appearance, whereas an adolescent may change more frequently.