History Main / AgeLift

* In every film and television version of "{{Wuthering Heights}}", Heathcliff and Cathy are played by the adult actors during the scene where they eavesdrop on the Lintons. In the novel they are children at this time, explaining their childish behavior.

* In every film and television version of "{Wuthering Heights}", Heathcliff and Cathy are played by the adult actors during the scene where they eavesdrop on the Lintons. In the novel they are children at this time, explaining their childish behavior.

[[caption-width-right:350:What passes for a rebellious young man in some Shakespearean acting circles]]

* The title role in {{Hamlet}} is a role that this often happens with. Laurence Olivier was 41 when he played Hamlet in 1948, Richard Burton was 40 in 1964, Innokenti Smoktunovsky was 39 in the same year, Derek Jacobi was 42 in 1980, Kevin Kline was 43 in 1990. Mel Gibson (34 in 1990) and Kenneth Branagh (36 in 1996) are almost in the right age group, considering that there are a couple of lines in the play itself that place Hamlet's age near 30.

Not quite DawsonCasting, but a related phenomenon particular to adapted works. Dawson Casting is when actors play roles for which they are clearly too old. AgeLift is when this happens, but the age of the character(s) in question is/are changed or glossed over sake of the story. For example, instead of having a 35-year-old actor trying to pass for 17, you age up the character from 17 to 27. The idea is that the discrepancy between character and actor is much smaller.

* ''{{Deadwood}}'' doubled the age of Al Swearengen's character, among [[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory a lot of other changes]]. Whereas the historical character was a just married 31 years-old man from Iowa in 1876, the TV character was an [[RaceLift Englishman]] in his 60s with a hinted agitated life that had taken him to [[ActorAllusion Manchester]], New York, Virginia and even Australia at some point.

* ''{{Deadwood}}'' doubled the age of Al Swearengen's character, among [[LooselyBasedOnATrueStory a lot of other changes]]. Whereas the historical character was a just married 31 years-old man from Iowa in 1876, the TV character was an [[RaceLift Englishman]] in his 60s with a hinted agitated life that had taken him to [[ActorAllusion Manchester]], New York, Virginia and even Australia at some point.

* The title role in {{Hamlet}} is a role that this often happens with. Laurence Olivier was 41 when he played Hamlet in 1948, Richard Burton was 40 in 1964, Derek Jacobi was 42 in 1980, Kevin Kline was 43 in 1990. Mel Gibson (34 in 1990) and Kenneth Branagh (36 in 1996) are almost in the right age group, considering that there are a couple of lines in the play itself that place Hamlet's age near 30.

* Justin Hammer in [[Film/IronMan Iron Man 2]] is a younger man rather then an old man

* Virtually all the child characters in the HBO adaptation of ''AGameOfThrones'' have been aged up by a few years. For instance, in the [[ASongOfIceAndFire books]], Robb Stark is 15 and Daenerys Targaryen is 13 going on 14. The characters are aged up to about 18 and 16 respectively (and are played by 25 year old Richard Madden and 23 year old Emilia Clarke). Part of this is probably is to accommodate older actors who could handle the dramatic heavy lifting. Part of it is also because the intense sex and violence in the book would be much more disturbing (and in the case of Daenerys, likely illegal) if portrayed by actors who look closer to the book ages.

[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Picture_36.png]]

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[[caption-width:384:What passes for a rebellious young man in some Shakespearean acting circles]]

** Of particular note is Sansa Stark, who was eleven years old in the books. There is no way in hell that actress is any younger than seventeen. ''At least.''

* Often, dubbed, Americanized versions of Japanese anime will have characters aged up if said characters engage in violent or sexy behavior that may be considered inappropriate for their original, Japanese-given ages. Also, if a young anime character [ImprobableAge seems unrealistically precocious in some area or other]], they may be aged up as well to make their accomplishments seem more believable.

* Often, dubbed, Americanized versions of Japanese anime will have characters aged up if said characters engage in violent or sexy behavior that may be considered inappropriate for their original, Japanese-given ages.

* Similarly, the age of one of Shakespeare's other great tragic leading men, ''{{Macbeth}}'' varies wildly depending on the aim of the production. In the 2006 Australian film version, he is a young man (30-year-old Sam Worthington), because he is portrayed to be a hotshot young drug lord; this age is not unusual in most film (and some stage) productions, which cast Macbeth in his early-mid thirties. However, in the recent stage production that moved from London to Broadway in 2008, he is an older man (68-year-old PatrickStewart), because [[strike:the point of the production was to star PatrickStewart]] he is portrayed to be an aging general with a much younger trophy wife; Macbeth is rarely ever played by an actor of Stewart's age because it means the "old" King Duncan needs to be aged up even further.

* A fair few examples are present in the ''Film/HarryPotter'' franchise:
** Severus Snape is, in the books, supposed to be in his 30s through the entire series, while actor AlanRickman is in his sixties.
** Based on evidence from the books everyone from his generation should also be in their 30s throughout the series. However, GaryOldman, David Thewlis, and Timothy Spall started playing Sirus, Lupin, and Pettigrew (respectively) at 46, 41, and 47.
** The protagonist's parents are revealed in later books to have died at about 21, but their actors (Geraldine Sommerville and Adrian Rawlins), who portrayed them in flashbacks and as ghostly visions were significantly older when the relevant films were made. Whether the filmmakers knew this at the time of casting for the first movie is unclear.
** Overall, it appears the Marauders' generation was aged by at least a decade for the movies.
*** This can be seen in the 7th movie, when Harry visits his parents graves, where they're both born in 1960. This is the same year they were born in the books, however the novels take place from 1991 to 1998, while the films take place in present day, thus aging the parents 10 years despite keeping their birthdays the same.

* In the BBC film versions of PhilipPullman's books ''The Ruby in the Smoke'' and ''The Shadow in the North'', actor MattSmith plays street kid Jim, who is 11 in the first book and 16 in the second, as a man in his late teens/early twenties. Which could cause problems if they ever get around to filming the fourth book, ''The Tin Princess''.

* In the ''{{Animorphs}}'' book series, the characters age from 13 in book 1 to 16 in book 54. In the short-lived TV series, though, the characters start out as 15- and 16-year-olds (played by actors as old as 25). In all fairness, as part of the series' conceit that it was [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis secret accounts of a guerrilla war]], the characters deliberately obscured their ages; that they were 13 in the beginning wasn't revealed until the second-to-last book, and the show was canceled ''long'' before then.

The title role in {{Hamlet}} is a role that this often happens with. Laurence Olivier was 41 when he played Hamlet in 1948, Richard Burton was 40 in 1964, Derek Jacobi was 42 in 1980, Kevin Kline was 43 in 1990. Mel Gibson (34 in 1990) and Kenneth Branagh (36 in 1996) are almost in the right age group, considering that there are a couple of lines in the play itself that place Hamlet's age near 30.
* Also, {{lampshaded}} in Kyle Baker's graphic novel ''The Cowboy Wally Show'' when the title character states the desire to play Hamlet.
-->'''Lenny:''' Are you serious? Look at you! For another thing, you're twice Hamlet's age!
-->'''Cowboy Wally:''' Hamlet was 14?
-->'''Lenny:''' You're 28?

* In the ''{{Animorphs}}'' book series, the characters age from 13 in book 1 to 16 in book 54. In the short-lived TV series, though, the characters start out as 15- and 16-year-olds (played by actors as old as 25). In all fairness, as part of the series' conceit that it was [[LiteraryAgentHypothesis secret accounts of a guerrilla war]], the characters deliberately obscured their ages; that they were 13 in the beginning wasn't revealed until the second-to-last book, and the show was canceled ''long'' before then.
** There is some evidence to their age long before the last book. Tobias describes Jake as a "typical middle school kid" in an early book, which means the Animorphs must be between the ages of 11 and 14.
* This probably has to do more with legal compliance than artistic reason, but no matter what actress is playing her, the character of ''{{Lolita}}'' always starts the movie at age 14 or 15 rather than 12, which she is at the beginning of the book.
* Used and subverted in ''{{Slings and Arrows}}''. The [[ShowWithinAShow production on the show]] casts then 25-year-old Luke Kirby as a Hollywood actor cast as Hamlet, and then 27-year-old {{Rachel McAdams}} as Ophelia. However, the director of that production (played by Paul Gross) played Hamlet himself, likely in his mid-to-late thirties [[spoiler:and went insane doing so]]. Furthermore, Paul Gross himself played Hamlet at Stratford at the age of 41.
* In the definitive adaptation of ''Literature/AnneOfGreenGables'', Megan Follows, who was seventeen at the time, played an Anne Shirley who was advanced in-text from eleven to thirteen years old. Not, perhaps, a vast difference (Follows is still effective in the role), but the scatterbrained, temperamental, and openly imaginative character seems exaggerated when she's aged up.

** To be fair, that's a CloudCuckooLander of a movie.

* Happens to BillyBudd on stage all the time. Since he's about 21, and baritone singers at that point are on the university, so yeah. But most of them look younger their age and still stop singing the role around 40. But it's really {{squick}}y when 44-year-old Thomas Allen played him and it was taped for tv. And he ''looked'' his age. And then don't even let me begin about Claggart who's 35 and is played by basses in their sixties. Very often.
* In ''Picnic'' William Holden considered himself too old (he was 37) to play Hal Carter, supposedly of the same generation as TheChick played by Kim Novak (22).

* Albert Finney, then 30-something, did both this and PlayingGertrude in ''[[AChristmasCarol Scrooge]]'', as Scrooge's adoolescent and senior ages, respectively.

* All the children in ''ElChavoDelOcho'' were played by actors who are above 30. And some of them played also the adults. The actor who created and played El Chavo, Mexican comedian Roberto Gómez Bolaños (aka Chespirito) was way into his 40's and even his 50's while playing a ''eight years old'' street kid.
** This was probably part of the joke.
*** ''Definitely''. All the slapstick violence on the show would be pretty horrifying if it were happening to real kids. However, Chespirito was playing Chavo even when he was in his sixties, and while the effect was never meant to be convincing, his apparent age got distracting. Not to mention he'd run through all his scripts 11 times. Chespirito eventually figured that out, because he retired the character not long after that.

A good example of this trope is the fact that nearly every single adaptation of ''{{Hamlet}}'' features a lead over the age of 30--originally because the role was to be played by WilliamShakespeare's leading man, middle-aged Richard Burbage, who probably refused to play younger. The canonical text of the play has the Gravedigger state twice in Act V Scene I that Hamlet is actually 30, even though he's still a student, acts like a [[EmoTeen stroppy teenager]] for most of the play, and embodies the very epitome of self-righteous youthful discontent (of course, the interpretation of the character as an EmoTeen is itself arguably an example of this trope, resulting from generations worth of high school and college productions of Hamlet that emphasize the aspects of the play that make him more 'relatable' to young people). Some Shakespeare scholars have argued he's actually intended to be in his early twenties at the oldest. See [[http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=006ZHt here]] for more debate (it's also worth pointing out with regard to Hamlet that, by implication, Horatio, Rosencrantz, and Guildenstern are all subject to the same phenomenon, as the former is at school with him and the latter are old friends).

One explanation for this in Hamlet's case is that it is generally seen as one of the most demanding and challenging roles for an actor to undertake, and many people are of the opinion that only more experienced actors are qualified to play the role.

* Ages of some of the major Hamlets:
** The role of Hamlet was probably written for Shakespeare's leading man at the time, Richard Burbage. Burbage was not a young man, and some argue that the reason Hamlet is 30 at all is because Burbage didn't want to play a teenager.
** Sarah Bernhardt, was about 36 when she first famously played a female Hamlet (according to TheOtherWiki), though she would reprise the role in a semi-silent short film 20 years later.
** LaurenceOlivier was 40 in his 1948 film version, opposite a Gertrude who was eleven years ''younger'' than he.
** Richard Burton was 39 when his performance of the role on Broadway (under direction of John Gielgud) was recorded in 1964, but despite trying the "angry young man" approach, he still looks too old.
** Innokenti Smoktunovsky was also 39 when, in the same year as Burton's production, he played the role in the Russian film version "Gamlet".
** Christopher Plummer was 35 in a ''different'' televised production from 1964, entitled "Hamlet at Elsinore".
** Nicol Williamson, despite being a relatively young 33, looks much too old indeed in his Tony Richardson-directed performance from 1969 (pictured above). In this production, the only reference to Hamlet's age is the line about Yorick's skull being in the earth for 23 years, which allows for much more leeway in Hamlet's age.
** DerekJacobi played the role in a televised production for the BBC at 42, opposite a 40-year-old PatrickStewart as Claudius.
** Iain Glen is the youngest Hamlet on film, having played the role in the film version of ''RosencrantzAndGuildensternAreDead'' at 29. And he was baby-faced to boot. And because the film is about [[CaptainObvious Rosencrantz and Guildenstern]], we never get a mention of Hamlet's age. So, arguably, the inverse is happening here: the lack of reference to Hamlet's age is used to make him ''younger''.
** Kevin Kline directed and starred in a (very American) filmed performance of the play at 43, and yet they still keep the reference to Hamlet being 30. Also, as the recording is from 1990, that makes the oldest and youngest major Hamlets on film from the same year--see Iain Glen just above.
** MelGibson was 33 in Franco Zeffirelli's 1990 film version. Despite being praised for his "youthful energy", the beard just makes him look so much older, but once again, only the reference to Yorick's skull is included.
** KennethBranagh was 36 in his own 1996 film, which included the line about Hamlet being 30. Branagh, at least with that mustache, still didn't look it.
** Ethan Hawke, star of the poorly received 2000 Michael Almereyda film, was actually 30. He was still a little old to play the college student he's portrayed to be, but whatever. No reference given to Hamlet's age.
** Campbell Scott was 39 in his self-directed TV movie from 2000, strangely set in post-Civil War America (sorta).
** DavidTennant was 37 when he played the role for the RSC in the fall of 2008, although Tennant looks young enough that this one gets more of a pass.
*** Also worth noting that his Claudius was PatrickStewart, who played the role ''28 years prior''--see the Derek Jacobi performance above.
** ChristopherEccleston was in his early 40s when he played Hamlet a few years ago (he's now 46).
** John Simm was 40 when he played Hamlet in September 2010. While managing to still look quite boyish (considering he only started looking vaguely legal when he hit thirty).
** Averted in the 2006 production by the Guthrie Theater, where the actor playing Hamlet was in his early twenties.

Not quite DawsonCasting, but a related phenomenon particular to adapted works. Dawson Casting is when actors play roles for which they are clearly too old. Playing Hamlet is when this happens, but the age of the character(s) in question is/are changed or glossed over sake of the story. For example, instead of having a 35-year-old actor trying to pass for 17, you age up the character from 17 to 27. The idea is that the discrepancy between character and actor is much smaller.