30 Times Hollywood Didn’t Make A Mistake When Picking An Actor To Play Young Versions Of Older Characters
It’s no surprise that some celebrities look shockingly alike. Natalie Portman and Keira Knightly. Rupert Grint and Ed Sheeran. Daniel Radcliffe and Elijah Wood. However, it’s uncanny when we see almost perfectly identical younger versions of older actors appear on the screen.
It’s like they’re the same person, just, well, younger. In fact, some of the actors look so similar, some of us are guilty of not even thinking that the younger and older versions could be played by different people. For example, I personally thought that the kid and teenager versions of Sabrina from The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina were played by the same actress. Turns out, I was wrong.
Hollywood expert and insider Mike Sington told Bored Panda that it's not at all difficult to find the 'perfect' young actor to play their older counterpart. "The reason? The pool of actors is just so large to cast from, even of child or teen actors. And the talent pool is worldwide now. Hollywood is more than willing to look beyond its own borders to find the perfect candidate," Mike explained. Scroll down for the rest of our interview with the expert who gave us a glance at how Hollywood casting works behind the scenes.
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Sabrina In The Chilling Adventures Of Sabrina (Played By Mckenna Grace As A Kid And Kiernan Shipka As A Teenager)
Damn it! I thought they were the same person. Bravo to the casting director.
having the same hair, makeup, and costuming really helps. Hard to say how much they really look related in street clothes.
They actually look really alike and joke about it a lot
Load More Replies...I enjoyed McKenna's role as a girl genius in Young Sheldon very much!
Stanley In "It" (Played By Wyatt Oleff As A Kid And Andy Bean As An Adult)
Shirley In Haunting Of Hill House (Played By Lulu Wilson As A Kid And Elizabeth Reaser As An Adult)
That girl looks more like a younger version of Pam from The Office!
I watched this series and I think they did an excellent job with the casting of the young and older versions of All the characters. It was amazing.
they look similar enough to be believable. also, the two photos were taken from different angles, which may make a difference if they're what you're basing your opinion on
Load More Replies..."I know of no instances where a production had any big problem finding a young act to play an older counterpart. It’s all about the 'look' first. Casting directors start there. The look has to be right for the audience to believe that this is the younger version of the character. Once you have that 'buy-in,' you’re mostly there. The young actor’s talent then becomes important for complete believability," Mike explained.
According to the Hollywood insider, Tinseltown almost exclusively focuses on finding people who have acting experience. Even in the case of young actors.
"It’s a rare situation to cast an inexperienced actor, and work with them during production. That would slow down the production, and of course 'time is money' which is especially true in Hollywood."
Mike added, "Most productions are working under tight budget and time constraints, and there is an unwillingness to work with new talent. An exception would be an actor that is so 'special,' the production would be willing to put in the extra time and effort to make it work. That would be a rare exception, however."
Snow In Once Upon A Time (Played By Bailee Madison As A Kid And Ginnifer Goodwin As An Adult)
Did you ever see that Adam Sandler movie "Just Go With It"? This kid played a kid that wanted to be an actor, and every time she would "act" it was bad over-acting. Lol, guess that's how she "acts"
Load More Replies...Margot In Paper Towns (Played By Hannah Alligood As A Kid And Cara Delevingne As An Adult)
Paper Towns is a movie?! I might be thinking of something different, but if I'm not, that's cool!
Loki In Thor (Played By Ted Allpress As A Kid And Tom Hiddleston As An Adult)
Aren't Norse (and Greek, and Roman, and Celtic, etc.) deities all born fully formed adults? Pretty sure their childhoods are never mentioned in their respective mythologies. I could be wrong, I'm not an expert.
Marvel lore is not the same as Norse lore, and NEITHER IS REAL :D
Load More Replies...There are many possible reasons why younger and older actors look alike. Probably the most important thing is that they have similar facial features. Though that creates a huge challenge: you have to find not only someone who looks like the younger actor but also someone who’s a capable actor in their own right.
Other things that make actors look similar to one another are similar hairstyles and dressing them up in clothes of the same style.
What’s more, if young actors are taught to mimic the movements and speech patterns of their older counterparts, you might genuinely think that they’re one and the same (unless the age gap is really big, of course).
Cece In New Girl (Played By Jaidan Jiron As A Kid And Hannah Simone As An Adult)
Yeah, what is this about? Why did they need to double cast? I haven’t see the show/movie so I wouldn’t know but it seems strange.
Load More Replies...OMG-- this one is awesome!! It just looks like Hannah Simone pretending to be a kid.
They didn't find this younger actress right away, for the first couple of seasons it was another girl. I can see why they changed her, though.
Agent K From "Man In Black" (Josh Brolin As Young Agent K And Tommy Lee Jones As Older Self)
I think they are both too well known now to easily pass as each other...
Josh Hartnett would have been a far better pick. He looks virtually identical to the young pictures of Tommy Lee Jones.
These twp do not resemble one another. The casting was just another part of the comedy.
Maybe having James Brolin play the elder K? Or was he unavailable?
Lucy In 13 Going On 30 (Played By Alexandra Kyle As A Kid And Judy Greer As An Adult)
Hadley Freeman writes in The Guardian that there are some other reasons why celebrities tend to look very similar.
According to Freeman, older actresses were very similar because they either had the same plastic surgeon or had the same procedures done. What’s more, stars used to have the same high-profile stylists and makeup artists.
But those aren’t the only reasons. Celebrity publicists are very image-conscious when it comes to their stars. So they’ll ‘allow’ only certain looks that change over time with trends.
That’s not to say that this is necessarily a bad thing; however, that does mean that actors have less of a chance to stand out and be original.
Gamora In Guardians Of The Galaxy (Played By Ariana Greenblatt As A Kid And Zoe Saldana As An Adult)
leo, if your gonna be a killjoy, just don't comment at al!
Load More Replies...Kate From "This Is Us" (Mackenzie Hancsicsak As Kid, Hannah Zeile As Teen And Chrissy Metz As Adult)
I disagree with this one. The youngest Kate's features are too dark and I would guess that she has a different ethnic background to both of the actresses that play the older versions.
First I thought the same but I have a similar skincolour than the grown up actress and had almost the same skincolour the kid has when I was about that age (only in summer)
Load More Replies...Poor girl has been suffering with diabetes and overweight all of her life.
Zeile could easily play Melissa McCarthy as a teen. download-5...dff3d.jpeg
It might just be that she is smiling more but the teen version has dimples and it looks like the others don’t. Could just be the picture though.
Get a fat kid with brown hair and voila... if they were normal weight, they wouldn’t look alike at all. (Let the downvotes begin)
Nope , not this one. Even while watching the series I felt like she was a whole different person
Allie Calhoun From "The Notebook" ( Rachel Mcadams As Younger Self And Gena Rowlands As Older Self)
Having seen the movie, the only reason this worked is because it was pointed out in the movie that they were the same character. Same with their romantic opposites played by Ryan Gosling and James Garner respectively. Neither set of actors resembled each other as younger and older versions of the same characters.
I 100% agree @leodavinci! It's always bothered me that the young actors look nothing like the elder actors. It was hard to capture the true romance from their youth, onward, seeing the older actors portray them.
Load More Replies...Eddie Kaspbrak From "It" (Jack Dylan Grazer As A Kid And James Ransone As Adult)
Steve Carell is about 15 years older than the actors playing the friends
Load More Replies...Theo In Haunting Of Hill House (Played By Mckenna Grace As A Kid And Kate Siegel As An Adult)
wow. amazing what blonde vs brunette hair does for the young ms mckenna
Don Vito Corleone From "The Godfather" (Robert De Niro As Young Vito, And Marlon Brando As Older Self)
Almost didn't recognise Mr DeNiro... the mole helped. One of the best film trilogies ever made...
Latika In Slumdog Millionaire (Played By Tanvi Lonkar As A Teenager And Freida Pinto As An Adult)
John In Ted (Played By Bretton Manley As A Kid And Mark Wahlberg As An Adult)
We all grow into our adult teeth in time. Though I don't think there is anything wrong with the way the boy looks at all.
Load More Replies...Joe In You (Played By Gianni Ciardiello As A Kid And Penn Badgley As An Adult)
They could have switched up the hair a bit... usually one's adult self has a different haircut than one's child self. The thing they can't really match are the ears...
I think a lot of the examples here wouldn't look that similar if you changed the haircut. It really helps to maintain the illusion of same identity; otherwise, you might pay more attention to eyes, mouth and nose and spot some differences.
Load More Replies...Jean Gray In Dark Phoenix (Played By Summer Fontana As A Kid And Sophie Turner As A Teenager)
Nemo From "Mr Nobody" (Thomas Byrne As Young Nemo, Jared Leto As Older Nemo)
Agreed! A must watch who have an attention span greater than 5secs.
No, Jared has big eyes, Thomas doesn’t. I would never associate this kid with him like so many look alike actors.
Caroline In The Vampire Diaries (Played By Mckenna Grace As A Kid And Candice Accola As A Teenager)
She’s a very good actress for her age and quite the chameleon. That’s why she’s in high demand.
Load More Replies...Bill Denbrough From "It" (Jaeden Martell As Kid And James Mcavoy As Adult)
Charles Xavier From "X-Men" (Younger As James Mcavoy And Old As Patrick Stewart)
Brilliant actors but if we ignore the acting and go by looks only, they couldn't really pass as each other. Having said that I think the casting director did a great job
This is pretty good though. The shape of the face and ears is very similar.
I Think a better casting with tom Hardy- shinzon as a young clone of Jean Luc Picard (star trek-nemesis)
Mike Hanlon From "It" ( Chosen Jacobs As Kid And Isaiah Mustafa As Adult)
It’s a shame that Matt Damon and the older version of himself from Saving Private Ryan aren’t on this list
Cassie In Euphoria (Played By Kyra Adler As A Kid And Sydney Sweeney As A Teenager)
Jordan In Little (Played By Marsai Martin As A Kid And Regina Hall As An Adult)
Beverly Marsh From "It" (Sophia Lillis As Kid And Jessica Chastain As Adult)
Maybe the shooting was really really long? :-D
Load More Replies...That's not Jessica Chastain on the left. That's Sophia Lillis. Jessica Chastain is the adult on the left. They must have mized up the actresses' names and the character's name.
Sophia Lillis looks more like a young Amy Adams. I thought that when I saw the movie. Apparently though, the young actors had a say in who would be chosen to play their adult characters in the second one, and she chose Jessica Chastain, purely based on her acting chops.
Thor In Thor (Played By Dakota Goyo As A Kid And Chris Hemsworth As An Adult)
mine changed. they were blue when i was a kid and now they're a kind of stormy gray. i got from my grandfather, it happened to him too. I'm just saying that its not that weird
Load More Replies...Nell In Haunting Of Hill House (Played By Violet Mcgraw As A Kid And Victoria Pedretti As An Adult)
I agree. No way did that child grow up to be that adult.
Load More Replies...Kevin From "This Is Us" ( Parker Bates As Kid, Logan Shroyer As Teen And Justin Hartley As Adult)
Elena In Little Fires Everywhere (Played By Annasophia Robb As A Young Adult And Reese Witherspoon As An Older Adult)
Ms Witherspoon has a youthful complexion... she is nearly 20 years older in RL.
Load More Replies...i feel like the 2 actors were not needed, they could've just done some makeup and/or cgi.
Put my comment in the wrong place... oops. Have not seen this film.
I've watched it and its interesting. To me it's an acquired taste, you're either gonna love it or not. Plain and simple.
Load More Replies...Diana In Wonder Woman (Played By Lilly Aspell As A Kid And Gal Gadot As An Adult)
Richie Tozier From "It" (Finn Wolfhard As Kid And Bill Hader As Adult)
Maddy In Euphoria (Played By Keilani Arellanes As A Kid And Alexa Demie As An Adult)
Randall From "This Is Us" (Lonnie Chavis As Kid, Niles Fitch As Teen And Sterling K. Brown As Adult)
I don't see much resemblance, especially between Teen and Adult
Ed Bloom From "Big Fish" (Ewan Mcgregor As Younger Self And Albert Finney As Older Self)
they absolutely become way less prominent if you gain a ton of weight, which his character did....
Load More Replies...Fun Fact: Ewan saw a photo of a young Albert Finney in Time Burton's office and mistook him for a photo of himself.
Magneto From "X-Men" (Younger As Michael Fassbender And Old As Ian Mckellen)
nope. But then again, it's hard to get it right for Ian McKellen.
Camille From Sharp Objects (Played By Sophia Lillis As A Kid And Amy Adams As An Adult)
A bit, but i think a lot of it is the Rosemary's Baby haircut.
Load More Replies...Someone didn't finish the series. **Spoilers** A plot twist at the end reveals that Lillis plays the sister that died, not Adam's character.
There's really nothing that makes them look alike. Maybe hair-colour if you want to be kind.
Jenna In 13 Going On 30 (Played By Christa B. Allen As A Kid And Jennifer Garner As An Adult)
that don't look the same at all. well, they do both have brown eye color, so i guess....
I love this movie, but the first thing that I noticed were the different noses.
Emma In Once Upon A Time (Played By Abby Ross As A Teenager And Jennifer Morrison As An Adult)
What about Ewan McGregor playing young Obi-Wan and Alec Guinness playing old Obi-Wan, in my opinion that's top tier casting.
Agreed. I'm still waiting on Disney+ to launch the Obi-Wan show with McGregor...Then I might check it out.
Load More Replies...McKenna Grace seems to be in a lot of them...I mean, she is really good!!!
The key seems to be casting children who look like mini versions of the adults. I've seen pictures of people as kids who look nothing like their adult self -- weight change, blond kids become brunet adults, undersized kids grow into towering adults.
What about Lynnie Greene as young Dorothy in Golden Girls? I could swear it was the same person. Not just the looks, but the hand gestures and everything are spot on.
I'm really curious to see photos of the older actors when they were the age of the younger ones playing their younger selves.
What about Ewan McGregor playing young Obi-Wan and Alec Guinness playing old Obi-Wan, in my opinion that's top tier casting.
Agreed. I'm still waiting on Disney+ to launch the Obi-Wan show with McGregor...Then I might check it out.
Load More Replies...McKenna Grace seems to be in a lot of them...I mean, she is really good!!!
The key seems to be casting children who look like mini versions of the adults. I've seen pictures of people as kids who look nothing like their adult self -- weight change, blond kids become brunet adults, undersized kids grow into towering adults.
What about Lynnie Greene as young Dorothy in Golden Girls? I could swear it was the same person. Not just the looks, but the hand gestures and everything are spot on.
I'm really curious to see photos of the older actors when they were the age of the younger ones playing their younger selves.
