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2[[folder:Straight Examples]]
3* ''Film/ThreeIdiots'': A particularly egregious example in the flashback scenes in which all of the characters were in their late teens to early twenties, being college students at all. At the time of filming, Creator/AamirKhan (Rancho) was 43 and R. Madhavan (Farhan) was 38. Sharman Joshi (Raju) and Creator/KareenaKapoor (Pia) were both in their late twenties. Narrowly averted with Omi Vaidya (Chatur), who was 26.
4* ''Film/SeventeenAgain2009'' stars a 23-year-old Creator/MichelleTrachtenberg as the main character's 17-year-old daughter. She's older than Zac Efron who was 21 at the time.
5* ''Film/AdventuresInBabysitting'': Protagonist Chris is supposed to be 17, but her actress, Creator/ElisabethShue, was 24; ironically, at one point she tells Brad that she can't date him because he's a "kid," while his actor, Keith Coogan, was an ''actual'' 17-year-old. Chris' friend was played by Penelope Ann Miller, 23, while her boyfriend was Creator/BradleyWhitford, 28.
6* ''Film/AdventuresInBabysitting2016'' - 23-year-old Sofia Carson as teenaged Lola Perez.
7* ''Film/AfternoonDelight'': 24-year old Creator/JunoTemple plays 19 year-old [=McKenna=].
8* ''Film/{{Airheads}}'': The 36-year-old Creator/SteveBuscemi plays the 20-something rock musician Rex. Actually works, though, [[OlderThanTheyLook as he ends up looking more authentic]] than actual 20-somethings Creator/BrendanFraser and Creator/AdamSandler.
9* Most live-action adaptations of ''Literature/AliceInWonderland'' have this problem. The titular role is usually played by a woman at least in her late teens. Alice is supposed to be ''seven''. The youngest actress was at least twelve.
10** ''Film/AliceInWonderland2010'' plays with the subsequent expectation on the part of the audience, leading us to believe at first that this is just another "adult playing Alice" film only to reveal after she tumbles down the rabbit hole that this is a ''sequel'' and the Alice of the story is about to turn 19.
11** Funnily enough, the Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon [[WesternAnimation/AliceInWonderland version]] had 12-year-old Kathryn Beaumont provide the voice and physical model for Alice, resulting in Alice looking more like she's 12 than seven. Played straight decades later when Beaumont, who was in her ''sixties'' at the time, reprised the role in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI''.
12* ''Film/AllTheMoneyInTheWorld'' started in the opposite direction of this trope, with 58-year-old Creator/KevinSpacey as 80 year old J. Paul Getty. Then [[RoleEndingMisdemeanor a scandal broke out]] and [[TheOtherMarty he was replaced with]] 87-year-old Creator/ChristopherPlummer - who was actually four years older than Getty upon his death.
13* The 2000 adaptation of ''Literature/AllThePrettyHorses'' stars a 30 year-old Creator/MattDamon as 16 year-old John Grady and 25 year-old Creator/PenelopeCruz as 17 year-old Alejandra. Creator/JessePlemons played a younger version of Damon's character in a deleted flashback; at 12, he was much closer in age to Damon's version of the character than Damon was, if not necessarily any closer in appearance to a 16 year-old.
14* A little-known flick, ''Ally Farson'' from 1999, was about a 20-something film student who goes on a killing spree. The movie, like ''Film/TheBlairWitchProject'', hyped itself as footage from a real incident, however, Ally is played by a woman who is clearly in her 40s or even 50s.
15* ''Aloha Summer'' is a 1988 comedy-drama film about a group of teenagers and their experiences one summer in Hawaii. The film stars Tia Carrere (21), Chris Makepeace (24), Don Michael Paul (25), and Yuji Okumoto (29).
16* This is the case with some of the films from the ''Literature/AmericanGirl'' series, in which the actresses playing the roles are a few years older than the protagonists they depict (all of whom are meant to be 9 years old). Creator/ShaileneWoodley was 13 when she played as Felicity, and it's an even more extreme case with 15-year-old Canadian actress Erin Pitt portraying the 2014 Girl of the Year Isabelle Palmer.
17* ''Film/AmericanGraffiti'' has 25-year-old Creator/RichardDreyfuss, 27-year-old Paul Le Mat, 25-year-old Cindy Williams and 25-year-old Candy Clark as teenagers that are finishing high school and about to head off to college. Creator/RonHoward and Creator/CharlesMartinSmith, however, were both 19.
18* Mostly averted in ''Film/AmericanPie'', where most of the kids aren't too far removed from high school age. Notable exceptions are 25-year-olds Creator/AlysonHannigan and Creator/ShannonElizabeth, and 23-year-olds Creator/TaraReid and Creator/SeannWilliamScott.
19* Two out of three movies in the original trinity based on the Amy Fisher / Long Island Lolita scandal... Noelle Parker (''Amy Fisher: My Story'') and Creator/AlyssaMilano (''Casualties of Love: The Long Island Lolita Story''), both in their 20s, as teenaged Amy Fisher. The third being 17-year-old Creator/DrewBarrymore in (''The Amy Fisher Story.'')
20* ''Film/{{Ana}}'': Ana is 11, played by Creator/DafneKeen, who was at least 14 (aided by the fact she's small and looks younger than her age).
21* ''Film/AnAmericanWerewolfInLondon'': The two lead characters who are referred to as "boys" and appear to be college kids in their early twenties were played by 30-year-old David Naughton and 26-year-old Creator/GriffinDunne.
22* In the crime drama ''Another Day In Paradise'', 27-year-old Natasha Gregson Wagner plays a teenage runaway. However, her fellow teenage runaway boyfriend is played by 18-year-old Creator/VincentKartheiser, who [[{{OlderThanTheyLook}} looked young for his age]] to the point that he had to show the director his driver's license to prove he was 18. This makes the characters' relationship kind of... odd, especially since they have multiple sex scenes.
23* Donna Wilkes was 23 years old when she played the 15-year-old high school student/prostitute Molly/Angel in ''Film/Angel1984''.
24* Zig-zagged in the 1985 TV miniseries/film adaptation of ''Literature/AnneOfGreenGables'', which had 17-year-old Megan Follows as Anne Shirley starting at [[AgeLift the age of 13]], and 19-year-old Jonathan Crombie as Gilbert Blythe. By the end of the film, the characters are at least 16 years old, and therefore closer to their actors' ages. In the 2016 Breakthrough Entertainment TV film trilogy, Ella Ballentine, initially age 15, played Anne starting at age 11, the same as in the book.
25* ''Anita: Swedish Nymphet'' - 23-year-old Christina Lindberg as the titular Anita, who is 16 years old.
26* ''Film/AnotherEarth'' starts off with 17-year-old Rhoda Williams, and then skips forwards to 4 years later, when Rhoda is 21. Rhoda is played by 29-year-old Creator/BritMarling.
27* ''Film/AreYouThereGodItsMeMargaret'' has the sixth grade Laura Danker played by fiften-year old Isol Young; this is so she can look noticably taller and more mature than the other sixth grade girls around her.
28* ''Film/AvatarTheWayOfWater'' has an extreme example; Creator/SigourneyWeaver portrays Kiri, who is about fourteen years old during the main events of the film, while at the time Weaver was in her ''early seventies'' and [[ActingForTwo also portrays]] the character's biological mother. Because Kiri is depicted with motion capture she does ''look'' like a blue, teenaged Sigourney Weaver rather than a grown woman, though her voice sounds more mature.
29* In ''Film/TheAviator'', Music/GwenStefani plays Creator/JeanHarlow, who was 19 at the time the film shows her; Gwen was 34 during filming, eight years older than Jean when she passed away.
30* 21-year-old Georgina Cates lied about her age and pretended to be a teenager in order to play a 16-year-old in the film ''An Awfully Big Adventure''. It worked -- the cast, crew and director fell for it. Possibly also a subversion, because when Cates first auditioned and gave them her real name and age, she was told she was too old for the role.
31* ''The Babe Ruth Story'', 42-year-old William Bendix (and he looked every day of it) plays the Babe starting at age 18.
32** Likewise, 39-year-old Creator/JohnGoodman plays Creator/BabeRuth from late teens to baseball retirement in the 1992 biopic ''The Babe''.
33* ''Franchise/BackToTheFuture'':
34** Creator/MichaelJFox plays 17-year-old Marty [=McFly=] into his late twenties, having done [[Film/BackToTheFuture1 the first film]] when he was twenty-three. In ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartII'', at 28, he played Marty's 17 year old son and similarly aged daughter in the future.
35** Creator/LeaThompson, who plays Lorraine, is just nine ''days'' older than Fox. Creator/ThomasFWilson, who plays Biff, a contemporary of Marty's parents, is just two years older than Fox, while Creator/CrispinGlover, who plays George [=McFly=], is three years ''younger'' than Fox. All three actors invert the trope in 1985 scenes, where they are playing the characters as they are in their late 40s. But this is justified because the actors also have to play high school age versions of their characters in 1955, whereas in 1985, where Marty originates and when George, Lorraine, and Biff are at the ages Marty knows them as, the actors wear makeup to make them look middle-aged. Though it's also played straight in 1955, with Thompson being 23 and playing a 17 year old Lorraine, Wilson being 25 and playing an 18 year old Biff, and Glover being 20 and playing a 17 year old George. For ''Part II'', 28 year old Thompson was 17 year old Lorraine and nearly 30 year old Wilson was 18 year old Biff (he also played Biff's 19 year old grandson Griff in the 2015 section), while Glover was replaced with 30 year old Jeffrey Weissman as 17 year old George.
36** Then there's an inversion with the 46 year old Creator/ChristopherLloyd playing Doc Brown, who is in his seventies. This example necessitated that for ''Part II'', it be explained that Doc went to a rejuvenation clinic that added 30 years to his life so that Lloyd, now aged 50, wouldn't need to wear old-age makeup, as he's predominantly playing the 1985 Doc in the sequels, as opposed to the first film, where he predominantly played the 1955 Doc, who was closer to Lloyd's actual age, being in his forties. [[TooMuchInformation They also replaced his spleen and colon]].
37* ''Film/{{Backstage|2005}}'' has then-23 year old Isild Le Besco as 17 year old Lucie.
38* In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg52cE6VHDs one of the funniest scenes]] in ''Film/BadBoysII'', young Reggie shows up at Marcus' door to take his daughter out on a date. He is taller than either Creator/WillSmith or Creator/MartinLawrence, with a deeper voice too!
39-->'''Reggie:''' I'm here to take out Megan\
40'''Marcus:''' How old are you?\
41'''Reggie:''' I'm fifteen, Mr. Burnett.\
42'''Marcus:''' Motherfucka, you look thirty! Show me some ID.
43* The ''Film/BatmanFilmSeries'' have quite a bit of this:
44** And 52-year-old Creator/JackNicholson as Jack Napier (ComicBook/TheJoker) -- when, in the script, Napier is said to be still in his thirties.
45** Creator/DannyDeVito was in his late forties at the time of the filming of ''Film/BatmanReturns''. Oswald Cobblepot/The Penguin is explicitly said to be ''33 years old''. And with the makeup, [=DeVito=] looks ''even older''. Then again, living in the sewer for years won't leave you looking like a fresh spring chicken...
46* ''Film/TheBatman2022'': Selina relates that she was only seven when her mother died. At the end, we see her mother's grave, which dates it to 2004. This makes her nine years younger or so than Creator/ZoeKravitz, her actress, so she's about twenty four or twenty five in the present, whereas Kravitz is thirty three.
47* Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon. Both were born in the early 1940s, and both starred in a series of Beach Movies in the mid 1960s with [[ExcusePlot vague plots]] about how "school is out, so let's go to the beach."
48* Creator/MickeyRooney, born in 1920, 5' 2" with chipmunk cheeks, based his whole adult career around playing teens, until he was almost 50 years old. He went from explicitly underaged characters, and then transitioned into young adult roles by playing characters with no expressed age, but who were still ambiguously young. For example, his character "Peachy Keane" in the 1965 beach party film ''Film/HowToStuffAWildBikini''. This image of youth was helped along by the fact that he was a perpetual newlywed in real life.
49* Fabiano Anthony Forte often played a restless teenager with a penchant for singing.
50* ''Film/{{Beaches}}'' -- Hillary and C.C. meet as 11-year-olds in 1958 and write letters until they reunite as adults. The reunion, Hillary has graduated from college to become a lawyer, dresses as a hippie, and the various vehicles place the timeline circa 1970, in their early 20s. Adult Hillary and C.C. are played by 40-something Creator/BarbaraHershey and Creator/BetteMidler.
51* ''Film/BeachParty'' has 22-year old Frankie Avalon and 23-year-old Annette Funicello playing teenagers. John Ashley, who plays Frankie's best friend Ken, takes the cake - he was nearly 30.
52* ''Film/ABeautifulMind'': Creator/RussellCrowe was in his late 30s while playing the main character. The movie begins as he enters Princeton University, which the real John Nash did when he was 20 years old.
53* The villian of ''Film/TheBeekeeper'' is stated to be 20 years old and is played by 32 year old Creator/JoshHutcherson.
54* All the teens in ''Film/BeforeIFall'' are played by 20 somethings; and hilariously, so is the only teacher shown in the film. Whom of course barely looks any older than them. [[TruthInTelevision To be fair]], people as young as 22 can be high-school teachers, so the visual difference between late-teens and early-twenties isn't necessarily that big.
55* In the Music/{{Liberace}} {{biopic}} ''Film/BehindTheCandelabra'', which takes place during the final decade of the showman's life, 42-year-old Creator/MattDamon plays Liberace's lover, Scott Thorson, who was in his late twenties when Liberace died.
56* Creator/ParminderNagra was 26 when she played 18-year-old Jess in ''Film/BendItLikeBeckham''.
57* The Creator/NicholasSparks movie ''Film/TheBestOfMe'' features a prime example of this trope gone wrong. Twenty-five-year-old Luke Bracey plays a teenaged flashback version of the male lead character--named '''''Dawson''''', who is played by Creator/JamesMarsden in the present day. Unfortunately, Bracey looks every one of those 25 years and [[QuestionableCasting bears little resemblance to Marsden]]. A review of the film published by ABC News called this particular choice a "cinematic disaster" and "[[MedalOfDishonor one of the worst pieces of casting I've ever seen.]]" The actress playing the teenaged version of the female lead is also an example of this, but not as bad, being 19 to her character's 17.
58* {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''Film/BetterOffDead'' when Charles de Mar (played by then-32-year-old Creator/CurtisArmstrong) says, "I've been going to this high school for seven and a half years! I'm no dummy!"
59* ''A Bigger Splash'' plays this twice, with the 26-year old Creator/DakotaJohnson playing 22-year old Penelope, who at the end of the film is revealed to actually be ''17''.
60* ''Film/TheBigWedding'': Ana Ayora played 20 year old Nuria when she was around 30.
61* In ''Film/BillAndTedsExcellentAdventure'', the eponymous high schoolers were both played by actors in their twenties.
62* The 1996 film version of ''Film/TheBirdcage'' features Creator/CalistaFlockhart playing an 18-year-old. She was 31 at the time of filming. Creator/DanFutterman, who plays her (20-year-old) fiance, was about 28.
63* ''{{Film/Bit}}'': Creator/NicoleMaines plays Laurel, who's stated to be eighteen. She was twenty-two at the time.
64* ''Black And Blue'' stars 42 year-old Creator/NaomieHarris as a 27 year-old rookie cop.
65* ''Film/BlackboardJungle'' from 1955 may be the UrExample, with Creator/SidneyPoitier (28 at the time), Creator/VicMorrow (28), and Paul Mazursky (25) playing thuggish high school students. Jamie Farr (21), who played the mentally-challenged, perpetually smiling Santini, and Creator/RafaelCampos (19), who played the diminutive, wisecracking Morales, were probably closest to high school age. Made even more ironic by the fact this film is credited with launching teen-favored rock and roll music into the mainstream (even though the man who recorded the title song, "Rock Around the Clock," Bill Haley, was actually a little older than Poitier and Morrow).
66* ''Film/Blame2017'': All of the teenagers were played by actors in their early twenties.
67* In ''Film/TheBlob1958'', high-schooler Steve Andrews is played by 28-year-old Creator/SteveMcQueenActor in his first starring role.
68* Creator/DanielleHarris is a 32-year-old teen in ''Film/BloodNightTheLegendOfMaryHatchet''.
69* ''Film/BloodyBirthday'' - Lori Lethin (26) and Creator/JulieBrown (25) as high school students.
70* ''Film/{{Blow}}'': Creator/RayLiotta and Rachael Griffiths played Creator/JohnnyDepp's character's parents. Depp is older than Griffiths and only slightly younger than Liotta.
71* ''Blown Away'' (1993) - Twentysomethings Creator/CoreyHaim, Nicole Eggbert, and Creator/CoreyFeldman portray teens in this crime drama / erotic thriller.
72* ''Film/TheBlueLamp'': Diana Lewis, who is stated in the film several times to be seventeen, is played by twenty-nine-year-old Peggy Evans.
73* ''Film/BlueMyMind'': Mia is meant to be 15, while Mia's actress Luna Wedler at the time was at least 19. The same goes for other characters.
74* ''Film/BoogieNights:'' 26-year-old Creator/MarkWahlberg and 27-year-old Creator/HeatherGraham start off the film as teens, one stating his age explicitly as 17, the other shown dropping out of high school.
75* Christine Taylor (Marcia), Jennifer Elise Cox (Jan), and Creator/ChristopherDanielBarnes (Greg) were all in their twenties when cast in the mid-90s [[Film/TheBradyBunch Brady Bunch movies]]. Interestingly, Cox is actually ''older'' than Taylor in real life, despite playing her younger sister.
76** Their classmates, such as Jack Noseworthy, Alanna Ubach, R.D. Robb, Shane Conrad, are all in their 20s.
77* ''Film/BornInTheMaelstrom'': Rebecca, who's eighteen, was played by Creator/SashaLane. She was at least twenty one.
78* ''Film/BoyzNTheHood'' has 22-year-old Creator/CubaGoodingJr and 21-year-old Creator/MorrisChestnut portraying 17-year-olds Tre and Ricky, respectively, while Music/IceCube, also 21-years-old, portrays the 18-year-old Doughboy.
79* Most of the actors in ''Film/TheBreakfastClub'' were out of high school, with only 2 actually being under 18.
80* In ''Film/BreakfastOnPluto'', Creator/CillianMurphy plays Kitten both as an adult and as a teenager, and makes a pretty good teenager for an actor in his early 30s. Of course, playing a 16-year-old is much easier than playing a drag queen.
81* ''Film/BreakingAway'': The four lead characters are supposed to be 19. Creator/JackieEarleHaley was 17 at the time, then there's Creator/DennisQuaid (25), Dennis Christopher (24), and Creator/DanielStern (22).
82* In ''Film/{{Brick}}'', Creator/JosephGordonLevitt, Nora Zehetner, Creator/EmilieDeRavin, and Creator/MeaganGood were twenty-two years old during production, playing high school students, and Brian J. White was twenty-eight.
83* ''Film/BringItOn'' -- Some of the actors are in their 20s, most notably Gabrielle Union (age 27) during the first one, and Christina Milian (age 27) during ''Fight to the Finish''. Though the trope was averted with Creator/KirstenDunst (age 18) and Creator/ElizaDushku (age 19) in the first film, Creator/HaydenPanettiere (age 16) in ''All Or Nothing'' and Creator/AshleyBenson (age 18) in ''In It To Win It''.
84* In the film version of Creator/AstridLindgren's ''Literature/TheBrothersLionheart'' 12-year-old Jonatan was played by Staffan Götestam who was 26 at the time. However the character was aged up intentionally as it seemed a bit improbable on film that a 12-year-old would be entrusted with such a degree of leadership in a LaResistance group.
85* In ''Film/BrokenBlossoms'', 26-year-old Creator/LillianGish plays 15-year-old Lucy Burrows.
86* ''The Buddy Holly Story'': Creator/GaryBusey was 35 when he played Holly, who died at the age of 22.
87* ''Film/BuffyTheVampireSlayer:'' 23-year-old Creator/KristySwanson as Buffy, and 27-year-old Creator/LukePerry as her high school boyfriend.
88** Swanson later played a teenager (or at least an early twentysomething) in her early 30s in ''Film/DudeWheresMyCar''.
89* In ''Film/{{Bunraku}}'', teenage Momoko is portrayed by 25-year-old Emily Kaiho, who sort of pulls it off by being fresh-faced and petite. Much is made of how Yoshi is the youngest of the protagonists, and inexperienced and hot-headed as a result. Creator/{{Gackt}} meanwhile is pushing forty (but looks twenty years younger).
90* ''Film/TheBurningBed'' covers a specific period in Francine Hughes's life from age 15 to age 29. You would think that they would cast someone around the age of 22, someone halfway between 15 and 29. Instead, they cast 37-year-old Creator/FarrahFawcett.
91** Likewise, you also have 39-year-old Paul Le Mat (see ''American Graffiti'') playing Francine's abusive husband Mickey from his time as an 18-year-old high school dropout to his death at the age of 32.
92* ''Film/CallMeByYourName'' is a gay romance between a 17-year-old and a 24-year old, and while Creator/TimotheeChalamet was 20 during filming, he at least looked like a teenager. Creator/ArmieHammer, meanwhile, was 30 and ''looked'' 30, making the age difference seem uncomfortably larger than intended (not helped by the 6'5 Hammer towering over his costar).
93* Candy in ''Film/TheCandySnatchers'' is 16 years old and played by 21-year-old Susan Stennett.
94* ''Film/CarmenYLola'': Carolina Yusta was at least 26 at the time playing Lola, who's 16.
95* In ''Film/CarnalKnowledge'', a *34* year old Creator/JackNicholson plays a college freshman and looks even older.
96* ''Literature/{{Carrie}}'':
97** In [[Film/Carrie1976 the 1976 version]], the eponymous 16-year-old protagonist was portrayed by a 26-year-old Creator/SissySpacek. She was the same age as P.J. Soles, who played Norma Watson. This was true for most of the teenagers, who were, oddly enough, only a few years younger than 29-year-old Creator/BettyBuckley, the actor playing Miss Collins.
98** The sequel, ''Film/TheRageCarrie2'', features various people in their 20s, most notably 24-year-old Creator/EmilyBergl in the lead role, 27-year-old Jason London as her boyfriend, and 27-year-old Dylan Bruno as his friend.
99** Creator/AngelaBettis was 29 when she portrayed Carrie in [[Film/Carrie2002 the 2002 version]], with 26-year-old Tobias Mehler as her balding prom date with forehead wrinkles.
100** The [[Film/Carrie2013 2013 version]] inverts this with the casting of Carrie; Creator/ChloeGraceMoretz was 15 years old during filming, playing a high school senior who would've been 17 or 18. But then it plays it straight with 23-year-old Gabriella Wilde as Sue Snell and 24-year-olds Creator/PortiaDoubleday and Alex Russell as Chris Hargensen and Billy Nolan. Then there are those who don't have their birthdays listed on Website/IMDb (absence of a D.O.B. usually equals a much older actor who is relying on this trope for employment). The contrast between a girl in her mid-teens compared to adults in their mid-twenties highlights this trope.
101* A character in the ''Film/CarryOn'' film ''Film/CarryOnCamping'' was Babs, a teenage schoolgirl played by the 32-year-old Creator/BarbaraWindsor.
102* In ''Film/CatchMeIfYouCan'', 27-year-old Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio plays real life former con artist Frank Abagnale from age 15 to his mid twenties. [[YoungerThanTheyLook However, Abagnale did look much older than his age during that time,]] [[JustifiedTrope which helped him get away with his various cons.]]
103* In ''Film/CatchThatKid'', Corbin Bleu, Max Thieriot, and Creator/KristenStewart play 12-year-old kids who rob a bank. At the time, the actors were 15, 16, and 14, respectively.
104* ''Film/CharliesAngels2000'' features a flashback montage at the beginning with Charlie's voiceover, "Once upon a time there were three very different little girls..." They then show three adults dressed as girls up to high school age. In the sequel, three years later, they do it again with 28-year-old Creator/DrewBarrymore, 31-year-old Creator/CameronDiaz, and 35-year-old Creator/LucyLiu. Apparently, this is humorous.
105* ''Film/ChaosWalking2021'': In [[Literature/ChaosWalking the books]], Todd is almost thirteen years old at the start of the series; Creator/TomHolland was twenty-one during principal production and twenty-three during reshoots. Likewise, Viola is thirteen in the first book, while Creator/DaisyRidley was twenty-five when she was first cast and twenty-seven during the reshoots. The film [[AgeLift ages the characters up]] to their late teens, as it's doubtful Ridley and Holland would've been able to believably portray thirteen year olds, though they still qualify for Dawson Casting.
106* In ''Film/Cherrybomb2009'', the three 16-year-old protagonists are played by Kimberley Nixon (who was 22 at the time), Creator/RupertGrint and Creator/RobertSheehan (both of whom were 20). It generally gives the audience a bit of a jolt when Sheehan's character confirms how old they are towards the end of the movie, firstly because the cast are blatantly older than this, and secondly because we've just watched said character engage in a sex-and-drugs orgy and [[spoiler:violently murder someone.]]
107* ''Film/ChildsPlay'':
108** Christine Elise was 25 in ''Film/ChildsPlay2''.
109** Creator/KatherineHeigl's friends in ''Film/BrideOfChucky'', in their late 20s.
110* Sally Ann Howes was in her mid-30s when she played the 20-something Truly Scrumptious in ''Film/ChittyChittyBangBang''. Years later, she would describe herself as having been "the world's oldest virgin".
111* The film adaptation of ''Literature/{{Christine}}'' has a standout example in Buddy Repperton, who not only looks older than a high schooler, but older than ''the actor playing him''. William Ostrander was 23-24 during filming, not even the oldest member of the cast playing a high schooler (that distinction goes to Stuart Charno, 25-26, who plays Don Vandenberg). Yet viewers often describe Buddy as [[YoungerThanTheyLook looking at least 30]].
112* ''Film/AChristmasStory'' - Twelve-year-old Creator/PeterBillingsley portrays nine-year-old Ralphie Parker. This isn't such a big deal in the sequel featuring Ralphie as an adult (even though he's now 51 playing 42), but it's rather noticeable for growing children. Had they just left the age ambiguous, it would be fine, but they insisted with the line, "Honors and benefits, already at the age of nine." Ralphie's younger brother, meanwhile, is played by nine-year-old Ian Petrella.
113* ''Film/{{Chronicle}}'' follows three Seattle high school seniors who form a bond after gaining telekinetic powers from an unknown object, and the three main characters are played by people in their mid-twenties, along with many of their schoolmates.
114* ''Film/TheChroniclesOfNarnia'':
115** In ''Literature/PrinceCaspian'', 25-year-old Creator/BenBarnes was cast as the 17-year-old titular prince. (He's 13 in the book.)
116** In ''[[Literature/TheVoyageOfTheDawnTreader Dawn Treader]]'', Eustace is supposed to be 10. He's played by 17-year-old Creator/WillPoulter. The main four get some of this as well, though not as bad. In [[Literature/TheLionTheWitchAndTheWardrobe the first book]], they're 13, 12, 10, and 8. In the first movie, the actors playing them were 18, 17, 14, and 10.
117* In the [[Film/Cinderella1947 Soviet 1947]] ''[[Film/Cinderella1947 Cinderella]]'' [[Film/Cinderella1947 movie]], the titular heroine is played by Janina Żejmo, who was nearly 40 at the time. The actresses for the stepsisters were younger, but still both over 30.
118* In ''Film/CityOfEmber'' one of the two 12-year-old leads is played by Creator/SaoirseRonan, who was 13 at the time of filming. The other is played by Harry Treadaway, who turned 23 during production.
119* Played straight, averted, and inverted in ''Film/{{Click}}''. Creator/JonahHill portrays the 17-year-old version of Creator/AdamSandler's son at age 21, while 15-year-old Lorraine Nicholson portrays the 14-year-old version of Sandler's daughter, and Katie Cassidy portrays the 27-year-old version of Sandler's daughter at age 18.
120* ''Film/{{Clifford}}'' has 40-year-old Creator/MartinShort playing a ''10-year-old'' boy, with no real effort being made to hide his age other than his clothes and camera angles to make him look smaller than his co-stars. Creator/GeneSiskel and Creator/RogerEbert trashed the film, noting that Short looked creepy in the role.
121* ''Film/{{Clockstoppers}}'' has some conspicuously twenty-something teenagers. Creator/JesseBradford was 22 portraying lead character Zak Gibbs, Garikayi Mutambirwa was 23 portraying Zak’s friend Meeker, and Creator/PaulaGarces was ''27'' portraying Francesca, Zak’s love interest. Their characters are inferred to be 17 in the film.
122* Creator/MalcolmMcDowell was 27 when he played Alex in ''Film/AClockworkOrange''. In [[Literature/AClockworkOrange the original novel]], Alex is 15 years old.
123* ''Film/{{Clueless}}'': Stacey Dash was 28 portraying a 16-year-old in the movie and then came back for the TV show where she played a 16-year-old until she was 31. (Dee, Stacey's character, {{lampshade|Hanging}}d this in one episode when she mentioned when they were 27 they'd be "old enough to play teenagers on TV.") The rest of the teen cast had an average age of 21, but 19-year-old Creator/AliciaSilverstone and 18-year-old Creator/BrittanyMurphy work fairly well as 16-year-olds.
124* Four years after Carrie, then-30-year-old Creator/SissySpacek played Loretta Lynn in ''Film/CoalMinersDaughter'' -- starting at the age of 14.
125* ''Film/TheConspirator'' features 42-year-old Creator/NormanReedus playing Lewis Payne who was 21 at the time of his death.
126* ''Film/CoolAsIce'': Kristin Minter was 25 when she played the fresh-out-of-high-school Kathy.
127* The 2015 zombie-child flick ''Film/{{Cooties}}'' has an ObviousStuntDouble scene as the teachers escape the school Clint trips a child zombie that - judging by the hips - had definitely been through puberty (the cutoff for turning into a zombie in this movie). You can see it in the trailer, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_he1HiLy0A here, at 1:50]].
128* ''Film/CorvetteSummer'' stars 26-year-old Creator/MarkHamill as a high school graduate.
129* In the 1996 film ''Film/TheCraft'', 16-year-old coven member Rochelle was played by nearly 30-year-old Rachel True, though she certainly [[OlderThanTheyLook didn't look that old]]. The other three 16-year-old girls were all played by actresses in their 20s, but were all at least half a decade younger than True - Creator/RobinTunney as Sarah was 23, Creator/FairuzaBalk (Nancy) 21; and Creator/NeveCampbell (Bonnie) 22.
130* Inverted with Creator/EmmaStone in ''Film/CrazyStupidLove'', she was 21 playing a character who was at least 25.
131* ''Film/{{Critters}}'': 24-year-old Nadine Van der Velde as teen girl April.
132* ''Film/CryBaby'': Wade "Cry-Baby" Walker (27-year-old Creator/JohnnyDepp) is the leader of a gang of "Drapes", which includes his teenage mom sister Pepper (22-year-old Ricki Lake), facially disfigured Mona "Hatchet Face" Malnorowski (34-year-old Kim [=McGuire=]), wild and free-spirited Wanda Woodward (22-year-old Traci Lords), and Milton Hackett, the nervous son of overzealous religious activists, (24-year-old Darren E. Burrows).
133* ''Film/CryWolf'' features Lindy Booth (in her mid-20s at time) as an 18-year-old.
134* The lead in ''Film/{{Cuck}}'' is stated to be 29 and is played by a 40 year old actor who definitely looks closer to the latter than the former; although this is probably a deliberate choice given the physically and emotionally unhealthy lifestyle lead by him in the film.
135* ''Film/TheDamBusters'' is a dramatisation of a famous bombing raid in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, led by Wing Commander Guy Gibson. In the film, Gibson is played by Richard Todd, who was 36. Gibson was 24, and most of his crew were younger.
136* ''Film/DangerousMinds'' features 21-year-old Renoly Santiago and 29-year-old Wade Domínguez as a couple of many 20-something students.
137* ''Film/DarbyAndTheDead'': All of the teenage characters are played by actors in their twenties.
138* ''Film/DavidAndLisa'' from 1962 starred then 26-year-old Keir Dullea and 19-year-old Creator/JanetMargolin in the title roles -- respectively sixteen and thirteen.
139* Creator/DavidLynch loves this trope.
140** ''Film/TwinPeaksFireWalkWithMe'' [[{{Prequel}} takes place days before the TV show]] and all the 20-something actors (mentioned in the TV section) are a few years older, with some flashbacks taking place years before the TV show, and Creator/SherylLee playing 15. There were some additions to the movie that weren't in the TV show, such as 24-year-old Moira Kelly as 17-year-old Donna Hayward, and 27-year-old Pamela Gidley as 17-year-old Teresa Banks.
141** In ''Film/WildAtHeart'', 23-year-old Creator/LauraDern plays her character as a 13-year-old in flashbacks. Dern had trouble passing as a teen when she was one, for instance when she was 19 in ''Film/BlueVelvet''.
142** In ''Film/Dune1984'': Music/{{Sting}} (then 33) and Creator/KyleMacLachlan (then 25), play Paul Atreides and Feyd Harkonnen, notwithstanding that both those characters are between the ages of 15 and 18 for the entirety of the original novel. To be fair, the makers of the TV miniseries of ''Series/{{Dune}}'' also went for this trope as well, citing the availability of credible 15-year-old actors to play the lead part.
143* ''Film/DawnOfTheDead2004'' has 24-year-old Creator/LindyBooth as 17-year-old Nicole.
144* Creator/JakeGyllenhaal was 23 when he was cast as a teenager in the 2004 movie ''Film/TheDayAfterTomorrow''.
145* ''Film/DazedAndConfused'' sometimes plays it straight: Christine Harnos (25), Creator/ParkerPosey (24), and Sasha Jenson (28) portrayed incoming high school seniors despite being older than age-appropriate Creator/MatthewMcConaughey, who played a twenty-something graduate.
146** Christin Hinojosa, who played incoming high school freshman Sabrina, was 17 at the time of the film.
147** Subverted by Creator/ColeHauser, who looked like your usual over-aged jock despite being only 18, making him one of the youngest "teens" in the cast.
148* ''Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse'':
149** ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'' sees Creator/JeffreyDeanMorgan as Thomas Wayne, Bruce's father. While he's six years older than Creator/BenAffleck, who plays Batman, the movie has a scene where Bruce laments that he's older than Thomas was at the time of his death and in one of Bruce's nightmares, Thomas's tombstone says he was born in 1942 and killed in 1981, which given ''[=BvS=]'' was filmed in 2014, means Morgan was 11 years older than Thomas Wayne.
150** ''Film/Aquaman2018'' revealed that Thomas Curry and Queen Atlanna met in 1985, retroactively making Arthur around 30-31 at most in ''[=BvS=]''. Creator/JasonMomoa was nearing 40 during the filming of ''Aquaman'', where Arthur would at most be 33. Creator/PatrickWilson as Ocean Master is a bigger example as the character is the younger half-brother of Aquaman, yet Wilson himself is six years older than Momoa.
151* In ''Film/DeadEndDriveIn'' Ned Manning was in his mid-thirties when playing the teenage hero Jimmy, or "Crabs". Reportedly he even lied about his age to the film's director.
152* ''Film/DearEvanHansen'': Creator/BenPlatt, who played the teenaged title character [[Theatre/DearEvanHansen on Broadway]], reprised his role for the 2021 film even though he was 27 during filming. Despite shaving obsessively, growing out his hair to conceal his mature hairline, and wearing a ton of makeup (which many thought made him look ''[[SpecialEffectsFailure older]]''), he still looked like a grown man attending high school and was roundly mocked for it. His fans counter that he originated the role of Evan onstage[[note]]Admittedly, he was 21 when the musical first opened in DC and could still pass for a teenager, and theatre in general is more forgiving of this trope than film[[/note]] and won a Tony for it, and they felt an adult actor would do the emotionally-heavy role far more justice than an actual teenager. However, detractors will still counter by arguing it to be a case of Main/{{Nepotism}}, considering that his father Marc Platt is the producer of the movie. Ironically, in 2012, nine years before ''Evan Hansen'' was released as a film, an 18-year-old Platt played a college student in ''Film/PitchPerfect.''
153* ''Dean Koontz's Literature/{{Phantoms}}'' -- 25-year-old Creator/RoseMcGowan plays a character that was 14 in the book.
154* ''Demolition High'' (1996) - 25-year-old teen Creator/CoreyHaim unites with fellow students against terrorists.
155** ''Demolition University'' (1997) - 26-year-old teen Creator/CoreyHaim unites with fellow students against terrorists.
156* ''Deux''. This French film stars Creator/IsabelleHuppert as twin sisters in an extremely confusing storyline that jumps crazily backwards and forwards in time and space, with no attempt to make Huppert look appropriately older or younger. There are a couple of lengthy sequences in which she appears as a schoolgirl, despite being in her late forties. In addition her/their mother, played by Bulle Ogier, is seen in flashback as a young heavily pregnant woman despite being in her sixties.
157* ''Devil in the Flesh'' -- 25-year-old Creator/RoseMcGowan plays a teenaged murderess.
158* ''Diana'': 45-year-old Creator/NaomiWatts as Princess Diana, who died at age 36.
159* In ''Film/DirtyDancing'', Creator/JenniferGrey (now 27) plays 17-year-old Frances (Baby). She did look the role, though. Johnny is 25 years old, and played by 35-year-old Creator/PatrickSwayze, who unfortunately looked his age, making it look a bit squicky.
160* ''Film/DiscoPigs'' brought us Creator/CillianMurphy, then 24, playing a 16-year-old. He was pretty convincing until he was shirtless . (Not that most of the audience probably [[DistractedByTheSexy minded much.]] Or at least, they normally wouldn't have, but the monologue he delivers while shirtless can come across as rather ... [[FanDisservice icky]]). It is rather justifiable, as he actually looked very convincing, and he did play the character in the stage play version at 19 years of age.
161* Pretty much every teen in the ''Film/{{Divergent}}'' series is played by an actors well into their 20's. The only one who's closest to their characters' age is 16-year-old Caleb, who's portrayed by then-19-year-old Creator/AnselElgort.
162** 18-year-old Four is played by 28-year-old Creator/TheoJames. WordOfGod specifically cast the latter due to AbilityOverAppearance. Eric, who's in Four's generation, also counts, being played by 27-year-old Creator/JaiCourtney. They left the two's ages deliberately vague as a result.
163** 16-year-old Tris is played by 23-year-old Creator/ShaileneWoodley. Keep in mind that she's supposed to be the ''younger non-twin'' sister of Caleb (though no more than eleven months, since they partake in the same Aptitude Test), and yet Ms. Woodley is four years older than Mr. Elgort.
164** Not to mention Tris' fellow 16-year-old colleagues: Al (played Christian Madsen, who was 22), Christina and Will (Zoë Kravitz and Ben Llyod-Hughes, respectively, who were both 26), and Peter (Creator/MilesTeller, who was ''28'').
165** ''The Divergent Series: Insurgent'' adds more Dawsons into the "16-year-old" lineup: Marlene and Uriah (Suki Waterhouse and Keiynan Lonsdale, respectively, 22) and Lynn (Creator/RosaSalazar, 29).
166* ''Film/DoctorSeries'':
167** The medical students in ''Film/DoctorInTheHouse1954'' are all played by 30 to 40-year-olds.
168** The 17-year-old Fellowes from ''Film/DoctorAtSea'' was played by the 25-year-old James Kenney.
169** Creator/LesliePhillips was 42 at the time he played the 35-year-old Dr. Grimsdyke in ''Film/DoctorInClover'' and 46 when he played the also-35-year-old Dr. Burke in ''Film/DoctorInTrouble''.
170* ''Film/DoraAndTheLostCityOfGold'': 11-year-old (at the time of filming) Malachi Barton plays 6-year-old Diego. Averted with Creator/IsabelaMoner, who was 17. The older Diego, Sammy and Randy were played by actors in their early to mid 20s however.
171* ''Film/DontTellMomTheBabysittersDead'' -- 21-year-old Keith Coogan as the main character's 16-year-old brother.
172* ''Film/DoubleDragon1994'' - Creator/MarkDacascos, Creator/ScottWolf, and Creator/AlyssaMilano were all in their mid to late 20s when they were cast as teens.
173* ''The Double 0 Kid'' (1992) - 21-year-olds Creator/CoreyHaim and Nicole Eggbert portray teens playing having a cloak-and-dagger cat-and-mouse game with terrorists.
174* In ''Film/DraftDay'', Josh Pence (31) plays Bo Callahan, while Creator/ChadwickBoseman (36) plays Vontae Mack. These are supposed to be college football players entering the NFL draft, who are usually 21 to 23 years old when drafted.
175* In ''Film/DragonballEvolution'', high-schooler Goku is played by 27-year-old Creator/JustinChatwin.
176* Zig-zagged in ''Film/{{Dreamgirls}}''. The Dreams are teenagers for the first act, even though Music/{{Beyonce}} and Music/JenniferHudson were both 24 during filming. However, there's an 8-year TimeSkip before the second act that brings the characters' ages roughly up to the actresses' at the time. But then there's Creator/AnikaNoniRose, who was '''33''' during filming. It also doubles as IronyAsSheIsCast; Lorell is implied to be the youngest of the Dreams and is by far the mousiest and has no problem singing backup. Rose is not only the oldest of the three leads, but she's also the most accomplished as an actress, with a Broadway career going back to the late 90's and winning a Tony in 2004.
177* ''Film/DriveMeCrazy:'' 23-year-old Creator/MelissaJoanHart stars as a teenager with prom problems. Co-starring 23-year-old Creator/AdrianGrenier as her high school sweetheart.
178* ''Film/DropDeadGorgeous'' from 1999 stars 28-year-old Creator/DeniseRichards as a teen beauty pageant contestant.
179* In ''Film/DrMinx'', Jason Harvey and Randy Boone play college students who live at home with their parents, despite the actors being in their 30s. Makes the casting of Edy Williams as the 'MrsRobinson'-style older woman verys strange, as she was actually between them in age.
180* ''Film/{{Dune|2021}}'' and ''Film/DunePartTwo'' feature then-25/27-year-old Creator/TimotheeChalamet as 15-year-old Paul Atreides. That said, it is widely agreed that he was much more convincing than Creator/KyleMacLachlan was at passing for someone 10 years younger, due at least partially to his physique and a script that gave him more opportunities to show to his character's youth.
181* ''Film/TheDuff'' has 26-year-old Creator/MaeWhitman, 25-year-old Creator/RobbieAmell, 24-year-old Bianca A. Santos and 20-year-old Creator/SkylerSamuels as high schoolers.
182* Creator/JimBroadbent stars as Kempton Bunton in ''Film/TheDuke'', which is about the theft of The Portrait of the Duke of Wellington. Bunton claims not to know his year of birth, believing it to be around 1900, but the real Bunton was born in 1904, making him 57 at the time of the theft in 1961, whereas Broadbent was 70 at the start of filming in late 2019.
183* ''Film/DumPlin'' features various actresses in their early to mid 20s playing high schoolers participating in a teenage beauty pageant!
184* ''Earth Angel (1991)'' was a movie about a prom queen who dies in the 1960s and then has to do a good deed 30 years later. It was seemingly influenced by movies such as ''Film/BackToTheFuture1'' and ''Film/PeggySueGotMarried'', and like those movies, needs actors that can pass as both teenagers and middle-aged people. Of course, no real teens were cast, and most of the actors were in their 30s and 40s, most notably 42-year-old Erik Estrada.
185* All of the "kids" from ''Film/EasyA'' are between 21 and 25 years old. This actually presents a minor problem, as one of the characters is ''supposed'' to be too old for high school, having been held back repeatedly, but appears indistinct from the other actors. Additionally, they had gotten age-appropriate actors for the flashbacks, and this meant that, in the four years between the past and present, the characters seemed to have aged ten years.
186* ''Film/{{Election}}'': 23-year-old Creator/ReeseWitherspoon as Tracy Flick.
187* Creator/ElliotPage[[note]]before he came out as trans and non-binary[[/note]] has been frequently cast as a teenager (14 years old in ''Film/HardCandy'', 15 years old in '' Film/TheTraceyFragments'', 16 years old in ''Film/{{Juno}}'', and 17 years old in ''Film/WhipIt''), despite being 17 to 22 respectively at the time of their production. Ditto for his roles in ''Film/AnAmericanCrime'' (where he played 16-year-old Sylvia Likens) and ''Film/XMenTheLastStand'' (where he played the teenage Kitty Pryde). In fairness, he's 5'1'', and looks far younger than his actual age, even in his 30s.
188* ''Film/EloisesLover'': The young characters are meant to be in high school. All were at least twenty, and many older than that (Ariadna Cabrol, who played Eloïse, was twenty seven).
189* Teen idol Music/ElvisPresley, in his 20s and beyond, would portray characters that were explicitly adolescent, such as in ''King Creole'' and ''Love Me Tender'', or age-unspecified young adults who live with their parents, aren't yet married, headed for college or the military, are newcomers on the entertainment scene, hold down jobs suitable for high school dropouts, and enjoy youthful beach parties.
190* ''Elvis And Me'' starts off with explicitly-stated 14-year-old Priscilla, portrayed by 25-year-old Creator/SusanWalters.
191* ''Film/EncinoMan'': 21-year-old Creator/SeanAstin and 24-year-old Creator/PaulyShore as average high school geeks who discover a caveman named Link, played by 24-year-old Creator/BrendanFraser. The two friends succeed in passing off Link as an Estonian exchange student at their school, and Link dates a girl named Robyn, played by 23-year-old Megan Ward.
192* ''Film/{{Endless}}'': Creator/AlexandraShipp (29), Nicholas Hamilton (20), Eddie Ramos (29) and Zoë Belkin (27) all play recent high school graduates.
193* In ''Film/TheEnigmaOfKasparHauser'', the lead role of about-16-year-old Kaspar Hauser was played by 41-year-old street musician Bruno S. Creator/WernerHerzog has commented that he was chosen for the role because his life had parallels with that of the historical Kaspar Hauser, and also because he gave the impression of being outsider to society at large, one that was a stranger to his own body.
194* ''The Entity'' features mature-looking, Hispanic, 21-year-old David Labiosa as the teen son of young-looking, Caucasian, 32-year-old Barbera Hershey. When they are first introduced, the audience is to believe that they are a married couple... until he calls her "mom" and she nags him about a letter from his high school counselor. This is foreshadowing of future events in the movie.
195* ''Film/EverAfter'': 18-year-old Danielle is played by 23-year-old Creator/DrewBarrymore. Her two wicked stepsisters, of approximately the same age, are played by 20-year-old Melanie Lynskey and 28-year-old Megan Dodds. "Prince" Henry, is played by 33-year-old Dougray Scott. The character of Henry, in this particular movie, is based on Henry II of France, who married Catherine de' Medici, a member of the ruling family of Florence, on 28 October 1533, when they were both fourteen years old. He was king by 28.
196* ''[[Film/ErnestPWorrell Ernest Goes to School]]'' - Of the actors playing teenaged high school students, whose ages are in their twenties (and whose ages can actually be found on the internet) there is 22-year-old Gabe Khouth as Rodney and 22-year-old Jason Michas as Donald.
197** The Ernest movie'' [[Film/ErnestPWorrell Dr. Otto and the Riddle of the Gloom Beam Film]]'' - Creator/JimVarney and Myke R. Mueller (both in their 30s) play teen versions of their respective characters (Dr. Otto and Lance Sterling), as well as pre-teen versions of their characters and also baby versions of their characters that are both able to talk at birth to comedic effect.
198* ''Film/TheEyeCreatures'': John Ashley was 30 when he played high school student Stan Kenyon.
199* ''Film/{{Eurotrip}}'' - From 2004, it's a film about recent high school grads around the age of 18 who have an adventure through Europe. It stars 23-year-old Scott Mechlowicz as Scott and 25-year-old Jacob Pitts as Cooper. Their friend Jenny is played by 19-year-old Creator/MichelleTrachtenberg, which is good except that she's often in the same shot with Travis Wester, who played her twin brother at age 27, so the contrast is often glaring.
200* ''Film/FaceOff'': In the second half of the movie, 43-year-old Creator/JohnTravolta plays 30-year-old Castor Troy. Averted in the first half where 33-year-old Creator/NicolasCage is playing Castor.
201* ''Film/TheFaculty'': Most of the main teens are played by people in their early 20s, with a couple of exceptions.
202* The 2009 ''Film/{{Fame}}'' remake has numerous examples: Victor (played by Walter Perez, age 27), Denise (Naturi Naughton, 25), Marco (Asher Book, 21). The actors closest to the actual age of the characters they play are Kherington Payne (Alice) and Kay Panabaker (Jenny), both 19.
203* Olesya Rulin plays a 16-year-old girl in ''Family Weekend'' despite being twice that during filming. Matthew Modine's father character is probably supposed to be younger than him as well; he's old enough to be Rulin's father, if on the young side at 21, whereas he would have fathered a 16-year-old at 37.
204* ''Film/FAQs,'' from 2005, follows hairy-chested, tired-looking Joe Lia as teen runaway named "India" as he interacts with various other street youths who also clearly in their 20s. Though Joe Lia's exact age remains a mystery, he graduated from University of Southern California in December of 2003.
205* ''Fat Girls,'' from 2006, follows the antics of Texas teen outcasts in their senior year of high school. Every cast member is in their 20s.
206* ''Film/TheFastAndTheFuriousTokyoDrift'': [[WebVideo/HonestTrailers Sean Boswell is a 17-year-old, played by a 24-year-old who looks 34-years-old]].
207* ''Film/FastTimesAtRidgemontHigh'' - Of the main cast of actors playing students, the youngest is Creator/PhoebeCates at 19. The oldest is Creator/RobertRomanus at 26.
208* ''Film/FatalBeauty'': Zack Jaeger is a juvenile delinquent who is too young and cute to be a threat... played by 25-year-old James Le Gros.
209* ''Film/TheFaultInOurStars'':
210** Creator/ShaileneWoodley was twenty three playing Hazel at sixteen.
211** Creator/AnselElgort was borderline, being twenty and playing an eighteen-year-old (and amusingly is listed as ''nineteen'' at one point by Isaac).
212* ''Film/Fear1996'', 20-year-old Creator/ReeseWitherspoon, 24-year-old Creator/AlyssaMilano, 25-year-old Creator/MarkWahlberg, 27-year-old Todd Caldecott, 33-year-old Gary Riley.
213* ''Film/Feed2017'': Creator/TomFelton, Creator/TroianBellisario, Ben Winchell and Creator/TiffanyBoone play teenages just finishing up high school. All were older than that, with Bellisario (at around 31) the oldest and Winchell (about 22) being the youngest among them.
214* ''Female Trouble'': Mink Stole, in her late 20s, plays a 14-year-old, and it's heavily {{lampshade|Hanging}}d.
215* ''Film/FerrisBuellersDayOff'' merits notation. Creator/MatthewBroderick was 23 at the time of filming, Creator/JenniferGrey (Ferris' younger sister) was 25, but Creator/AlanRuck (Cameron) topped them both by turning ''thirty'' a few weeks after the film was released. By glaring contrast, fellow cast member Creator/KristySwanson celebrated her 16th birthday shortly before the premiere.
216* The ''Film/FinalDestination'' series is knee-deep in this trope. As an example, 28-year-old [[Series/DawsonsCreek Kerr Smith]] and 29-year-old Amanda Detmer as high school sweet-hearts.
217** Somewhat averted, however, by the fact that (contrary to the popular belief that all the films center on teenagers) only the characters in the first and third film are supposed to be teenagers. The characters in the second, fourth and fifth films are actually meant to be in their twenties or older.
218* ''Film/FiredUp'' has 23-year-old Creator/SarahRoemer, 27-year-old Nicholas d'Agosto, 30-year-old Creator/EricChristianOlsen, and 30-year-old Creator/DanneelAckles playing high school cheerleaders.
219* ''Film/FirstGirlILoved'': Both Dylan Gelula and Brianna Hildebrand are older than their characters, though not by much. Anne, Gelula's character, isn't given a specific age but likely in her late teens and Gelula was 21-22 at the time. Sasha, whom Hildebrand played, is 18. At the time she was 19-20. Matéo Arias played Clifton, who is likely also supposed to be about the same age. He was 19.
220* ''Film/FlightOfTheNavigator'': 20-year-old Matt Adler as 16-year-old Jeff Freeman.
221* ''Flashback (AKA The Education of Fredrick Fitzel)'' - Principal photography took place in 2018. Dylan Rhodes O'Brien (born 1991), Maika Monroe (born 1993), Emory Isaac Cohen (born 1990), Keir David Peters Gilchrist (born 1992) as both their adult and teenaged version of their characters.
222* ''Film/TheFlintStreetNativity'' is an extreme example, with adult actors playing primary (elementary) school children, on a set where everything is twice as big as normal. It's not really supposed to be ''convincing'', so much as just have you accept that that's how they're doing it.
223* Another really bad example comes from the rather poor film adaptation of the novel ''Film/FlowersInTheAttic'' by Creator/VCAndrews, in which actors that look like adults are cast as characters who, in the book, were 14 and 12. This even [[PlotHole breaks the plot]]; the male lead is large enough to simply physically overpower his abusive grandmother while the rest of his siblings simply walk out the front door of the mostly empty mansion.
224* Creator/KevinBacon was 25 when he played teenager Ren [=McCormack=] in ''Film/{{Footloose}}''. Ironically, he had played 18-to-19-year-old Chip Diller in ''Film/AnimalHouse'' when he was in fact 19 years old.
225* Creator/TomHanks played the title character in ''Film/ForrestGump''. Hanks was 37, playing Forrest from his teens to age thirty. Creator/RobinWright played Forrest's friend Jenny over the same time frame; Wright is ten years younger than Hanks, though their characters were the same age. At least she was the right age for her character by the end of the movie.
226* In ''Film/ForYourEyesOnly'', Lynn-Holly Johnson, 22-23 at the time of filming, played the 14-year-old Bibi Dahl. This was likely done to reduce the {{squick}} of her infatuation with Bond.
227* ''Foxfire'': 20-year-old Jenny Lewis, 21-year-old Creator/AngelinaJolie, 23-year-old Hedy Burress, 25-year-old Sarah Rosenberg, and 29-year-old Jenny Shimizu as high school students.
228* ''Film/TheFounder'': The film takes place in 1954, and Ray Kroc is said to be 52 by the end, like in real life. He's played by the 65-year-old Creator/MichaelKeaton. Similarily, Joan, who was in her late-twenties at the time, is played by the 41-year-old Creator/LindaCardellini.
229* ''Film/FreedomWriters'' - 21-year-old Jaclyn Ngan, 27-year-old April Lee Hernández, and 30-year-old Will Morales playing high school students.
230* ''Franchise/FridayThe13th'' -- You'll be hard-pressed to find a real teen in any installment of this teen slasher series.
231** One inversion came in part 2. Marta Kober was 17 at the time of filming (even though she was supposed to be in her early to mid-twenties like the rest of the counselors), which made her sex scene/death difficult.
232* ''Film/FromDuskTillDawn'' - 23-year-old Creator/JulietteLewis as teenaged Kate Fuller.
233* ''Film/FunSize:'' A high schooler (19-year-old Music/VictoriaJustice) goes with her best friend from school (baby-faced, but tired-looking, 23-year-old Creator/JaneLevy) to a Halloween party to be with a "boy" from school (26-year-old Thomas [=McDonell=]). Chelsea Handler plays the mom, 11 years older than Thomas [=McDonell=].
234* ''Film/GingerSnaps'' centres around the lives of two fifteen year old sisters; the older sister Ginger was played by Creator/KatharineIsabelle, who was about 19 as of the film's release, while her little sister Brigitte was played by the younger-looking actress Creator/EmilyPerkins, who was actually four years older than Katharine. This is pushed further in the 2004 sequel, in which no more than a year has passed since the events of the first film. Katharine Isabelle was 23 and Emily Perkins was 27 by the film's release.
235* ''Film/{{Girlfight}}'': Diana, who's 18, was played by Creator/MichelleRodriguez at 21 or 22.
236* ''Film/GirlInGoldBoots''. Buz is supposed to be college age, but the actor is clearly in his early 40s.
237* In ''Film/GirlInterrupted'' 27-year-old Creator/WinonaRyder played the titular 19-year-old. Critics at the time mentioned that whilst Ryder did look younger than her age this was still pushing it more than a bit.
238* ''Film/GirlsJustWantToHaveFun'' - The only teenaged actor in this teen movie is Creator/ShannenDoherty, who is playing 12-year-old.
239* ''Film/TheGiver'' has 24-year-old Creator/BrentonThwaites as [[AgeLift 16]]-year-old Jonas.
240* ''Film/Glass2019'' - Kevin Crumb and Joseph Dunn are supposed to be 24, though Joseph is played by babyfaced Creator/SpencerTreatClark, who was about 30 at the time of filming, and Kevin is played by Creator/JamesMcAvoy, 8 years older.
241* In ''Film/{{Goodfellas}}'', Henry Hill and Tommy [=DeVito=] are played by child actors in the opening fifteen minutes, then the film jumps forward a few years and they are replaced by 34-year-old Creator/RayLiotta and 47-year-old Creator/JoePesci. The story covers a period of nearly twenty-five years, so the choice of actors makes sense (it's considerably harder for someone in their twenties to make a believable 40-year-old than in the opposite situation), but it does produce a bit of an "er, what?" moment when the narration identifies Ray Liotta as a "21-year-old kid." It's especially jarring when you realize that Pesci is meant to be in his early twenties during the famous "What do you mean I'm funny?" scene. It is worth noting that Tommy never comes within 10 years of Pesci's age. Similarly Jimmy, played by Creator/RobertDeNiro who was well into his forties by that point, is first introduced as a 28-year-old. Fortunately, they whiten his hair in the later parts to age him.
242* ''Film/TheGoonies'': 26-year-old Steve Antin plays the high school bully Troy.
243* In ''Grace Of Monaco'', 45-year-old Creator/NicoleKidman plays Creator/GraceKelly during the early '60s. At the time Princess Grace was in her early ''thirties''.
244* ''Film/TheGraduate'': 30-year-old Creator/DustinHoffman as recent college graduate Ben and 27-year-old Creator/KatharineRoss as college-aged Elaine. 36-year-old Creator/AnneBancroft played Ben's middle-aged paramour Mrs. Robinson--also Elaine's mother--making her an example in the other direction.
245* An (in)famous movie example: 33-year-old Creator/StockardChanning (in other words, old enough to have ''actually attended high school in the 1950s''), as 17-year-old Rizzo in ''Film/{{Grease}}'' (not to mention most of the rest of the "teenagers" in the cast; of the central teen characters, only one was actually a teenager -- then-19-year-old Dinah Manoff). Even more audaciously, Manoff is paired with Channing as her [[TheLancer Lancer]]...''and it works''. The sequel features a full cast of 20-somethings like 24-year-old Creator/MichellePfeiffer.
246** Other examples include Music/OliviaNewtonJohn (29) as Sandy, Creator/JohnTravolta (24) as Danny, Jeff Conaway (28) as Kenickie, Barry Pearl (28) as Doodie, Michael Tucci (32) as Sonny, Kelly Ward (22) as Putzie, Didi Conn (27) as Frenchie, Jamie Donnelly (31) as Jan, Dinah Manoff (22) as Marty, Creator/EddieDeezen (21) as Eugene, Susan Buckner (25) as Patty Simcox, Lorenzo Lamas (20) as Tom Chism, Annette Charles (29) as Cha-Cha, and Dennis C. Stewart (29) as Craterface.
247** Some of the actors were barely younger than Frankie Avalon (38), an actual teen idol from the late 1950s that makes a guest appearance.
248* ''Film/{{Grimsby}}'' features Creator/SachaBaronCohen (44) and Creator/MarkStrong (52) playing brothers, with Cohen's character actually being the ''older'' of the two, despite clear physical evidence to the contrary. It could be argued that this is all part of the joke, however.
249* ''Film/AGuideToRecognizingYourSaints'':
250** The actual teens - who are sixteen at the youngest were twenty (Creator/ShiaLaBeouf), twenty-two (Melonie Diaz, Martin Compston), twenty-four (Eleonore Hendricks).
251** Creator/ChanningTatum is a borderline case. Antonio is never seen in school with the others and his age isn't stated, other than that he's Giuseppe's older brother. The actor was twenty-six, meaning that Antonio could just be an early twentysomething hanging around with teens.
252** Dito in the present day portions is meant to only be his mid-thirties, but Creator/RobertDowneyJr was already in his forties ([[OlderThanTheyLook but of course did not look it]]). Creator/EricRoberts was likewise in his fifties playing Antonio's older self (fifteen years have passed, so Antonio should be somewhere in his thirties or early forties).
253* ''Film/{{Hackers}}'': 17-year-old Jesse Bradford is the only teen actor. The other leads are played by people in their early 20s, ranging from 20-year-old Creator/AngelinaJolie to 25-year-old Creator/MatthewLillard.
254* ''Film/Hairspray2007'': 21-year-old Creator/AmandaBynes as Penny, 21-year-old Creator/BrittanySnow as Amber, and 20-year-old Elijah Kelly as Seaweed.
255* ''Film/Hairspray1988'': 27-year-old Michael St. Gerard as Link.
256* The {{Franchise/Halloween}} Series, about a guy who kills high school seniors.
257** ''Film/{{Halloween 1978}}'':
258*** 20-year-old Creator/JamieLeeCurtis
259*** 28-year-old PJ Soles
260*** 29-year-old Nancy Kyes
261*** For an additional scene shot for the television version in 1981, the three above actresses were 23, 31, and 32 years old respectively.
262** ''Film/HalloweenII1981'':
263*** 23-year-old Creator/JamieLeeCurtis
264*** 21-year-old Lance Guest (assumed to be about the same age as Curtis)
265*** 32-year-old Nancy Kyes
266** ''Film/Halloween4TheReturnOfMichaelMyers'':
267*** 23-year-old Kathleen Kinmont
268*** 24-year-old Sasha Jensen
269*** 25-year-old Ellie Cornell
270** ''Film/Halloween5TheRevengeOfMichaelMyers'':
271*** 23-year-old Wendy Kaplan
272*** 20-year-old Tamara Glynn
273*** 26-year-old Ellie Cornell
274** ''Film/HalloweenTheCurseOfMichaelMyers'':
275*** 20-year-old J.C Brandy (playing a 14 year old)
276** ''Film/HalloweenH20TwentyYearsLater''
277*** 19-year-old Creator/JoshHartnett:
278*** 19-year-old Jodi Lynn O'Keefe
279*** 24-year-old Branden Williams
280** ''Rob Zombie's Film/{{Halloween 2007}}'':
281*** 29-year-old Creator/DanielleHarris
282*** 29-year-old Kristina Klebe
283** ''Film/HalloweenII2009'':
284*** 31-year-old Creator/DanielleHarris
285*** 20-year-old Scout Taylor-Compton
286** ''Film/{{Halloween 2018}}'':
287*** 24-year-old Andi Matchiak
288*** 24-year-old Dylan Arnold
289*** 23-year-old Virginia Gardner
290*** 26-year-old Miles Robbins
291** ''Film/{{Halloween Kills}}'':
292*** 27-year-old Andi Matchiak
293*** 27-year-old Dylan Arnold
294* ''Film/HappyBirthdayToMe'' - 25-year-old Matt Craven as one of many 20-something teens (though they're technically college students, so it's not quite as bad).
295* ''Harper Valley PTA'' - 14-year-old Susan Swift plays 14-year-old Dee Johnson, who is interested in a classmate named Carlyle, played by 20-year-old Brian Cook.
296* Harold and Kumar in ''Film/HaroldAndKumarGoToWhiteCastle''. Played straight with John Cho, who, at 30, played a character two years out of college -- but averted with Kal Penn, who was a relatively age-appropriate 26. By the time the sequel came around, this trope was played straight with ''both'' actors (35 and 31 respectively, playing their characters at 24-25 since the action picks up right where the first film left off).
297* ''Film/HarryPotter:''
298** Daniel Radcliffe's age matched that of his character in the first film (as was the case with most of the main cast), but as the books are all set 1 year apart whereas some of the films were released at longer intervals than that, the gap between them gradually widened. By ''Deathly Hallows Part 2'' he was 21 to Harry's 17. Originally all the books from ''Goblet of Fire'' onwards were going to be DividedForAdaptation, but ultimately only the final book was, as otherwise Radcliffe would probably have been about 30 by the time they finished.
299** Moaning Myrtle (a ghost who died in her teens) was played by then-''37-year-old'' Creator/ShirleyHenderson in ''[[Film/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets Chamber of Secrets]]'' (her being a ghost, her appearance thusly being quite worked-over already and somewhat obscured by the opticals involved, probably helped hide the fact). The fact that she would be appearing across at least two films and would need to not visibly age meant an older actress was probably necessary. Henderson was so convincing as a teen that many believed that Myrtle was played by Daniel Radcliffe in a wig.
300** Creator/DavidTennant (then 33) was the right age to play Barty Crouch Jr. in ''[[Film/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire Goblet of Fire]]'' - in the present-day sequences. However, he also plays Crouch in a flashback to Crouch's trial, which took place when the character was 19.
301** A convoluted example involves Tom Riddle, who [[TimeshiftedActor appears as a 16-year-old]] in two films made seven years apart. In ''Chamber of Secrets'', 23-year-old Christian Coulson played Riddle. By the time ''[[Film/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince Half-Blood Prince]]'' rolled around, Coulson was pushing 30 and [[TheOtherDarrin the part was recast]] with actual 16-year-old Frank Dillane.
302** ''[[Film/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Deathly Hallows Part 2]]'' features an inversion, where [[spoiler: the DistantFinale has everyone being played by the same actors as before, only with special-effects applied to try and make them ''look'' like they're in their late thirties, around 37 or so, despite only being in their early 20s.]]
303** This trope was done unintentionally with the actors playing James and Lily Potter. When the movies began, Lily and James were played by 34-year-old Geraldine Somerville and 43-year-old Adrian Rawlins, respectively. And the roles were never recast, leaving them both in their 40's and 50's by the time the movies ended. This is a glaring example of Dawson Casting, as Lily and James were barely in their 20's when they died. But it's unintentional because ages for James and Lily at the time of their deaths were not revealed until near the end of the book series, years after most of the movies had been produced. (It's not as bad as some, given that they only appear ''very'' briefly in any of the films.)
304*** A similar issue is Creator/AlanRickman - 54 at the time the first movie was made - as Professor Severus Snape, who's the same age as Harry's parents and therefore 32 in the first book. Even worse are the flashbacks in the eighth movie, where Rickman (then 64) plays Snape at around age twenty.
305* The best example has to be ''Literature/HatingAlisonAshley'', which centers around a year 9 (though it was grade six in the book) camping trip. The actors in the movie version were 20 and 21 at the time of its release.
306* ''Havoc'' and its pseudo-sequel ''Normal Adolescent Behavior'' feature 23-year-old Creator/AnneHathaway and 24-year-old Creator/AmberTamblyn and their equally early 20s friends.
307* ''Film/{{Heathers}}'' mostly avoids this trope, with a notable exception being 23-year-old Lisanne Falk playing high school junior Heather [=McNamara=]. Explained in part by the fact that Falk lied about her age to casting directors and claimed to be 19. Her real age was not uncovered until filming had wrapped.
308* ''Film/HeGotGame'': All of the Lincoln High School players are visibly well into their twenties, with some of them making for the world's oldest-looking juniors. Paradoxically, the youngest-looking of them - Booger, identified as a senior - has the oldest actor: Hill Harper was THIRTY-ONE, almost exactly twice the age his character is supposed to be!
309* ''Film/HeavenIsForReal'' - According to [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg52cE6VHDs this]] the real Burpos started their adventure in 2003. The real Todd Burpo was 34. The movie, starring Creator/GregKinnear as Todd Burpo, came out 2014. Greg Kinnear was 49. The real Colton Burpo was 3 years old when the story began and is portrayed by Connor Corum, who was around 6 or 7 years old (his only birthdate information being 2007).
310* In ''Hellgate'', [[Series/WelcomeBackKotter Ron Palillo]] plays one of four college students who encounter evil in a ghost town. He was 40 at the time.
311* Some of the stars of ''Film/HighSchoolMusical'' are in their twenties. Most were at a reasonable age at the start, but the time of the films [[ComicBookTime moves differently then real time.]] Monique Coleman obviously fits at age 26, though she doesn't look it.
312* ''Film/TheHillsHaveEyes2006'' - 25-year-old Creator/EmilieDeRavin as teen Brenda.
313* ''Film/HollywoodChainsawHookers'' - Samantha is implied to be an underaged minor who ran away from her abusive home and is lying about being older. She states her age as being 21 years old to a skeptical man who then asks to see some ID. She's played by 30-year-old Creator/LinneaQuigley.
314* ''Film/{{Hook}}'': The 19-year-old Creator/GwynethPaltrow plays the 12-year-old Wendy Darling in the flashback scenes, though Paltrow also plays Wendy as an adult before becoming the elderly Wendy as played by Creator/MaggieSmith.
315* ''Household Saints'' is a 1993 movie about three generations of women, but focuses mostly on the courtship of teenagers Catherine and Joseph (played by 34-year-olds Tracey Ullman and Creator/VincentDOnofrio). The focus then shifts to the future, when their teen daughter meets her boyfriend (played by 26-year-old and 27-year-old Creator/LiliTaylor and Michael Imperioli).
316* ''Film/TheHowling1981'': Creator/RobertPicardo was 28 when he played the "kid" Eddie Quist.
317* ''Film/HushHushSweetCharlotte'' - Creator/BetteDavis plays a teen or young adult at the beginning before the story skips ahead 40 years. Bette was in her 50s. Pains were taken to hide Bette's withered visage in shadow, or film her from behind.
318* ''Literature/IAmNumberFour'': the two leads, 14 in the book, are played by a 21-year-old and a 25-year-old.
319* ''Film/IKnowWhatYouDidLastSummer'':
320** Ryan Phillippe was the most notable of the cast; being twenty-two. This wouldn't be an issue if the film were a direct adaptation of the book, where Barry is slightly older than the others (already in his junior year of college), but he's implied to have just graduated too.
321** Sarah Michelle Gellar was borderline; twenty playing Helen at eighteen or nineteen in the prologue. But after the TimeSkip of a year, their ages match.
322** Freddie Prinze Jr likewise was twenty-one. Again, after the year's TimeSkip...
323** Jennifer Love Hewitt by contrast was actually younger than Julie; sixteen to Julie's eighteen (and nineteen after the year's time skip).
324* ''Film/ILoveYouBethCooper'' was filmed the year Creator/HaydenPanettiere, as the titular high school cheerleader, turned 19. So far so good. Unfortunately Paul Rust as Denis, the "I" in the title, was almost 30. (The film has a scene where Denis can't buy beer because ''he doesn't look old enough'', a moment which fulfils director Creator/ChrisColumbus' quota of irony for the next few decades.) The end credits feature high school pictures of the main cast and the above-the-line crew; Panettiere is just about the only one of the former (and it's safe to say the latter, unless there's something Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox isn't telling us) who looks the same as she did working on the movie!
325* ''I Shot Andy Warhol'' is about Valerie Solanas, the person who shot Creator/AndyWarhol, and the movie starts off about her early life. Born in 1936, Solanas graduated from high school in 1954, graduated from the University of Maryland in 1958, and did nearly a year of graduate work at the University of Minnesota, making her 25 at the very oldest. She is played by 33-year-old Creator/LiliTaylor.
326* ''The Identical'' has 40-year-old Creator/SethGreen and Blake Rayne playing the teenage versions of their characters for part of movie.
327* ''If These Walls Could Talk'' -- 23-year-old Hedy Burress plays a high school student.
328* ''Film/InHerSkin'': 15-year-old Rachel is played by 27-year-old Kate Bell. Ruth Bradley, who plays her former babysitter, is four years ''younger'' than her!
329* ''Film/InTheHeartOfTheSea'' has a 59-year-old Creator/BrendanGleeson playing a 44-year-old Thomas Nickerson and a 17-year-old Tom Holland playing 14-year-old Thomas Nickerson.
330* ''Film/InTheHeights'' has 24-year-old Leslie Grace playing Nina, who has just finished her freshman year of college and so is probably about 19, and 31-year-old Corey Hawkins playing her boyfriend Benny, whose age isn't given but is implied to be about the same age.
331* ''Film/InTheNameOfTheFather'' had Beatie Etney play 17-year old Carol Richardson while at least 30 herself at the time of filming (however she's later aged up as her character spends 15 years in prison).
332* All the adult characters in ''Film/InTime'' have physically aged exactly 25 years, but Creator/AmandaSeyfried was the only cast member who was actually 25 at the time of filming. Creator/CillianMurphy was 35. The premise also allowed for some justified inversions of the trope, such as actors in their twenties or thirties playing characters with triple digit ages as well as 26 year-old Creator/OliviaWilde playing Justin Timberlake's 50 year-old mother.
333* ''Franchise/IndianaJones'': Creator/HarrisonFord is older than the title character in every movie. While vague in the first two movies, ''Film/IndianaJonesAndTheLastCrusade'' would reveal that Indiana was a teenager in 1912 and ''Series/TheYoungIndianaJonesChronicles'' gives him a canon birth year of 1899. While Ford was nearly the same age as Indy in ''Raiders'', every subsequent film has widened the gap between them: ''[[Film/IndianaJonesAndTheTempleOfDoom Temple of Doom]]'' was released 3 years later but set 1 year earlier, making Ford 41 and Indy 36. By ''[[Film/IndianaJonesAndTheDialOfDestiny Dial of Destiny]]'' he was nearly a decade older than Indy (79 vs. 70). His appearance as Indy in his 40's in the prologue is a semi-example, as although his aspect was [[DigitalDeaging digitally de-aged]], his voice wasn't, resulting in a bit of VocalDissonance.
334* The 2006 version of ''The Initiation of Sarah'', featuring 25-year-old Creator/SummerGlau as 18-year-old Lindsay.
335* While ''Film/TheInnocents'' does avert this with child actors playing Miles and Flora, the governess in the novella is stated to be twenty. While she could be a little older in the film, she's still mentioned to be "young and pretty" and is on her first job. Deborah Kerr turned forty not long after filming (although she certainly looked as though she could be mid-twenties).
336* In ''Film/InsideDaisyClover'', the eponymous Daisy Clover is 15/16 (there's a [[JailbaitTaboo prison threat]] from her producer to the actor who romances her), and Creator/NatalieWood was 26.
337* ''Film/{{Interstellar}}'' has a minor case with child Murph - she starts at 10, Creator/MackenzieFoy was 12 - but a much bigger with her father Cooper. Adult Murph complains in a video message to Cooper that she now has the same age as when he left, and Cooper hasn't returned. The characters being in the mid-30s is logical, but while Creator/JessicaChastain was 36, Creator/MatthewMcConaughey is 8 years older than her.
338* The protagonist of ''Film/InTheCut'' constantly insists that Creator/MarkRuffalo's detective looks way too young to be a detective even though he was 38 at the time and looks very much like it.
339* In the [[Film/It1990 1990 film adaptation]] of Creator/StephenKing's ''Literature/{{It}}'', 16-year-old Creator/SethGreen, who had reached, or was close to his adult height of 5'3" at that time, played Richie Tozier, one of the tallest in a group of 12-year-old outcasts called the Loser's Club. 17-year-old Jarred Blancard played bully Henry Bowers, who is presumably a year or two older than Richie and the rest of the Loser's Club.
340* ''Film/ITonya'' has 27 at the time Creator/MargotRobbie narrate a flashback to when she is "15 years old" only to almost comedically jump scare the audience with... normal Margot Robbie, with no attempt to make her look younger.
341* ''Film/ItsAWonderfulKnife2023'': Winnie, Bernie and other teenagers are played by actors in their twenties.
342* ''Film/ItsAWonderfulLife'' - 38-year-old Creator/JimmyStewart as a college student. 25-year-old Creator/DonnaReed as 18-year-old Mary Hatch. They are supposed to be a couple years apart in age. Though they play the same characters through the next decade and a half of their lives, so eventually Donna's significantly younger than her character and Jimmy's about the right age for his character.
343* Almost every live-action adaptation of ''Literature/JaneEyre''. Jane is supposed to be 19 when she starts working for Mr. Rochester, yet she has been played by: 26-year-old Joan Fontaine ([[Film/JaneEyre1943 1943 film]]), 28-year-old Susannah York ([[Film/JaneEyre1970 1970 film]]), 23-year-old Sorcha Cusack ([[Series/JaneEyre1973 1973 miniseries]]), 28-year-old Zelah Clarke ([[Series/JaneEyre1983 1983 miniseries]]), 24-year-old Charlotte Gainsbourg ([[Film/JaneEyre1996 1996 film]]), and 25-year-old Ruth Wilson (2006 [[Series/JaneEyre2006 tv miniseries]]).
344* ''Film/{{Jawbreaker}}'' -- Some high school girls accidentally kill another high school girl during a high school prank. Starring 24-year-old Creator/JudyGreer, 26-year-old Creator/RoseMcGowan, 27-year-old Creator/JulieBenz, and 28-year-old Creator/RebeccaGayheart.
345* In her first two movies Creator/JessicaChastain played teenagers - the title character in a filmed version of the stage play ''Salome'', and the title character in her first movie [[TheShelfOfMovieLanguishment to be released]] (''Jolene'') who goes from 15 to 25. She was in her very, very early 30s when she made them.
346* ''Film/JohnnyBeGood'' -- 20-year-old Creator/AnthonyMichaelHall and 24-year-old Creator/RobertDowneyJr as high school seniors.
347* The "teen" cast of ''Film/JumanjiWelcomeToTheJungle'' isn't too bad, with one 17-year-old and two 19-year-olds. But Ser'Darius Blain, who plays young Fridge, was '''29''' at the time of filming - and, even worse, is eight months older than Creator/KarenGillan, the youngest member of the "adult" cast.
348* Creator/JustinLong made a career throughout his 20's, of playing almost exclusively characters a good 10+ years younger than he is. He can make it work though, since he has a rather youthful face. He pretty much stopped once he turned 30.
349* ''Just One Of The Girls'' (1993) - 22-year-olds Creator/CoreyHaim and Nicole Eggbert portray teens in this cross-dressing romance. 26-year-old Creator/CameronBancroft plays a high school bully.
350* Creator/RalphMacchio was in his early twenties when he first played the 17-year-old Daniel [=LaRusso=] in ''Film/TheKarateKid''. By the time ''Film/TheKarateKidPartIII'', Macchio was still playing teen-aged Daniel despite being in his ''late'' twenties. (His boyish good looks and the fact that his voice remained in a higher register after breaking helped.)
351** He played a college freshman in ''Film/MyCousinVinny'' while in his ''early 30s'' and still somehow looked convincing.
352* In the movie ''Keith'' done in 2008, Creator/ElisabethHarnois played a 17 year old although she was about 29. Her co-star Music/JesseMccartney was only 21, also playing a 17 year old.
353* ''Film/KickAss'' - All the high schoolers are played by people in their 20s. They are brought back for the [[Film/KickAss2 sequel]] several years later, still as high schoolers, with the exception of Creator/EvanPeters, who was replaced by Augustus Prew, who was born in the same year. The oldest among them would be 28-year-old Creator/ClarkDuke.
354* ''Film/{{Kidulthood}}'' stars Creator/NoelClarke, who was 29 when playing the 18-year-old leading man Sam. At 32, Clarke returned to play a 24-year-old Sam in the sequel ''Adulthood''.
355* ''Film/KillerJoe'' casts 22-year-old Creator/JunoTemple as the adolescent Dottie. However it is very justified as 1) it plays into Dottie's character as a young girl who is trying to be older than she is while also being very childlike, 2) Temple looks young for her age and 3) there is absolutely no way in hell that an actual child actress or teen actress would be allowed to film some of the scenes required in this movie.
356* ''A Killing Secret'' stars 28-year-old Ari Meyers as a high school student.
357* ''Film/KissOfTheDamned'': Creator/RileyKeough (22-23 at the time) plays Anna (17).
358* ''Film/TheKissingBooth'': Most of teens were played by twentysomethings, the most prominent being Lee (Creator/JoelCourtney, 21). The only ones played by actual teenagers are Elle (Creator/JoeyKing, 17) and Noah (Jacob Elordi, 19).
359* ''Kundo: Age Of The Rampant'':
360** 36-year-old Ha Jung-woo plays Dolchi from the ages of 18-20. One scene has his sister telling children that he's only several years older than them.
361** 43-year-old Creator/MaDongSeok plays Tianbao from the ages of 20-22.
362* ''Film/LaBamba'': 17-year-old Music/RitchieValens (24-year-old Creator/LouDiamondPhillips) is a normal high school student who becomes a rock 'n' roll superstar. He meets and falls in love with fellow high school student Donna Ludwig (22-year-old Danielle von Zerneck). It probably helped that the real Valens could have plausibly passed for ten years ''older'' than he really was, as shown in the photo on Valens' page on this wiki.
363* Creator/SaoirseRonan was 22 years old when she played a 17-year-old in ''Film/LadyBird''.
364* ''Film/LandOfBad'' has 33 year old Creator/LiamHemsworth as a 27 year old soldier.
365* ''Film/TheLangoliers'', from 1995. Kimber Riddle, born 1966, as rebellious Bethany Simms. Christopher Collet, born 1968, as nerdy Albert "Ace" Kaussner.
366* Creator/JacksonRathbone age 25 plays 15-year-old Sokka (at least in the series) in ''Film/TheLastAirbender''.
367* Creator/RandyQuaid was 23 when ''Film/TheLastDetail'' was made. It is never specifically stated how old his character is, but he isn't old enough to drink.
368* ''Literature/TheLastDragonslayer'': 15-year-old Jennifer is played by the 24-year-old Ellise Chappell.
369* ''Last Exit to Brooklyn'' - 21-year-old Ricki Lake as Donna, an unmarried teen mother.
370* ''Film/TheLastStarfighter'' -- 24-year-old Lance Guest and 25-year-old Creator/CatherineMaryStewart as a teen couple. Their group of friends are in their mid-twenties, as well, but the only one with a real speaking part was 25-year-old Peter Nelson as Jack Blake (the obnoxious guy in the cowboy hat).
371* Everyone in ''Film/TheLastSummer'', which stars high school graduates about to enter college. The youngest actor was Creator/KJApa, who was 21. The oldest was Sosie Bacon, who was 27.
372* The 1981 Italian zombie flick ''Le Notti del terrore'' (US title: ''Film/BurialGroundTheNightsOfTerror'') has a disturbing example with a then 25-year-old midget (Peter Bark) playing a 10-year-old child with a serious [[ParentalIncest mother fixation.]] He not only [[http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_tngWMToWtCc/SJ945Vi9M4I/AAAAAAAAFW0/9NHecvz2KWI/s400/Peter+Bark.png doesn't look like a child at all,]] but was cast apparently so they could have a scene where [[spoiler: the zombified child comes back to see his mother, who ''offers him a bare breast and is killed when he starts chewing the nipple off''.]] [[{{Squick}} Ew.]]
373* ''Leather Jacket Love Story:'' 25-year-old Sean Tataryn as 18-year-old Kyle.
374* ''Lemora: A Child's Tale Of The Supernatural'' -- 13-year-old Lila Lee is played by 18-year-old Cheryl "Rainbeaux" Smith.
375* ''Film/LesMiserables2012'': Creator/AmandaSeyfried (26) and Samantha Barks (22); their characters Cosette and Eponine are supposed to be in their late teens. Same can also be said for Creator/AaronTveit, who is nearly 30 when Enjolras is said to be in his mid-20s at most.
376* ''Film/LiarLiar'' - 9-year-old Justin Cooper as 4-year-old Max Reede. A lesser example is the 38-year-old Creator/JenniferTilly as the 31-year-old Samantha Cole.
377* ''Film/LiberalArts'': 19 year olds Zibby and Dean are respectively played by 23 year old Creator/ElizabethOlsen and ''29'' year old Creator/JohnMagaro.
378* ''Film/LifeAfterBeth'': The gravestone reveals that Beth was 21 when she died. At the time of filming, Creator/AubreyPlaza would have been 29, if not 30.
379* ''The Life Before Her Eyes'' -- 19-year-old Creator/EvanRachelWood and 22-year-old Eva Amurri as high school students. Also of note, Creator/UmaThurman, in her late 30s, playing a character in her early 30s.
380* One of the main reasons, if not ''the'' main, for the lukewarm reception of ''The Lilac Sphere''. While Natalia Guseva, aged eleven to twelve during the filming of ''Series/GuestFromTheFuture'', perfectly fit the part of eleven-year-old Alice, this time she was fifteen years old herself and portraying Alice at ten.
381* On the far end of the trope is 66 year-old Creator/SallyField playing the twenty-years younger Mary Todd Lincoln in ''Film/{{Lincoln}}''.
382* The 2012 sexually explicit mainstream German film ''Film/LittleThirteen'' features 18-year-old Muriel Wimmer in the lead role. The title of the film is your first clue as to why this trope applies.
383* Adaptations of ''Literature/LittleWomen'' tend to cast older actresses, who play the March sisters across several years (at the start of the story, the sisters are all between 12 and 16, and it follows them through their early to mid twenties):
384** ''Film/LittleWomen1933'' most notably has Amy played by Creator/JoanBennett - who was twenty-three starting off playing her at age twelve! Creator/KatharineHepburn (26) as Jo (starts at 15), Frances Dee (23) as Meg (starts at 16), and Douglas Montgomery (24) as Laurie. Jean Parker was a little better; eighteen playing Beth at thirteen.
385** The 1949 version has June Allyson playing Jo when she was thirty-one. Creator/JanetLeigh (21) and Creator/ElizabethTaylor (16) as Meg and Amy were less extreme examples. Margaret O'Brien by contrast was only 11 playing Beth; and they made Beth the youngest sister to accommodate her (as she wouldn't have suited playing Amy as well).
386** The 1994 film has Creator/WinonaRyder (22) as Jo, Creator/TriniAlvarado (26) as Meg, and Creator/SamanthaMathis (24) as older Amy. They did however have Creator/KirstenDunst (12) playing Amy in her younger years, and Creator/ClaireDanes (15) as Beth.
387** The 2019 film justifies it with the AnachronicOrder structure - where we can assume that the teenage characters looking like their twentysomething actresses come from Jo's memories and imagination. Still, Creator/FlorencePugh was 23 playing Amy at 13! Creator/EmmaWatson likewise was nearly 30 when she played Meg.
388* A particularly ironic example is ''Film/LogansRun'' in which the film's hook is that it's about a society where people are killed once they reach 30. Predictably, much of the cast were well into their thirties and looked it as well.
389* Any adaptation of ''Literature/{{Lolita}}''. Justified in that Creator/VladimirNabokov ''insisted'' that this be done for any adaptation of his book on the grounds that it would be cruel to make such a young actress even pretend to go through what Lolita went through.
390* The satirical 1966 film ''Film/LordLoveADuck'' has high-schoolers played by 23-year-old Tuesday Weld and ''38-year-old'' Creator/RoddyMcDowall.
391* ''Film/TheLonelyLady'': Creator/PiaZadora and Creator/RayLiotta, both 29 at the time, start off the film as a HighSchool students. It's not clear how old Zadora's character is meant to be by the end of the film, though.
392* In ''Film/TheLostBoys'' 21-year-old Jason Patric played 16-year-old Michael, and 15-year-olds Creator/CoreyHaim and Creator/CoreyFeldman played 12-year-olds.
393* ''Film/ALoudHouseChristmas'' has 22-year-old Lexi [=DiBenedetto=] as 17/18-year-old Lori, 11-year-olds Aubin Bradley and Mia and Ella Allan as 8/9-year-old Lucy and 6/7-year-olds Lana and Lola, 10-year-old Lexi Janicek as 4/5-year-old Lisa, and 4-year-old Charlotte Ann Tucker as 15-month-old/2-year-old Lily, as well as 24-year-old Matt Van Smith as 17/18-year-old Bobby.
394* In perhaps one of the most extreme examples of this trope, ''Film/TheLovelyBones'' cast 22-year-old [=Rose McIver=] as the character of Lindsey Salmon, who is supposed to be a 13-year-old girl. The incongruity was made even worse by the fact that the character of Susie Salmon, who is Lindsey's 14-year-old sister, went to 15-year-old Creator/SaoirseRonan, who actually looked like she was about the right age -- so the audience was treated to a 22-year-old playing the younger sister of an obviously-younger 15-year-old. This led to widespread confusion among audience members as to which sister was supposed to be older. {{Justified|Trope}}, though, as the movie ''starts out'' [[DeadToBeginWith with Susie being murdered]] and the rest is all PosthumousNarration. Most of the scenes with Lindsey in them take place a few years later, and since Lindsey was only a year younger than her sister to begin with, she's already passed Susie's terminal age.
395* All three teenage characters in ''Film/MadameWeb2024'' are played by women at various points in their 20s during filming, with Creator/SydneySweeney being the most extreme case, being probably at least a decade older than her character is supposed to be.
396* The title character of the film ''[=Madeline's=] Madeline'' is seventeen years old but was played by the 20-year-old Helena Howard.
397* ''Film/{{Malavita}}'': Creator/DiannaAgron was twenty six playing Belle, a teenager. John D'Leo, then eighteen, plays thirteen year old Warren.
398* ''Film/{{The Maltese Falcon|1941}}'' features 38-year-old Elisha Cook Jr. as the "boy" Wilmer, who is described as "about twenty."
399* ''Film/MammaMia'' averted this with 21-year-old Creator/AmandaSeyfried as 20-year-old Sophie, but most of the characters of her mother's generation were played by actors in their late 50s, though the characters could only logically be in their early to mid forties [[note]]Donna refers to having been kicked out by her mother when she got pregnant, which implies she was a relatively young mother; it doesn't make sense to think of this happening to her as an adult close to 40, as she would have been if she were the same age as her actress Meryl Streep. The sequel establishes that Donna got pregnant shortly after finishing college, and Tanya and Rosie are the same age. Her former boyfriends could be a bit older, but there's nothing to suggest a 10-year-plus age gap with any of them[[/note]]. Creator/ColinFirth at 48 was the only one who was about the right age for his character.
400** By the sequel movie, Seyfried is invoking this too; it's unavoidable since it was made ten years later but only five years passed in the story, so Seyfried's now 31 playing Sophie age 25.
401* The Sci Fi Channel movie called ''Film/{{Mammoth}}'', featuring 25-year-old Creator/SummerGlau as the hero's daughter, who celebrates her 16th birthday at the start of the film. This was 4 years after she was in ''Series/{{Firefly}}''.
402* ''Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom'' - 40-year-old Creator/IdrisElba portrays UsefulNotes/NelsonMandela from age 24 onward.
403* Creator/AnnaPaquin was roughly 23 when she played a seventeen-year-old in ''Film/{{Margaret}}''. Due to the film going through a lengthy period of TheShelfOfMovieLanguishment, she was 29 when it was finally released in 2011.
404* ''Film/MargaritaWithAStraw'': Leila is supposed to be in her late teens/early twenties when the film begins (it was never stated precisely, but she's a college student). Her actress at the time was around 29 to 30.
405* Both played straight and averted in the animated movie ''WesternAnimation/MarsNeedsMoms''. When it was released in 2011, Creator/SethGreen, who did the motion capture for 9-year-old Milo, was 37. He was originally slated to voice the character as well, but the creators realized he sounded too mature for a kid, and had him dubbed over by 11-year-old Seth Dusky.
406* The Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse has a few cases, mostly due to OlderThanTheyLook.
407** ''Film/IronMan1'' shows that Tony Stark was born in 1970... when his portrayer Creator/RobertDowneyJr was already 5.
408** ''Film/AntMan1'': Scott has a VagueAge that certainly places him in his mid to late-30s at best. Creator/PaulRudd was 45 during the movie's shoot.
409** ''Film/BlackPanther2018'': While no specific age is ever stated (the movie appears to be going for late teens), Shuri is young enough that her competence to lead Wakanda's technological innovation is repeatedly called into question due to her age. When the movie came out, Creator/LetitiaWright, who plays Shuri, was 24.
410*** Not to mention that Shuri's brother T'Challa is played by 40-year old Creator/ChadwickBoseman. Unless they have a 20+ year age gap between the siblings, which seems unlikely (though not impossible), T'Challa is also quite a bit younger than the actor who plays him, which is supported by the fact that a deleted scene shows him being a child in 1992, when Boseman would have been about 16 at the time.
411** Pietro and Wanda Maximoff are described as "kids" in ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'', and Wanda specifically is stated to be high school-aged judging by a remark Hawkeye makes in ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar''. Creator/AaronTaylorJohnson and Creator/ElizabethOlsen were 24 and 25, respectively, when ''Age of Ultron'' was made and visibly so. This was later retconned by ''Series/WandaVision'', which revealed their birth year as 1989 (the same year as Elizabeth Olsen), making their real-life and in-universe ages very close.
412** Creator/TheRussoBrothers were specifically looking for a “more age appropriate actor” when they cast Spider-Man for ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'', but Creator/TomHolland was still 19 years old when he started playing 14 (or possibly 15) year old Peter Parker. And two later MCU characters compound the discrepancy, as Holland is the same age as Creator/FlorencePugh ([[Film/BlackWidow2021 Yelena Belova]]) and Creator/HaileeSteinfeld ([[Series/Hawkeye2021 Kate Bishop]]), but in the same year [[Film/SpiderManNoWayHome Peter Parker was graduating high school]], the actresses' characters were a woman in her late twenties and a college senior. Though in the case of the latter, Kate and Peter were born around the same time, but Peter was dead for five years as a result of the Blip while Kate was not.
413** ''Film/BlackWidow2021'' reveal that Natasha Romanoff's assignment to be accepted onto S.H.I.E.L.D. was attempting to kill Dreykov, head of the Red Room that creates Black Widows, by luring him into a building rigged to explode using his child, Antonia, as bait. [[spoiler:When Antonia turns out to be alive as the Taskmaster, she's played by Creator/OlgaKurylenko, who is actually older than Natasha herself, Creator/ScarlettJohansson. Granted, she is visibly scarred from that explosion, so the injuries made her look older.]]
414** ''Film/ShangChiAndTheLegendOfTheTenRings'', Creator/SimuLiu (32) plays 24 years old Shang-Chi and Meng'er Zhang (34) plays his younger sister, 20 years old Xialing, despite being noticeably older than Liu.
415** In ''Film/AntManAndTheWaspQuantumania'', 18 year-old Cassie Lang is played by 25 year-old Creator/KathrynNewton.
416* In ''Film/{{Mask|1985}}'', the then-24-year-old Creator/EricStoltz played the 15- to 16-year-old Rocky Dennis. Granted, with all the makeup he had to wear to deform his face, it's less noticeable. Somewhat averted with Creator/LauraDern, who was about 18 around the time it was filmed.
417* Played With in ''Film/MatchstickMen''. Alison Lohman plays an adolescent girl a number of years younger than her actual age, [[spoiler:but it turns out that she's actually a lot older than she had claimed]]. Lohman played a teenaged girl in ''Film/{{Flicka}}'' when she was 25.
418* Despite playing teen characters, all the actors in ''Film/TheMazeRunnerSeries'' are in their twenties except for the twelve-year old Blake Cooper as Chuck.
419* ''Film/MeanGirls'' had 24-year-old Creator/RachelMcAdams and 21-year-old Creator/LaceyChabert and Creator/LizzyCaplan playing HighSchool Juniors. Averted with Creator/AmandaSeyfried and Creator/LindsayLohan, both also playing 16-year-olds, were 17-year-olds respectively. Creator/AmyPoehler, who played Regina George's mother, is only seven years older than [=McAdams=]. In the sequel, the principal cast who played Jo, Mandi, Hope, Chastity, and their boyfriends… all in their 20s. The exception would be the actress who plays Abby, Jennifer Stone, was 17. However, this is still part of the trope in that they show a flashback to Jennifer Stone playing Abby in junior high when Abby was around 13 years old.
420* ''Film/MelodySWALK'' - Creator/JackWild plays a character of no more than 11 almost entirely believably despite being 17 at the time of filming. Wild was notoriously short and boyishly cute with a childish voice throughout his teens, and easily played as a 13-year-old in ''Flight of the Doves'' the same year.
421* The film version of ''Literature/MemoirsOfAGeisha'':
422** Creator/ZiyiZhang plays Chiyo (later renamed Sayuri) first at age fifteen, when she was twenty-five. But the film covers several years, and Sayuri is thirty-five by the end.
423** Hatsumomo has a VagueAge but is obviously in her twenties when the story starts. Creator/GongLi was nearly forty but certainly didn't look it. In fact, when Mrs Nitta mocks Hatsumomo for getting old, she barely seems to have aged at all - even when she's closer to her actress's actual age.
424** Pumpkin is likewise close in age to Sayuri, and Yuki Kudoh was in her mid-thirties. She was only a few years younger than Gong Li. But then again, Hatsumomo exits the story around World War II, and Pumpkin reappears later, now matching their ages somewhat.
425* ''Film/MenInBlack 3'' -- Agent J travels from 2012 to 1969, 43 years into the past. He wakes up and sees a young Agent K, played by Creator/JoshBrolin. Brolin is only 21 years and 5 months younger than Creator/TommyLeeJones, who plays the older Agent K.
426-->'''Agent J''': [[LampshadeHanging "You got some city miles on you."]]
427* ''Film/Mermaids1990'':
428** 15-year-old Charlotte Flax is portrayed by then 19-year-old Creator/WinonaRyder. Though this was necessary due to the fact that [[spoiler: Charlotte ends up having sex with 26-year-old Joe]].
429** Rachel Flax's age is never outright stated, but she says she was 16 when she had Charlotte, which would make her around 31 years old. Music/{{Cher}} was 44 at the time.
430** Downplayed with Michael Schoeffling as Joe Poretti. Joe is 26, Schoeffling was 30.
431* In 1981, Creator/{{ABC}} broadcast a made-for-TV account of the 1980 United States men's hockey team's surprising gold medal run in the UsefulNotes/OlympicGames in Lake Placid, which like the movie, was called the ''Miracle on Ice''. The movie starred Creator/KarlMalden as the head coach Herb Brooks despite the fact that Malden was about 69 at the time, playing a 42-year-old Brooks.
432* ''Theatre/TheMiracleWorker'' is a stage play which tells the story of how Helen Keller (left blind and deaf following a near fatal illness in early childhood) was taught to communicate via her sense of touch. In real life, Helen was not quite 7 years old at the time the events depicted took place, but two out of the three movie versions have her played by a (then) teenaged actress.
433** Patty Duke, who played Helen in the 1962 version, was 15 years old at the time the movie was made.
434** The 1979 TV movie has another 15-year-old, Melissa Gilbert, playing Helen
435** Averted in the Disney TV movie from 2000, where Helen is played by 8-year-old Hallie Kate Eisenberg.
436* ''Film/MidnightSun2018'' features 20-year-old Creator/BellaThorne as the 17-year old protagonist Katie Price.
437* ''Film/MirrorMask'' -- 15-year-old Helena Campbell is played by 20-year-old Creator/StephanieLeonidas.
438* ''Film/Moonlight2016'' has two actors playing "Teen Chiron" and "Adult Chiron" ... though they are both in their 20s.
439* The casting of ''Film/{{Moonstruck}}'' is all over the place in terms of age. Music/{{Cher}} was a 41-year-old playing a 37-year-old (not a stretch). Creator/DannyAiello was 54, playing a 42-year-old. Creator/NicolasCage was just 23, and although the age of his character is never mentioned outright in the film, the plot (involving his romance with Cher's character) just wouldn't make much sense unless we assume he's significantly older, at least mid-30ish.
440* ''Film/MoreDeadThanAlive'': According to the dialogue, hotheaded [[TheGunfighterWannabe Gunfighter Wannabe]] Billy Valance is 18 years old. He is played by actor Paul Hampton who was 32 at time. During one fight scene, his hat is knocked off revealing his bald spot.
441* ''Film/TheMortalInstrumentsCityOfBones'', is very guilty of this, casting actors in their mid-to-late-twenties as the teenage main characters. The main protagonists Clary (15) and Jace (17) are being played by Creator/LilyCollins and Creator/JamieCampbellBower, both of whom are 23. Isabelle (16) and Simon (also 16) are being portrayed by 24-year-old actors Jemima West and Creator/RobertSheehan, while most notoriously Alec (18) is being played by 27-year-old Kevin Zegers. That said, the producer has revealed that although they won't be specifying anyone's exact age in the movie, the characters are supposed to be somewhat older than their [[Literature/TheMortalInstruments book]] counterparts. To make matters even more mind-boggling, the character of Luke (who is pushing forty, and acts as a surrogate father to the kids) is being played by the ''28-year-old'' Creator/AidanTurner.
442* ''Film/MrHollandsOpus'' -- Rowena, the high school senior who tempts Mr. Holland because she's intellectually mature and looks older than her years? She looks mature for her age because she was played by 23-year-old Creator/JeanLouisaKelly. The baby-faced 13-year-old freshman clarinet player who later becomes governor? Played by 20-year-old Alicia Witt.
443* Creator/TimRoth played a 19-year-old serial killer in a TV movie ''Murder in the Heartland''. He was 33 when it aired. Being short and thin probably helped but couldn't fully cover the age difference.
444* In ''Film/MyBigFatGreekWedding'', Nia Vardalos was 39-40 at the time she filmed the movie, where her character was only 30.
445* ''Film/MyBoyfriendsBack'' - 23-year-old Andrew Lowery and 25-year-old Traci Lind as teens.
446* In the film adaptation of ''Film/MyFairLady'', Creator/AudreyHepburn was 34 years old while playing the 21-year-old Eliza Doolittle.
447* ''Film/MyDaysOfMercy'': Creator/ElliotPage, who was thirty at the time of filming, plays twenty three year old Lucy.
448* In ''Film/MyLeftFoot'' 32-year-old Creator/DanielDayLewis is playing a 17-year-old teenager.
449* ''Film/MyNameIsEmily'' - Creator/EvannaLynch (twenty-three) as Emily, and George Webster (twenty-four) as Arden. Both are high-school students.
450* ''Film/MyScienceProject'' from 1985. All the teens are clearly in their 20s, starring Michael Harlan, born in 1961.
451* To an extent in ''Film/MysteryTeam''. Granted, the characters are 18, so it's far less noticeable.
452* In Gregg Araki's ''Film/MysteriousSkin'', 23-year-old Creator/JosephGordonLevitt plays a teenager.
453* In the 2007 movie ''The Namesake'', based on the book by Jhumpa Lahiri, Creator/KalPenn is Gogol/Nikhil in high school (as well as throughout his life). Kal Penn is 32, and he is only 7 years younger than the actress playing his mother (Tabu). Also, Moushumi Mazumdar is played by Zuleikha Robinson when Moushumi is in high school and in her 30s, but Robinson seems to pull it off better.
454* Abel Gance's ''[[Film/Napoleon1927 Napoléon]]'' (1927) inverts this with the title character: Albert Dieudonné is 38 and plays Bonaparte in his early to mid 20s.
455* Creator/SachaGuitry's ''[[Film/Napoleon1955 Napoléon]]'' (1955) has this and the inverse with the titular character. 33-year-old Daniel Gélin plays Bonaparte from his mid-teens to his early 30s, at which point 29-year-old Raymond Pellegrin takes over, that is, from Napoleon's 30s to his death in his 50s.
456* In ''Film/NapoleonDynamite'', 26-year old Creator/JonHeder, 30-year old Creator/EfrenRamirez, and 25-year old Trevor Snarr all played high school students. Most of the other cast members were teenagers, though.
457* ''National Lampoon's Joy of Sex'' (1984) 22-year-old Michelle Meyrink and 25-year-old Cameron Dye as teens.
458* ''Neighbors,'' from 1981, has 20-year-old Lauren-Marie Taylor as the 16-year-old daughter of 32-year-old Creator/JohnBelushi.
459* In ''Film/NeverBeenKissed''. Creator/DrewBarrymore plays a 25-year-old who is pretending to be a high school student, and no one [[OlderThanTheyLook thinks she looks too old]]. In real life, Barrymore was 23 for the duration of filming. Creator/DavidArquette, who plays her younger brother, is actually four years ''older'' than her. Averted with at least two of her fellow students -- Creator/LeeleeSobieski and Creator/JessicaAlba were 15 and 17 respectively when the film was made.
460* ''Film/TheNeverEndingStoryIIIEscapeFromFantasia'': The Childlike Empress, immortal and described in the book as looking no more than 10 years of age, is played by 21-year-old Julie Cox in the 3rd movie, and Ms. Cox is credited as "The Empress".
461* ''The New Guy'' -- 22-year-old Creator/ElizaDushku and 24-year-old Creator/DJQualls as teens.
462* ''Film/NightOfTheComet'' - 25-year-old Creator/CatherineMaryStewart as 18-year-old Reggie. 24-year-old Kelli Maroney as 16-year-old Sam.
463* ''Franchise/ANightmareOnElmStreet'' is hard pressed to find a single genuine teen or high-school-aged actor in the series:
464** ''Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet1984'':
465*** 20-year-old Creator/HeatherLangenkamp
466*** 21-year-old Creator/JohnnyDepp
467*** 23-year-old Amanda Wyss
468*** 21-year-old Nick Corri
469** ''Film/ANightmareOnElmStreetPart2FreddysRevenge'':
470*** 27-year-old Mark Patton
471*** 19-year-old Lisa Webber
472*** 20-year-old Robert Russler
473*** 24-year-old Sydney Walsh
474** ''Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet3DreamWarriors'':
475*** 24-year-old Jennifer Rubin
476*** 20-year-old Bradley Gregg
477*** 20-year-old Ira Haiden
478*** 20-year-old Penelope Sundrow
479*** 19-year-old Ken Sagoes
480** ''Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet4TheDreamMaster'':
481*** 23-year-old Creator/LisaWilcox
482*** 20-year-old Danny Hassel
483*** 19-year-old Creator/TuesdayKnight
484*** 20-year-old Rodney Eastman
485*** 21-year-old Ken Sagoes
486** ''Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet5TheDreamChild'':
487*** 24-year-old Creator/LisaWilcox
488*** 23-year-old Creator/KellyJoMinter
489*** 21-year-old Danny Hassel
490*** 26-year-old Erika Anderson
491*** 29-year-old Joe Seely
492** ''Film/FreddysDeadTheFinalNightmare'':
493*** 27-year-old Lezlie Deane
494** ''Film/WesCravensNewNightmare'':
495*** 24-year-old Tracy Middendorf
496** ''Film/ANightmareOnElmStreet2010'':
497*** 22-year-old Kyle Gallner
498*** 24-year-old Creator/RooneyMara
499*** 22-year-old Katie Cassidy
500*** 21-year-old Thomas Dekker
501*** 24-year-old Kellan Lutz
502* ''Film/NotAnotherTeenMovie'' has a mostly 20-something cast playing teens, and also lampshaded with an elderly woman as an [[Film/NeverBeenKissed undercover reporter pretending to be a student]].
503* Lucy Tyler was 22 when she filmed the movie '''80s Superstars Reborn'' playing the role of Traci from 15 to 18.
504* ''Nowhere (1996)'' by Gregg Araki -- Creator/MenaSuvari and Joshua Gibran Mayweather were both teens, but the rest were between 20 and 40 years old.
505* ''Film/TheNatural'', which had in a couple of flashback scenes and the first act Creator/RobertRedford and Creator/GlennClose play teenagers while they were in their 40's.
506* ''Film/NaturalBornKillers'' - 21-year-old Creator/JulietteLewis as teenaged Mallory Knox.
507** 26-year-old Creator/AshleyJudd as 18-year-old Grace Mulberry in a deleted scene.
508* ''Oh, What a Night'' (1992) - 21-year-old Creator/CoreyHaim plays a teen in this coming-of-age period piece.
509* ''Film/OnceBitten'' - Creator/JimCarrey and his fellow high school chums were all in their mid 20s.
510* ''Film/OnceUponATimeInHollywood'' - A character named "Pussycat" says that she's 18 years old, and it's heavily implied that she is younger than 18. The man that she's talking to cannot believe that she's that old. She is played by Margaret Qualley, who was 23 during production.
511* ''The Other Sister'' - 26-year-old Juliette Lewis as 18-year-old Carla Tate.
512* ''The Outfit'': Notorious gangster Dutch Schultz, who died at age 33, is played by 53-year-old Creator/LanceHenriksen. Lucky Luciano, who would have been in his 30s at the time the movie takes place, is played by 48-year-old Creator/BillyDrago.
513* The 1983 film version of SE Hinton's ''Film/TheOutsiders'' cast a then 31-year-old Creator/PatrickSwayze to play the protagonist's 20-year-old elder brother.
514* ''Film/{{Parenthood}}'' - 25-year-old Keanu Reeves as teenaged Tod Higgins. Grey-haired, 44-year-old Steve Martin as 35-year-old Gil Buckman.
515* Sometimes the whole point of a character is that it is a child being played by an adult. Pee-wee Herman is an ambiguous man-child who is always referred to as a "boy" but is played by the obviously adult Creator/PaulReubens. In the live ''Pee-wee Herman Show'' performed with the Groundlings, as well as ''Film/PeeweesBigAdventure'', Pee-wee has a number of friends who are also adults playing children.
516* In ''Film/PeggySueGotMarried'' 32-year-old Creator/KathleenTurner plays 40-year-old Peggy Sue. So far, so good. PeggySue is then transported back to her senior year of high school, and Turner also plays the 18-year-old version of Peggy Sue.
517* ''Film/ThePeopleVsLarryFlynt'' -- Music/CourtneyLove portrays Althea, who is 17 years old at the beginning, and Larry just can't believe that she's a day over 18. Courtney Love was 31 and looks it.
518* ''Film/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'': In ''The Lightning Thief'', the main trio is {{Age Lift}}ed from preteens in the book to teenagers. While Creator/LoganLerman was 18 playing 16-year-old Percy, Creator/AlexandraDaddario was 24 playing a 16-year-old Annabeth, and Creator/BrandonTJackson was 25 also playing a high schooler (although he at least has the excuse in that Grover ''is'' 24 in the books, but that's the satyr equivalent of a human 12-year-old). This is even more jarring considering that in their most prominent roles coming into the film, they were already playing adults: Daddario in ''Series/WhiteCollar'' and Jackson in ''Film/TropicThunder''. This continues into ''Sea of Monsters'', filmed three years later with Lerman in his early 20's as well.
519* ''Literature/ThePerksOfBeingAWallflower'' tells the story of a shy 15-year-old high school freshman being befriended by a bunch of 18-year-old seniors. Despite Logan Lerman portraying a freshman, he is 8 months older than Ezra Miller, who played a senior.
520* ''Film/PeterPan1924'':
521** Peter Pan, the young boy who never grows old, was played by Betty Bronson (a seventeen-year-old actress). She was personally selected by Creator/JMBarrie himself.
522** Wendy Darling is also understood to be about twelve. Her actress Mary Brian was eighteen (and the studio lied to say she was sixteen so that audiences wouldn't think she was too old for the part).
523** Downplayed with Creator/AnnaMayWong as Tiger Lily. The princess is accepted to be a teenager older than Wendy, and Anna May was nineteen.
524** Esther Ralston was an inversion, playing Mrs Darling when she was only twenty-two. WordOfGod states that a younger actress was cast because children see their mothers as young women.
525* ''Film/PhantasmII'' - 26-year-old James [=LeGros=] as 19-year-old Mike Pearson
526* In ''Film/ThePhantomOfTheOpera2004'', Creator/EmmyRossum was about the same age as her teenage character, but her costar Creator/PatrickWilson was 30, though their characters were supposed to have been childhood friends and thus around the same age.
527* In ''Literature/ThePhantomTollbooth'' 16-year-old Butch Patrick played 12-year-old Milo.
528* ''Film/Piggy2022'': Laura Galán was ''35'' when she played the teenaged Sara.
529* ''Film/PiratesOfSiliconValley'' -- 27-year-old Creator/NoahWyle and 31-year-old Creator/AnthonyMichaelHall as teenaged Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.
530* In ''Film/PitchPerfect'', about college a cappella groups, the characters are supposed to be college age, from 18 to 22. However, most of the cast was 25 and older. In fact, Creator/AnnaCamp (Aubrey) was 30.
531* ''Film/{{Pleasantville}}'' has 22-year-old Creator/ReeseWitherspoon, 23-year-old Creator/TobeyMaguire, 25-year-old Creator/PaulWalker, and others, as high school teens.
532* In the 1920 silent film ''Pollyanna'', 27-year-old Creator/MaryPickford plays a 12-year-old girl. Pickford was famous during much of her career for playing child characters: cf. ''The Poor Little Rich Girl'', ''Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm'', ''Through the Back Door'', ''Literature/LittleLordFauntleroy'' (in which she played a 10-year-old ''boy''... [[AbsurdlyYouthfulMother and his mother]]), and ''Literature/DaddyLongLegs'' (in which the first half of the movie has no parallel in the book, but was invented purely so she could play the character as a child). In ''Sparrows'', she is 34, but she plays a young teenager. Her co-stars for most of the film are children ranging from about age six to age 10, so if she were obviously much older, it would show up in contrast to the real children, but it doesn't. She was even planning to do an ''Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland'' adaptation, playing Alice, when she was thirty-seven.
533* In ''Film/{{Poltergeist|1982}}'', Dominique Dunne was 23, playing 16-year-old Dana.
534* ''Film/{{Porkys}}'', probably the prototypical teen sex farce, featured an entire cast over 20 playing high school students, so that it could actually show nudity.
535* This trope is ''constantly'' invoked in porno films: Any actress that qualifies as flat chested is usually cast as a "teenager", even if they've looked like they've popped a couple of kids or have been traveling the strip club circuit for a bit too long. Infamous director Max Hardcore made a cottage industry of hiring short/flat chested actresses, dressing them in toddler clothes, and filming the scenes as if he were making some sort of underground child porn video.
536* ''Film/PortraitOfJennie'': When introduced, the titular character is about 13 and played by a 29-year-old Creator/JenniferJones.
537* ''Film/ThePoughkeepsieTapes'' -- 35-year-old Stacy Chbosky as 19-year-old Cheryl Dempsey. [[spoiler: Cheryl is the FinalGirl of the film, and her age is carefully handled in that the view of Cheryl at the beginning is shown only through the shaky, grainy, damaged footage of the killer's JitterCam, so she's hard to see. After a few dark, far-away shots, Cheryl/Stacy wears a mask for 8 years before we see her face again, which is probably aged from stress and malnutrition, plus that Chbosky looks sort of young for 35.]]
538* ''Film/{{Powder}}'': The title character is played by Creator/SeanPatrickFlanery at age 30. However, in a sort of subversion, he's actually passable as a teenager even so. Maybe partially because he's shaved bald for the part of Powder, it makes it harder to judge age.
539* None of the actors in ''Film/PowerRangers2017'' were actually in high school; Becky G (Trini) was 19, [=RJ=] Cyler (Billy) and Creator/DacreMontgomery (Jason) were 21, Creator/NaomiScott (Kimberly) was 23, and, most egregiously, Creator/LudiLin (Zack) was ''28'', and pushing '''30''' by the time the movie was out. Though, it wasn't as noticeable as the show due to the way the characters were portrayed.
540** Also helped that Creator/LudiLin [[OlderThanTheyLook does not look like he's pushing 30]]. He even mentioned in an interview shortly after the film's release that when he visited his old high school to observe in an attempt to get an idea of how to portray Zack, he managed to, ''successfully'', convince a group of kids to show him around by posing as a transfer student. It wasn't until one of his old teachers asked him why he was there that anybody noticed that he wasn't really a student.
541* In ''Film/{{Precious}}'' 16-year-old Precious Jones is played by 26-year-old Creator/GaboureySidibe. Not quite that obvious because of the way she was dressed and the fact that Sidibe does not look her age.
542* ''Film/PrideAndPrejudice'':
543** The [[Series/PrideAndPrejudice1995 BBC adaptation from 1995]] included Creator/JuliaSawalha (then in her late twenties) as 15-year-old Lydia Bennet. (Fortunately, Sawalha had not only the chops but the face to pull it off.)
544** The [[Film/PrideAndPrejudice1940 1940 adaptation]] plays this trope straight. 36-year-olds Creator/LaurenceOlivier and Creator/GreerGarson played 28-year-old Mr. Darcy and 20-year-old Lizzie respectively.
545* ''Film/ThePrimeOfMissJeanBrodie'' has all girls in the Brodie Set played by actresses older than their characters - the youngest being Creator/PamelaFranklin at nineteen. The book it's based on chronologically starts when they're twelve but the film makes it vaguer presumably for this reason. There is a good portion of the film that takes place when the girls are about to graduate however. According to Pamela Franklin, most of the student extras were over eighteen too.
546* ''Film/{{Priscilla}}'': Creator/CaileeSpaeny was 24 during the filming and plays Creator/PriscillaPresley from the ages of 15 to 27; Spaeny has frequently played teenagers in the past due to her youthful appearance, with Creator/SofiaCoppola stating she felt it was important to have the same actress playing the role throughout different events in Priscilla's life.
547-->'''Coppola:''' The character goes from the age of 15 to 27 over the course of the film, so she had to be able to act and age across a big span of time. It was really important for me to have the same actress playing Priscilla at those different stages of her life, and I think Cailee can pull it off. She's such a strong actress, and she also looks very young.
548* Creator/HowardStern in his film ''Literature/PrivateParts'' played an 18-year-old version of himself... He was 42 at the time. The incongruity is extremely obvious when we first see him walking around campus, and Stern (as a CharacterNarrator) comments that "[[LampshadeHanging for this movie you've got to suspend disbelief]]."
549* Inverted in the 2018 film ''A Private War'', about the late journalist [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Colvin Marie Colvin]]. She is portrayed by Creator/RosamundPike, who at then 39, was 5--'''''17''''' years younger than Colvin was during the time period depicted in the film.
550* The ''Prom Night'' franchise.
551** The original ''Film/PromNight1980'' had 20-year-old Creator/JamieLeeCurtis (Kim), 21-year-old Anne-Marie Martin (Wendy), and 23-year-old Jeff Wincott (Drew), alongside a bunch of other 20-something actors who's exact birth dates are unknown. David Mucci as Lou was especially jarring, and Joy Thompson (who played Jude) mentioned how surreal it was to walk down a high school hallway again.
552** ''Film/HelloMaryLouPromNightII'' had 30-year-old Lisa Schrage (Mary Lou), 21-year-old Louis Ferreira (Craig), and 29-year-old Terri Hawkes (Kelly), alongside Wendy Lyon (Vicki) and Beverly Hendry (Monica), who would've definitely had to be legal adults to film some of the content. Also, many viewers laugh at the flashbacks with the younger Billy Nordon (played by Steve Atkinson), who already had a receding hairline. Averted with 18-year-old Brock Simpson (Josh).
553** ''Film/PromNightIIITheLastKiss'' has 23-year-old Cynthia Preston (Sarah), 22-year-old Dylan Neal (Andrew), and 25-year-old Jeremy Ratchford (Leonard). As the writer / co-director, Ron Oliver, said, "While I love Tim [Conlon, as Alex] and David [Stratton, as Shane] and Courtney [Taylor, as Mary Lou] and all of them, and think they did very well given what I saddled them with, I think I made a huge mistake in not casting 18-year-olds versus almost-30-year-olds. It just feels off. But live and learn."
554** ''Film/PromNightIVDeliverUsFromEvil'' had 22-year-old Nicole de Boer (Megan), 24-year-old J.H. Wyman (Mark), 26-year-old Creator/JoyTanner (Laura), and 21-year-old Colin D. Simpson (Larry). Averted with 18-year-old Fab Filippo (Jonathan).
555** In ''Film/PromNight2008'', Creator/BrittanySnow (Donna), Creator/JessicaStroup (Claire), and Collins Pennie (Ronnie) were 22, Kelly Blatz (Michael) was 20, Jana Cramer (April) was 24, Brianne Davis (Crissy) was 26, Scott Porter (Bobby) was 28, and Dana Davis (Lisa) was 29, all playing high school seniors.
556* Richard Wilson was 21 when he played Mikey in ''Film/TheProposition'', who is implied to be about 14.
557* Creator/JohnnyDepp was 46 when he starred as John Dillinger in ''Film/PublicEnemies''. The real John Dillinger was killed at the ripe old age of 31.
558* ''Film/QuestForTheMightySword'': Ator is a teenager played by the 28-year-old Creator/EricAllanKramer.
559* 20-year-old Sally Thomsett played 11-year-old Phyllis in ''Literature/TheRailwayChildren'', and was forbidden by contract to reveal her age during the making of the film.
560* The 1956 film adaptation of the stage play ''The Rainmaker'' featured a 49-year old Creator/KatharineHepburn playing a woman who is supposedly only in her late 20s or early 30s yet is considered undesirable because she is "plain" (often delivered with a viciousness suggesting that what the other characters really mean is ugly -- even though it's Katharine Hepburn, even a middle aged Katharine Hepburn) and thus doomed to never start a family of her own (and technically Hepburn was too old to have kids safely by that point in real life). This is blatantly, almost laughably obvious in the scenes with her family, where she is clearly old enough to be the wife of the actor playing her father and clearly older than Lloyd Bridges, who played her "big brother" and just makes her performance feel bizarre rather than sympathetic as she tries to play a part she was clearly too old for.
561* ''Film/RainMan'': Raymond's exact age is never given, but it's stated that he was institutionalized at age 18, and since his younger brother Charlie was an infant at the time that would put him in his 40s during the events of the film. His actor, Creator/DustinHoffman, was in his early 50s when he starred in the film.
562* ''Film/RaisingCain'' - 31-year-old Creator/GabrielleCarteris as Nan, a babysitter whose age is stated on the news as 18.
563* All the actors playing music students in ''Film/RaisingTheWind'' seem rather old for the parts.
564* The 19-year-old title character in ''Rambling Rose'' was played by 24-at-the-time Creator/LauraDern.
565* ''Film/{{Reanimator}}'': Both Creator/JeffreyCombs and Bruce Abbott were 31-year-olds playing medical school students, though it is unclear just exactly how old their characters are supposed to be.
566* The original ''Film/RedDawn1984'': Creator/CharlieSheen and Creator/PatrickSwayze are cast as teenage brothers. Sheen was 18 at the time, but Swayze was 31!
567* ''Film/RedState,'' filmed in 2010, is about three high school boys who travel to meet a woman and get more than they bargained for. The boys include Billy Ray (22-year-old Creator/NicholasBraun), Travis (23-year-old Creator/MichaelAngarano), and Jared (24-year-old Creator/KyleGallner). The woman they travel to meet, 38-year-old Sarah Cooper, is played by 50-year-old Creator/MelissaLeo.
568* In the 1986 GirlsBehindBars parody flick ''Film/ReformSchoolGirls'', Wendy O. Williams of the Plasmatics plays a character ostensibly a teen despite being an undisguised 36.
569* ''Film/LaReineMargot'' stars Isabelle Adjani and Creator/DanielAuteuil, who were 39 and 44 respectively when they played a queen and king who were historically 19. Auteuil showed his age, but many had expressed surprise that Adjani was any older than her twenties.
570* In ''Film/RememberTheTitans'', most of the actors playing the 16- to 18-year-old high school football players were well into their twenties, and Creator/WoodHarris was 31, a year older than the actress who played the wife of Creator/DenzelWashington. However, Creator/RyanGosling as one of the players was about 19 and Creator/KateBosworth as the girlfriend of one of the players was 17.
571* ''Film/{{Rent}}'' has this as a side effect of using the original Broadway cast, nine years after the play first ran. Characters meant to be twentysomethings out of college are played by people in their thirties. In fact, this trope is exactly why Daphne Reuben-Vega (Mimi) and Freddie Walker (Joanne) did ''not'' return, as they felt they were too old to respectively play a 19-year-old stripper and a recent law school graduate. Their only request was to cast women of color for their roles.
572* ''Film/{{Resistance|2020}}'': Marcel Mangel/Marceau was 16 when UsefulNotes/WorldWarII broke out and 22 when it ended. Creator/JesseEisenberg was 35-36 when playing him.
573* ''Film/RevengeOfTheNerds'' has 30-year-old Creator/RobertCarradine, 31-year-old Creator/CurtisArmstrong and 27-year-old Timothy Busfield as kids just starting college.
574* ''Film/RhymesForYoungGhouls'': Devery Jacobs, who played 15-year old Aila, was actually 20 at least during filming.
575* ''Film/RidingInCarsWithBoys'' features 26-year-old Creator/DrewBarrymore as 15-year-old Beverly. Beverly's best friend is played by 24-year-old Creator/BrittanyMurphy, Beverly's boyfriend is played by 34-year-old Steve Zahn. The movie spans from when teen Beverly gives birth to a baby boy named Jason, until Jason grows up to be a teenager himself, played by 28-year-old Adam Garcia.
576* George Mather was 42 when he portrayed 22-year-old college student Lewis B. Moffet in ''Film/RingOfTerror''. Most of the cast catches grief from [[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 Joel and the bots]] for looking too old for their roles.
577* ''Film/RiotGirls'': All of the teenage characters are played by actors in their early to mid twenties.
578* A super egregious case in ''Film/RiseOfTheFootsoldierOrigins''; where actors no younger than 50 play real-life hoodlums who in the timeframe should be in their 20's.
579* Any movie that Creator/RiverPhoenix made after 1989.
580* In ''Rob B. Hood'', Creator/JackieChan, who was 52 years old in 2006, nevertheless plays a professional burglar with family problems who ends up having to care for a baby for several days. He engages in his usual acrobatic and martial arts stunts alongside his co-star Louis Koo, who plays Chan's character's partner-in-crime, who is 16 years younger than Chan.
581** In ''[[Film/DrunkenMaster Drunken Master II]]'', he played the same character at the same age as the original ''DrunkenMaster'' despite being the same age as the man who played his father.
582* In ''Rock 'n' Roll High School'', almost all the "teen" actors are, at the youngest, in their mid twenties. (An exception was Loren Lester, who was actually of high-school age during the time of filming.) The main character, Riff, was played by 29-year-old P.J. Soles. The sequel ''Rock 'n' Roll High School Forever'' also features a teen cast of twenty somethings.
583* ''Film/{{Romeo and Juliet|1936}}'': The 1936 film version. Creator/LeslieHoward, at 43, played Romeo and Juliet was played by 34-year-old Norma Shearer. In the play, Romeo is described simply as "young" while Juliet is specified to be 13. Even more geriatric was John Barrymore, Sr. as Mercutio, who was ''fifty-four'' at the time, and due to his advanced alcoholism looked older than that. This was a knock on the movie at the time and has been ever since.
584* Interestingly, both ''Film/{{Romeo and Juliet|1968}}'' (1968) and ''Film/WilliamShakespearesRomeoAndJuliet'' (1996) avert this. Creator/OliviaHussey and Leonard Whiting were 16 and 17 respectively; this was considered a radical innovation at the time, and much of the 1968 film's success was due to the stars' very believable youthful passion. In the 1996 film, Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio was in his 20s, and Creator/ClaireDanes (playing the 13-year-old Juliet) was actually sixteen.
585* ''Film/RomyAndMichelesHighSchoolReunion'': Creator/MiraSorvino (29) and Creator/LisaKudrow (33) play their teen selves in flashback scenes, as well as their peers, such as Creator/JaneaneGarofalo, who was also 33.
586* ''Film/TheRoom2003'':
587** Denny, the youngest character in the movie (who is said to be starting college, but it's never made clear), was played by Philip Haldiman, one of the oldest members of the cast.
588** Neither Johnny's age nor Creator/TommyWiseau's has ever been verified, but Johnny is presumably a lot younger than Wiseau, as he is believed to have been in his mid to late 40s during filming and allegedly claimed to be younger, and Juliette Danielle was 22.
589* ''Film/TheRoommate'': Creator/MinkaKelly was born in 1980 and Creator/LeightonMeester in 1986. Kelly was about 30 during filming, Meester 24, though both play college freshmen (usually starting at 19). Although if Rebecca was held back from college due to mental issues, she could be older than the age of the average freshman. That still doesn't explain Sara, though both of them can easily pass as younger.
590* ''Film/{{Rudy}} (1993)'' - The film starts off with 22-year-old Creator/SeanAstin and 26-year-old Creator/LiliTaylor as teens in a high school class.
591* Used distractingly in ''Running With Scissors'', in which the audience is expected to believe that 20-year-old Joseph Cross is Augusten Burroughs at as young an age as about 13. Creator/EvanRachelWood's character is supposed to be of a similar age, and she's no more convincing. Considering that neither of them look nor act at all like middle schoolers, what age they're supposed to be is straight-up confusing -- and then surprising, once Augusten is stated late in the film to be fourteen.
592* ''Film/SaveTheLastDance'': the leading male was in his 30s playing a high-school senior (somewhat convincingly.)
593* ''Film/SayAnything'' - 23-year-old Creator/JohnCusack and 22-year-old Creator/LiliTaylor as high school students going into the summer immediately after graduation.
594* A minor example from ''Film/SchoolOfRock'': while most of the kids were around the right age (Music/MirandaCosgrove was only 9), Kevin Clark, who plays Freddie Jones, was pushing 14 -- as his husky, cracking voice leads the viewer to suspect.
595* ''Film/ScottPilgrimVsTheWorld'' plays this trope straight with Knives Chau (17) and Stacie Pilgrim (19), both are played by actresses who are (or almost) 25. Making both older than Creator/MichaelCera, who is 22. [[note]]Scott's given age is reduced from the Graphic Novel's 23, probably to match Cera's age. Or to make his relationship with Knives less sketchy.[[/note]] "Young" Neil (20) is a borderline case; his actor is nearly 24. The rest of the cast largely averts this, if their ages are known.
596-->'''Knives''': "He only likes her because she's really old. [[LampshadeHanging She's probably like 25!]]"
597* [[Film/{{Scream 1996}} The first film]] in the ''Film/{{Scream}}'' series stars an entire cast of mid-20s actors playing 17-year-old students. Creator/NeveCampbell and Creator/RoseMcGowan at 23, Creator/SkeetUlrich, Creator/JamieKennedy and Creator/MatthewLillard at 26 (older than Creator/DavidArquette, who plays the 25-year-old deputy Dewey), Creator/DrewBarrymore being closest to her characters age at 21 years old. Although considering the satiric nature of the film this was probably intentional. Creator/MollyRingwald was even approached to play Sidney, and turned it down because she was twenty-seven and didn't want to play a high schooler.
598** [[Film/{{Scream 2}} The first sequel]] continues this with Elise Neal as a college student, playing a contemporary of Neve Campbell at the age of 31. Also played straight with 29-year-old Creator/TimothyOlyphant as Mickey, also a college student with Campbell's character Sidney.
599** [[Film/{{Scream4}} The third sequel]] has a rare aversion with Creator/EmmaRoberts (who though 20 by the time of its release was 19 during filming), although played straight with Creator/HaydenPanettiere (who celebrated her 21st birthday during filming -- though she averts this trope elsewhere on this page) and the rest of the cast with 21-year-olds Rory Culkin, Marielle Jaffe, and Creator/LucyHale, as well as 20-year-olds Creator/AimeeTeegarden and Creator/ShenaeGrimes.
600*** That film also has an in-universe example, as Creator/JennyMcCarthy's character, an actress in the film-within-a-film 'Stab 3', complains about being '35 playing a 21-year-old'.
601* Both {{inverted|Trope}} and played straight in ''Film/{{Scrooge|1970}}'', where both the [[HollywoodOld elder]] Scrooge and his young self were played by Creator/AlbertFinney, then in his early 30s.
602* ''Searching For Sonny'' is about a ten-year reunion, but all the actors play both their present-day selves and the flashbacks to their high school days. Creator/MasiOka, who plays title character Sonny, was 37 at the time of filming and managed to pass for both 28 and a teenager.
603* ''Film/TheSecret2007'': Creator/OliviaThirlby, playing the 16 year old Sam, at the time was at least 20.
604* Creator/SelmaBlair was subject to this a lot.
605** ''Film/CantHardlyWait'' featured many old teens, especially Blair at age 26.
606** ''Debutante'' -- 26-year-old Blair plays a 17-year-old.
607** ''Girl'' (1998) -- 26-year-old Blair plays bookish high school senior Darcy.
608** ''Film/CruelIntentions'' -- All of the actors are well out of their teens, especially Blair at age 27 who is supposedly younger than the other characters and has Film/NeverBeenKissed.
609** ''Film/LegallyBlonde'' -- 28-year-old Selma Blair played a first-year law student (who would probably be 22 or 23).
610** For more, see the Television section.
611* ''Film/SerialKilling4dummys'': Lisa Loeb, aged 34 in 2002, plays a student half her age - 17.
612* ''Film/SerialMom'' -- 26-year-old Ricki Lake and 24-year-old Matthew Lillard as the teen children of a serial mom.
613* Creator/MarilynMonroe was 28 years old when she played The Girl in ''Film/TheSevenYearItch'', who is 22 years old. In the original play, however, The Girl is 16 years old.
614* ''Film/{{Sextette}}'': It's painfully obvious that 85-year-old Creator/MaeWest is trying to pass herself off as someone about half a century younger.
615* ''She Fought Alone'', stars 22-year-old Brian Austin Green and 21-year-old Creator/TiffaniThiessen as high school kids.
616* ''Film/ShesAllThat'': 22-year-old Creator/FreddiePrinzeJr and 25-year-old Creator/PaulWalker as high school seniors.
617* ''Film/ShesTheMan'': Creator/AmandaBynes and Robert James Hoffman III were 19 when filming; all the other high school characters are played by actors 20 and up. Creator/ChanningTatum (26) and Creator/EmilyPerkins (28) are the most extreme.
618* ''Film/TheShining'' -- 5-year-old Danny Torrence is played by a 6-year-old in the 1980 version, and a 10-year-old in the 1997 version.
619* Also done in the similar spoof ''Film/ShriekIfYouKnowWhatIDidLastFridayTheThirteenth'', although never addressed.
620* ''Film/SidAndNancy'': 28-year-old Creator/GaryOldman as Music/SidVicious, who died at age 21. 30-year-old Chloe Webb as Nancy Spungen, who died at age 20.
621* In ''Film/SinCity'' Creator/JessicaAlba (who otherwise generally avoids this trope), then 23, played 19-year-old Nancy Callahan.
622* In ''Sing'', 23-year-old Jessica Steen (''Earth 2'') played 18-year-old high school beauty Hannah Gottschalk, whilst 25-year-old Peter Dobson played 18-year-old Dominic Zametti.
623* ''Film/SisterAct 2: Back in the Habit:'' Nuns help some wayward youths, and while most of the youths avert this trope, there's still a couple of 20-something-year-old teens played by Devin Kamin and Ron Johnson.
624* ''Film/TheSisterhoodOfTheTravelingPants'':
625** The central characters are all about to turn 16. Creator/BlakeLively was actually 16 during filming, but her friends are played by Creator/AmberTamblyn (21), Creator/AlexisBledel (23), and Creator/AmericaFerrera (20).
626** And 26-year-old Creator/MikeVogel played the college-aged love interest of Lively's character.
627** Averted, however, with 12-year-old Jenna Boyd playing 12-year-old Bailey.
628* ''Film/SixteenCandles'': Three high schoolers were played by considerably older performers—Michael Schoeffling was 22 when the film was shot, Haviland Morris 23, and Gedde Watanabe 28. This film also has aversions; see the "Exceptions" folder.
629* ''Film/SlaughterHigh'', a slasher movie from 1986, is about a group of high schoolers (probably seniors, supposedly 17 or 18) whose prank on a nerd goes bad. Cut to a supposed high school reunion where they get picked off one by one. The usual high school reunion is 10 years later (supposedly when they're 27 or 28). One would think that they'd find actors at the halfway point, maybe 22 years of age. Instead, they have Frank, played by 29-year-old Billy Hartman; Marty, played by 30-year-old Simon Scuddamore; and Carol, played by '''37-year-old''' Caroline Munro... more like second high school reunion, AmIRight
630* Mostly averted in the original ''Film/SleepawayCamp'', but for the rest of the series, some of the teens are pre-teens, some of the teens are teens, some are teens are 20-something, and one is undercover: Angela is pretending to be a teen camper in ''[[Film/SleepawayCampIIITeenageWasteland Teenage Wasteland]]'', and making up various excuses for why she looks old. Some of the excuses are funny, such as mentioning the fluoride in her drinking water, and some are sad, such as when a guy says that she doesn't look like a teen, she must have had a hard life, to which she agrees.
631** A classic example would be Jill Terashita, who played biker chick Arab in the third film -- she was about 25 at the time of the film, just a couple years younger than Pamela Springsteen, who played Angela in ''Sleepaway Camp II'' and ''III''.
632* The trope comes into play in ''Film/{{Sleepers}}'' when the narrative jumps from 1967 to 1983. Nobody besides the four boys is played by a different actor and no effort was made to make the other actors appear older.
633* All of the so-called 'students' in ''Film/SleepyHollowHigh'' appear to be in their early 20s or older.
634* ''Film/TheSlumberPartyMassacre'' franchise features nothing but 20-somethings as high school students.
635* ''Film/SlumsOfBeverlyHills'' stars 18 year old Natasha Lyonne as 14 year old Vivian.
636* Creator/HaroldPerrineau was 32 when he played 17 year old Thomas in ''Film/{{Smoke}} (1995)''. Oddly, he was only two years younger than Creator/ForestWhitaker who plays his father.
637* ''Film/SnowDay'' has 24-year old Emanuelle Chriqui and 27-year old Creator/DavidPaetkau play high school students Claire Bonner and Chuck Wheeler. However, Mark Webber, Schuyler Fisk, and J. Adam Brown were all in their teens when they made this movie.
638* ''Film/{{Snowden}}'' (2016) - As the title card states, "The following is a dramatization of actual events that occurred between 2004 and 2013." He starts off as a freshman in college. At the end, Edward Snowden is stated to be 29, making him 20 at the beginning. Filmed in 2015 when Creator/JosephGordonLevitt was around 34.
639* ''Film/TheSocialNetwork'': The film was made about seven years after the events it depicts, but rather than cast actors about seven years younger than the real people they portray to account for this, they cast actors of a similar age. For example, Creator/JesseEisenberg is actually a few months older than the real Mark Zuckerberg.
640* ''Some Kind of Beautiful'' casts Creator/MalcolmMcDowell (born in 1943) and Creator/PierceBrosnan (born in 1953) as father and son.
641* ''Film/SomeKindOfWonderful'' features a cast of 20-somethings as high school students, most around the age of 26.
642* In ''Film/SpaceCamp'', the teenage members of the Blue Team were all played by actors in their low- to mid-20s. During filming, Lea Thompson and Larry B. Scott were both 24, Tate Donovan was 23, and Kelly Preston was 22. {{Averted|Trope}} with Joaquin (Leaf) Phoenix; he was only 10, and likely younger than the character he was playing.
643** For comparison, their counselor was played by Creator/KateCapshaw, who was only 32 at filming.[[note]]Her character, Andie Bergstrom, was likely around that age if not slightly older, as she was a child in February 1962 when the ''Friendship 7'' flight, her inspiration to become an astronaut, took place.[[/note]]
644* ''Film/TheSpecialist'' had 36-year-old Creator/SharonStone playing a character who's explicitly stated to be a "young woman" in her early-to-mid [=20s=].
645* ''Film/SpiderMan1'': Creator/TobeyMaguire and Creator/JamesFranco were about 26 and 23, respectively, playing high school seniors. Many of the other actors playing teens were of a similar age. Creator/JoeManganiello, who plays Flash, noted that the actor playing the man in charge of the laboratory housing the radioactive spider was younger than at least one actor playing a teen. The production staff shaved the male cast members three times a day to avoid five-o'clock shadow during filming.
646* ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan'':
647** Creator/AndrewGarfield, who portrays the character in the 2012 [[ContinuityReboot reboot film]], is 27 playing a high school student.
648** The movie also has 22-year-old Creator/EmmaStone as Gwen Stacy, Peter's classmate and love interest.
649** 27-year-old Creator/ChrisZylka played high school student Flash Thompson.
650** [[Film/TheAmazingSpiderMan2 The sequel]] has 27-year-old Creator/DaneDeHaan as Harry Osborn, who is around the same age as Peter and Gwen.
651* The third Spider-Man, Creator/TomHolland, is a lesser case, introduced in ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'' as a 19-year-old playing a 15-year-old high school freshman. He revealed behind the scenes that he went undercover at an actual high school and was able to pass himself off as one. He has also mentioned, after completing the third film in his trilogy, ''Film/SpiderManNoWayHome'', that he is ready to be done with the character: "If I'm playing Spider-Man after I'm 30, [[https://www.gq.com/story/tom-holland-superhero-of-the-year-2021 I've done something wrong]]."
652* ''Film/StandAndDeliver'' features a 25-year-old Lou Diamond Phillips playing a high school senior.
653* The 1974 Soviet movie "Скворец и лира" ("The Starling and the Lyre"), featured Lyubov Orlova as a supposedly young character. Of course, no amount of tricks managed to get the 70+ actress to look the part, so the movie was nicknamed "Склероз и климакс" ("The Sclerosis and the Climacteric"), and mothballed at Orlova's own request.
654* Franchise/StarWars:
655** Luke Skywalker was 19 in ''Film/ANewHope'', 22 in ''Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack'', 23 in ''Film/ReturnOfTheJedi'' and 53 in ''Film/TheForceAwakens'' and ''Film/TheLastJedi''. Creator/MarkHamill would have been 26, 29, 32, 64 and 66 during each film's release date. It’s especially apparent in the sequel trilogy, where the over ten year age gap leads to Luke not only having a chronic case of YoungerThanTheyLook, but being treated and perceived more as an old man than a middle-aged man. However, Star Wars is a bit notable in that it often averts this casting choice among main characters unless they are reprising previous roles, making Mark Hamill in the original trilogy the exception more than the rule.
656** Creator/CarrieFisher was actually 19 when playing Leia in ''A New Hope'', making her an aversion... But in ''The Force Awakens'' and ''The Last Jedi'', she was 58 and 60 respectively playing the 53-year-old Leia, which much like Luke has the effect of making Leia YoungerThanTheyLook and being treated as much older than her canonical age would indicate.
657** Creator/AlecGuinness as Ben "Obi-Wan" Kenobi is also an example, but not as much as many believe. Obi-Wan was 57 in ''A New Hope'', but looked to be at least in his seventies. Alec Guinness [[YoungerThanTheyLook was 63]]. Creator/EwanMcGregor's age and aspect more closely matched that of the character when he played him in the prequel trilogy, meaning that by ''A New Hope'' he appears to have aged more than he should have in the 20 years that have passed since the previous episode, which is usually explained as being due to exposure to Tatooine's twin suns.
658** The unmasked Darth Vader in ''Return of the Jedi''. Vader was 45, but was portrayed by 78-year-old Sebastian Shaw.
659** In ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'', the ten-year-old Boba Fett is portrayed by the thirteen-year-old Daniel Logan. Logan reprised the role as teenage Boba Fett in ''WesternAnimation/StarWarsTheCloneWars'' while he was in his twenties, though due to being animated this isn’t too noticeable there.
660** Several characters in the sequel trilogy, with the age gap gradually widening since more time elapsed during filming than passes in-universe. Rey is aged 19 to 20. Creator/DaisyRidley was 23 when the trilogy began and 27 when it ended.
661** Supplementary material reveals that Cassian Andor is 26 at the time of his appearance in ''Film/RogueOne''. His actor Creator/DiegoLuna was 37 at the time, but it has the effect of making Cassian look realistically hardened and weary from his lifetime of service to the Rebellion. The age difference is going to be even more pronounced in the spinoff series ''Andor'', which takes place five years prior to ''Rogue One'', when Cassian is 21, and began shooting when Luna was ''41'', twice his character's age.
662* The four actors who played the supposedly high-school aged Juan Rico, Dizzy Flores, Carmen Ibanez, and Carl Jenkins in ''Film/StarshipTroopers'' were between 25 and 30 at the time.
663* In the ''Film/StarterForTen'', Creator/JamesMcAvoy, Creator/BenedictCumberbatch, Creator/AliceEve and Creator/RebeccaHall all play 19 to 21 year olds despite being in their late 20's, early 30's in real life
664** Creator/CatherineTate plays Brian's Mom, despite being just 11 years older than Brian actor James Mcavoy.
665* In ''Film/StarTrek2009'', most of the cast is semi-plausibly close to the ages of recent Starfleet Academy graduates. However, Creator/JohnCho is 37 years old, playing the 21-year-old Sulu. Creator/KarlUrban is also 37, though he's closer to his character's official age of 30. And Creator/ZoeSaldana (Uhura) is 31.
666* ''Film/{{Stigmata}}'' starred 31-year-old Creator/PatriciaArquette as a 22-year-old.
667* ''Strangeland:'' 23-year-old Creator/LindaCardellini as 15-year-old Genevieve Gage.
668* ''Film/StuckInLove'': All of the actors playing teenagers were at least a couple years older than their characters.
669* Inverted in ''The Suburbans'', about a OneHitWonder group from the early 1980s aiming for a comeback in the late 1990s with the help of a young record company executive -- who turns out to have been a huge (and their only remaining real) fan of the band since she was seven. The executive is played by Creator/JenniferLoveHewitt, who was 19 at the time -- and who would have been ''two years old'' at the time of their hit. Produced by Creator/JJAbrams, which explains a lot.
670* In ''Film/SummerMagic'' had 22 year old Deborah Walley playing 16 year old Julia; the rest of the teenage characters were played by actors closer in age.
671* Discussed in ''Film/SunsetBoulevard''. WhiteDwarfStarlet Norma Desmond, for her comeba--excuse me, ''[[InsistentTerminology return]]''--role, plans to play the 16-year-old [[Literature/TheBible Salome]].
672* The casting of the [[ComicBook/{{Supergirl}} title role]] in 1984's ''Film/{{Supergirl|1984}}'' isn't too bad by the usual standards of this trope; Creator/HelenSlater was 19 at the time, playing a high school age girl. But her roommate Lucy Lane? Actress Maureen Teefy was 29 at the time the movie was made.
673* The ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' movie ''Film/Superstar1999'' had high school students who were mostly in their 20s. Leading roles go to Creator/ElaineHendrix, 29, Creator/WillFerrell, 32, and Creator/MollyShannon, 35. Apparently, that was supposed to add to the humor.
674* ''Film/TheSummerOfSangaile'': Sangaile and Auste are teenagers, played by actresses in their early twenties.
675* 1987's ''Summer School'' is about a gym teacher who must teach "summer school" to a motley crew of teens, including easily distracted Pam (20-year-old Courtney Thorne-Smith); "nocturnal" Larry, a male stripper (29-year-old Ken Olandt); football jock Kevin (22-year-old Patrick Labyorteaux); geeky Alan (21-year-old Richard Steven Horvitz); dyslexic Denise (21-year-old Creator/KellyJoMinter); beautiful Italian transfer student, Anna-Maria (23-year-old Fabiana Udenio); and two horror-film-obsessed underachievers, Dave (25-year-old Gary Riley) and Francis, a.k.a. 'Chainsaw' (25-year-old Dean Cameron).
676* ''Susan Slept Here'' features both a straight example and a subversion: Creator/DebbieReynolds, at 22, playing 17-year-old Susan, and Creator/DickPowell as Mark Christopher, who -- in response to Susan thinking 34 is "so old" -- jokingly claims he's 35, but has managed to pass for 29. (Powell was notoriously baby-faced and youthful-seeming for decades, but he was 49 at the time of filming ''Susan'' and looks it, especially as it's his only color film role.)
677* Played with in ''Film/Suspiria1977'': For his horror classic, Creator/DarioArgento wanted to have the students of the girls' boarding school to be prepubescent to increase the emotional impact and play into the dark fairy tale theme. His producers nixed the idea because of the difficulties of hiring and working with so many child actors on such a project. Argento compensated by having all the students (played by actresses in their 20s) behave immaturely and building sets that made them look small.
678* ''Take Me Home Tonight'' is about a group of characters in their early twenties but much of the cast is ten years (or more) older. Creator/AnnaFaris and Creator/DanFogler in particular were both 34 playing fresh university graduates. The difference in appearance between them and those characters who ''are'' played by actors in their early/mid twenties is quite jarring.
679* In ''Film/{{Taken}}'', the 25-year-old Creator/MaggieGrace's character is repeatedly stated to be 17, not old enough to leave the country without both parents' permission. Oddly enough, the character's friend is pointedly stated to be two years older than her, though the actress Creator/KatieCassidy is three years her junior. But amazingly enough Creator/LiamNeeson, who plays the father of Maggie's character, actually ''IS'' old enough to be her father in real life (born in 1952 Neeson would have been 29 when Maggie was born).
680* In the 2006 film ''Take the Lead'', nearly all of the main high school-age characters were played by actors in their twenties. The most notable was Creator/DanteBasco, who was '''30''' at the time of filming.
681* The 1984 comedy ''Teachers'' subverted this trope. In the film, actor [[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0372217/ Anthony Heald]] (who would later go on to play Dr. Frederick Chilton in ''Film/SilenceOfTheLambs'') plays a narcotics cop whose undercover at a High School. Heald was 40 at the time, but could have easily passed for 30. The subversion came from the fact that every student at the school knew he was an undercover cop, and was far older than the other students, but no one ever let on that they knew.
682* ''Film/TeenWolf'' -- 24-year-old Creator/MichaelJFox as Scott, 27-year-old Mark Holton as Chubby, 28-year-old Mark Arnold as Mick, 28-year-old Susan Ursitti as Boof, 28-year-old Jerry Levine as Stiles.
683* ''Film/TeenageCaveman''. Creator/RobertVaughn was only 26 when playing the titular character, but looked older due to the brylcreem (which somehow survived the apocalypse).
684* ''Teenage Hitchhikers'' from 1974 fails to have any teens at all.
685* ''Film/TeenagersFromOuterSpace'' had no actual teenagers in the cast. Or, as Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 said, ''"Really Old Teenagers from Outer Space."''
686* In ''Film/{{Teeth}}'', then-26-year-old Jess Weixler plays the teenaged Dawn O'Keefe.
687* In ''Film/TheTerminator'', Creator/LindaHamilton was 28 playing 19-year-old Sarah Connor. In ''[[Film/Terminator2JudgmentDay T2]]'', she was 35 and the character was 29. John was a strange case. At the beginning of ''T2'', the police computer shows John's DOB as 1985, and his age as 10 (making the setting of the movie 1995). Creator/EdwardFurlong was 13 at the time. In the [[Film/Terminator3RiseOfTheMachines third film]], they establish John's age as about 13 when he stopped attending school, subverting the trope but setting the second film two years later. Interestingly, perhaps noticing that Linda Hamilton was clearly not a teenager in the [[Film/TheTerminator original film]], the opening narration of ''T3'' retcons Sarah's age saying she was 23 years old when the Terminator attacked her in the first film. (plus, Sarah's tombstone has her only 3 years younger than Hamilton)
688** ''Film/TerminatorGenisys'' follows suit by again featuring Sarah in 1984 while played by a 28 year old, Creator/EmiliaClarke.
689** Also, ''T2'' did have to deal with the problems of casting a kid, Creator/EdwardFurlong. Furlong noticeably grew and matured over the course of filming. He is shorter and much younger looking in the desert scenes, which were filmed early in the shoot.
690** In ''Film/TerminatorDarkFate'', Dani Ramos is approximately 21 and played by Natalia Reyes, who was about 10 years older.
691* In "Terror in the Wax Museum", Margaret is a minor, but is played by an actress in her late 20s.
692* ''Film/{{The Three Musketeers|1973}}'': d'Artagnan is eighteen years old at the beginning of the novel, and as such noticeably younger than his three comrades, but although d'Artagnan actually looks quite youthful, Creator/MichaelYork was 31.
693* In ''Film/TexasChainsawMassacreTheNextGeneration'', Creator/ReneeZellweger is a 24-year-old high school senior. Her friends look older.
694* ''Film/TheresaAndAllison'': Allison was turned at seventeen and is meant to not have aged since then. Sarah Schoofs, the actress player her, was about thirty seven at the time. Although she can pass for younger, "seventeen" would be implausible (even if it's just her appearance).
695* ''Film/TheyThem2022'': All of the teen characters were played by actors already in their twenties.
696* ''Film/{{Threads}}'' zig-zags this with the character Jane who is born during the first winter following a nuclear war. After a few scenes with Jane as a baby, there's a TimeSkip to ten years after the war, at which point Jane would be 10 years old or nearly 10 years old. However, the actress who played her, Victoria O'Keefe, was 14 years old when the film was made (15 when it was first broadcast) and the age difference between the actress and the character is obvious. The same actress also played Jane as a 13-year-old, which isn't such a stretch.
697* ''Literature/TheThreeMusketeers'': In the novel, D'Artagnan is 18. More often than not, he's played by someone typically 10 years older or more. Creator/LoganLerman was 19 in the [[Film/TheThreeMusketeers2011 2011 version]], making him the closest/most accurate in age yet.
698** ''Film/TheThreeMusketeers1921'': Creator/DouglasFairbanks was 38.
699** ''Film/TheThreeMusketeers1948'': Creator/GeneKelly was 36.
700** ''Film/TheThreeMusketeers1953'': Georges Marchal was 33.
701** ''Film/TheThreeMusketeers1961'': Creator/GerardBarray was 30.
702** ''Film/TheThreeMusketeers1973'': Creator/MichaelYork was 31.
703** ''Film/DArtagnanAndThreeMusketeers'': Mikhail Boyarksy was over 30. [[WhatCouldHaveBeen The trope could have been]] exaggerated, since forty-year-old Music/VladimirVysotsky also wanted that part.
704** ''Film/TheThreeMusketeers1993'': Creator/ChrisODonnell was 23.
705** ''Film/TheMusketeer'': Creator/JustinChambers was 31.
706** ''Film/TheThreeMusketeers2023'': Creator/FrancoisCivil was 30-31.
707* The actors in ''Film/ThreeOClockHigh'': Richard Tyson and Casey Siemaszko were both 26 and playing high school students.
708* Creator/MichaelERodgers was 30 years old when he filmed his role as Junior in ''WesternAnimation/ThomasAndTheMagicRailroad'', whom was written to be around 20 in the script. Although, this was unnoticable, as Michael did look younger when he played Junior.
709* Creator/AudieMurphy played himself from his late teens to early twenties in ''Film/ToHellAndBack'', made ten years later. It wasn't too bad, as he remained quite young-looking as well as short.
710* ''Film/ToAllTheBoysIveLovedBefore'' -- The entire high school cast was played by actors in their 20s, with the worst being ''29''-year-old Creator/JanelParrish as Margot, a high school graduate. The same also applies to Lara Jean's tween sister, Kitty, who was played by 14-year-old Anna Cathcart, which actually makes her closer to the book's Lara Jean instead of Kitty.
711* The 2013 teen sex comedy ''Film/TheToDoList'' prudently uses this. Sexually curious high school valedictorian is played by 29 year old Creator/AubreyPlaza. In fact the youngest actor playing a major role is 24 year old Alia Shawkat.
712* In 1983, 21-year-old Creator/TomCruise played a teen in four different movies, ''Literature/TheOutsiders'', ''Losin' It'', ''Film/RiskyBusiness'', and ''All the Right Moves''.
713* ''Film/{{Tombstone}}'' had 32-year-old Creator/ThomasHadenChurch as the 19-year-old Billy Clanton.
714* 19-year-old Creator/SummerBishil played a 13-year-old in ''Towelhead''. This is somewhat lampshaded by a line even featured in the trailer in when hearing her age a character responds "You look older." There is no way such a young actress would ever be cast in a movie with its sexual content.
715* ''Film/TrueGrit 1969'' has 21-year-old Kim Darby playing 14-year-old Mattie Ross.
716* Creator/AlexisBledel was 21 years old when she played 15-year-old Winnie in ''Film/TuckEverlasting'' (the character had already been aged from a child to a teen in order to accommodate her.) At 29 she played a teenager in ''Film/VioletAndDaisy'' and was thirteen years older than her actually teenage co-star Creator/SaoirseRonan.
717* ''Film/TurkeyHollow'': Annie is meant to be a girl in her late teens, still living at home with her dad and younger brother. Creator/GenevieveBuechner, who played her, was twenty four at the time of the film being released.
718* ''WesternAnimation/TurningRed'': While Mei, Miriam, and Priya are voiced by up-and-coming teen actors, Abby's voice actress Hyein Park makes her acting debut after working as a storyboard artist at Pixar for several years.
719* In the live-action adaptation of ''Theatre/TwelveMonths'' Liana Zhvaniya is twenty-three and playing the fourteen-year-old Queen. Natalya Popova as the Stepdaughter is also twenty-three, yet the Stepdaughter is obviously implied to be a couple of years older than the Queen.
720* Parodied and played straight in ''Film/TwentyOneJumpStreet''. Many of the characters who are actually in high school were played by actors in their twenties, while Creator/JonahHill and Creator/ChanningTatum played police officers in their twenties who were going undercover as high schoolers. Tatum in particular was really pushing it--this is of course {{lampshade|Hanging}}d.
721* Parodied and lampshaded even harder in the sequel, ''Film/TwentyTwoJumpStreet'', when they try to pass off as college students. Nobody believes them, and the other students assume they're just creepy older guys trying to act cool and young.
722* The 1983 movie ''Film/UncommonValor,'' 31-year-old Creator/PatrickSwayze plays Kevin Scott, a Force Recon Marine with no combat experience. When asked how long he was in Vietnam, he replies that he wasn't in Vietnam because he was too young, meaning below the draft age of 18 until U.S. involvement ended in 1973, when Patrick Swayze was 21.
723* ''Film/{{Underworld|2003}}'':
724** Selene was sired by Viktor when she was 19, and as an unaging vampire she should presumably look the same age. She's played by then 30-year old Creator/KateBeckinsale in the first movie.
725** In the fourth movie Selene's hybrid daughter Eve was raised in a laboratory for the first 12 years of her life until they meet face to face. She's played by 18-year old actress Creator/IndiaEisley.
726* In the film ''Film/{{Unfaithful}}'', while a specific age is not given, we are led to believe that Creator/OliverMartinez' character is much younger than Creator/DianeLane (37 at the time of filming). Her husband is shocked at how young he is when he encounters him, and later blasts his cheating wife--"you threw our life away for some f--king KID!". However, Martinez is only a year younger than Lane.
727* All the named students in ''Film/VampireAcademy'' are supposed to be 17-year-old, except the 16-year-old Mia Rinaldi. They are almost all played by actors in their twenties:
728** Rose Hathaway is played by 20-year-old Creator/ZoeyDeutch.
729** Lissa Dragomir is played by 22-year-old Lucy Fry.
730** Christian Ozera is played by 24-year-old Dominic Sherwood.
731** Natalie Dashkov is played by 24-year-old Creator/SarahHyland.
732** Mason Ashford is played by 21-year-old Creator/CameronMonaghan.
733* ''Film/VarsityBlues'' starring the guy from ''Series/DawsonsCreek'' and a bunch of other people in their 20s as beloved high school jocks.
734* ''Film/VeronicaMars:'' People in their 30s play people in their 20s.
735* The ShortFilm ''{{Film/Victories}}'' - the British soldier Benjamin angrily saying he's eighteen. His actor Bobby Calloway was twenty-six, and in fact two years ''older'' than Andrew [=McNeill=] playing Otto.
736* ''Film/TheVideoDead'' - 20-year-old Victoria Bastel and 26-year-old Roxanna Augesen as teenagers.
737* ''Film/{{Viral}}'': Creator/LioTipton and Creator/SofiaBlackDElia among other actors were in their twenties while playing high schoolers.
738* In Creator/PedroAlmodovar's ''Film/{{Volver}}'', actress Yohana Cobo convincingly portrays Creator/PenelopeCruz's 14-year-old daughter, despite having been 20 years old when the movie was shot.
739* ''Film/VoyageOfTheRockAliens'' stars 30-year-old Creator/PiaZadora as high schooler Dee Dee.
740* Parodied in ''Film/WalkHard'', where the 14-year-old version of Dewey Cox is played by 42-year-old Creator/JohnCReilly, and his 12-year-old child bride Edith is played by 34-year-old Creator/KristenWiig. The other students in the scene are a grab bag of realistic and hilariously inappropriate age. This scene was intentionally made even sillier by the fact that it is immediately preceded by 8-year-old Dewey being played by actual 8-year-old Conner Rayburn.
741* In ''Film/Warlock1989'', a 30-year-old Lori Singer played a 20-year-old character.
742* ''Film/WarlockIIITheEndOfInnocence'': Ashley Laurence was 33 playing an art major. While the character's ages aren't explicitly defined, they're all still living in dorm rooms, so probably early 20s.
743* Both the [[Film/WestSideStory1961 1961]] and [[Film/WestSideStory2021 2021]] film adaptations of ''Theatre/WestSideStory'' had this. The characters are meant to be teenagers, while almost none of the cast members for either film were. Amusingly, Richard Beymer and Creator/RussTamblyn of the original film were actually ''younger'' than Creator/AnselElgort and Creator/MikeFaist, respectively, in the remake. Creator/RachelZegler, however, was 18 when the remake was made, and thus was the same age as María.
744* ''Film/WetHotAmericanSummer'' has hilariously age inappropriate actors including Creator/AmyPoehler and Creator/PaulRudd playing high school aged camp counselors.
745** The [[Series/WetHotAmericanSummerFirstDayOfCamp prequel]], which was made 15 years after the movie, features the entire cast (many of whom are in their 40's) returning to play "younger" versions of themselves.
746* Lampshaded in ''Film/WhatsNewPussycat'' as flashbacks depict Peter O'Toole's pivotal experiences with women in grade school, high school, and college, all with O'Toole in character (his twelve-year-old self in school uniform looking very Angus Young).
747* ''Film/WhenTheBoughBreaks1994'' has 20-year-old Tara Subkoff as fourteen-year-old Jordan [[spoiler:and Jenny]].
748* In 2009's ''Film/WhipIt,'' 22-year-old Creator/ElliotPage plays 17-year-old Bliss "Babe Ruthless" Cavendar. Hilariously, Page's character claimed to be 22 in order to slide into their UsefulNotes/RollerDerby league's age restrictions, which were actually [[TruthInTelevision accurate-to-the-time]] (many modern roller derby leagues have reduced the age requirement to 18, to allow Junior skaters to graduate directly into league play when they turn 18; copious alcohol consumption was ''much'' more a part of roller derby's culture before TheNewTens).
749* In the 1954 ''Film/WhiteChristmas'', 32-year-old Vera Ellen plays Judy Haynes; Judy's age is never expressly given, but based on comments made by other characters (she is repeatedly called "kid" and "little Judy"), that she orders a malted when the others order alcohol, and that 25-year-old Rosemary Clooney plays her ''older'' sister Betty, it appears that she's supposed to be about 19.
750* ''Film/WildInTheStreets'' has 22-year-old Kevin Coughlin as 15-year-old TeenGenius Billy Cage.
751* ''Film/WildThings'' from 1998, 25-year-old Creator/NeveCampbell and 27-year-old Creator/DeniseRichards as 18-year-old high school seniors.
752* ''Film/TheWiz'' has 33-year-old Music/DianaRoss managed to get herself cast as Dorothy, pushing out 20-year-old Stephanie Mills (who was [[Theatre/TheWiz the stage Dorothy]]) in the process. Mills herself was actually 36 the last time she played Dorothy on stage, in 1993.
753* 16-year-old Creator/JudyGarland was cast as the 11-year-old Dorothy Gale in ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'' (indeed, most people who haven't read the books don't realize Dorothy ''isn't'' supposed to be a teenager). Legend has it the studio forced her to [[SuppressedMammaries wear a tight band around her breasts to make them less noticeable]] during the filming, among the many other nasty things they did to her and other actors of the day. Meanwhile, Billie Burke played the beautiful Glinda at the age of almost 60. She was old enough to be the mother of Margaret Hamilton (The Wicked Witch of the West), several years older than Frank Morgan (the Wizard) and just four years younger than Clara Blandick, who played the elderly Auntie Em.
754* ''Film/WomenIsLosers'': Creator/LorenzaIzzo, 31-32 at the time of filming, plays her character Celina as a teenager starting out, then into her early 20s while it follows her life.
755* In TheFilmOfTheBook of ''Literature/TheWorldAccordingToGarp'', Garp is played from age 15 and up by then-30-year-old Creator/RobinWilliams, while Creator/GlennClose [[AbsurdlyYouthfulMother (herself only 4 years older than him) played his mother. ]]
756* ''WesternAnimation/WreckItRalph'': 42-year-old Creator/SarahSilverman as 9-year-old Vanellope.
757* From the ''Film/XMenFilmSeries'':
758** Creator/AnnaPaquin was only a couple years older than Rogue when she was cast in the [[Film/XMen1 first movie]], but in ''Film/XMenTheLastStand'', six years later, she's still playing Rogue at about the same age.
759** For the original trilogy, there's also Creator/ShawnAshmore, Creator/AaronStanford, Creator/BenFoster, Creator/DanielCudmore, and the aforementioned Creator/ElliotPage, all in their 20s, portraying adolescent characters.
760** 23-year-old Tim Pocock as the high school student Scott Summers in ''Film/XMenOriginsWolverine''.
761** Creator/EvanPeters, who was 26 years old during filming, portrays the teenaged Peter Maximoff in ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast''.
762** Eventually inverted. The first film of the prequel series, ''Film/XMenFirstClass'', takes place in 1962; the final one, ''Film/DarkPhoenix'', takes place ''30 years later'', but was made only 8 years afterwards. None of the characters who have been in all four prequel films (Xavier, Magneto, Mystique, Beast) look anywhere as old as they ought to by the end, with only Mystique (Creator/JenniferLawrence) having a plausible {{Watsonian}} HandWave to explain it.
763* In the live-action movie version of ''Anime/{{Yatterman}}'', 13-year-old Gan Takada is portrayed by 27-year-old Shou Sakurai. The actress playing Doronjo is actually ''younger'' than Sakurai. In the anime, Doronjo is clearly ''much'' older than Gan.
764* ''Film/{{Yentl}}'', with a 40-year-old Music/BarbraStreisand in the title role. In the original short story by I.B. Singer, Yentl seems to be younger than 20, although Streisand made the character 28 years old in the movie. Interesting in that the plot revolves around the main character [[SweetPollyOliver disguising herself as a young man to study in a yeshiva]], which when done by a 40-year-old woman stretches the imagination a bit. Then again, so does Streisand's [[UsefulNotes/AmericanAccents Brooklyn accent]] in a movie set in Poland around the turn of the century. (The ''Magazine/{{MAD}}'' satire "Mentl" summed it up perfectly by having her disguise be seen through by a blind man!) Creator/MandyPatinkin was 30; his character Avigdor's age is never given, but he's young enough to be eagerly awaiting his wedding night.
765* The 1936 Yiddish musical ''Yidl Mitn Fidl'' (''Yidl With His Fiddle'') stars the Yiddish stage icon Molly Picon, who was about 37, as a teenage girl (who poses as a boy, then falls in love).
766* ''Film/YouAgain'' - All the actors are in their 20s or beyond, the actors only in high school flashbacks as well as the actors who play the past and present versions of their characters.
767* ''Film/YoungAndBeautiful'': 22 year old Marine Vacth plays Isabelle, who's 17. This is not surprising, given the film's [[HighClassCallGirl subject matter]].
768* ''Film/YoungAndWild'': Actress Alicia Rodríguez, 20 at the time, portrayed 17 year old Daniela.
769* ''Film/YoungBess'' casts the 24-year-old Creator/JeanSimmons as the 14-year-old Elizabeth Tudor (future Queen Elizabeth I). This is most likely to portray the inappropriate flirtation between her and the 40-year-old Thomas Seymour in a more romantic light.
770* ''Film/YourHighness'' -- 40-year-old Creator/JustinTheroux plays 19-year-old Leezar. 31-year-old Creator/ZooeyDeschanel as Belladonna, around the same age.
771* ''Film/YoursMineAndOurs'' has Creator/LucilleBall and Creator/HenryFonda playing expectant parents, at the ages of 57 and 63 respectively.
772* The World's Most Famous Extra Jesse Heiman has made a career out of this, playing teenaged and college aged characters well into his 30's and being believable at it because he doesn't look a day older than he did when he first started out! It's gotten to the point where he plays the classmates of people whose parents would've probably played HIS classmate a decade prior (for example, he played a fellow camper of Alyson Hannigan's in ''Film/AmericanPie2'' and a fellow student of Leonardo [=DiCaprio=]'s in ''Film/CatchMeIfYouCan'' then played the classmate of Creator/JeremySisto's Daughter in ''Series/{{Suburgatory}}'' almost 10 years later even though Sisto is the same age as Hannigan and [=DiCaprio=]).
773[[/folder]]
774
775[[folder:In-universe examples/Parodies]]
776* In ''Film/AllAboutEve'', Margo Channing (Creator/BetteDavis) is a 40-year-old actress playing a 24-year-old character in a stage play, and she is insecure about it.
777* In ''Film/TwentyOneJumpStreet'', two adult screwup cops go undercover pretending to be high schoolers to investigate a drug ring on campus. However, blending in proves to be extremely difficult for Greg Jenko, as everyone noticed he looked too old to be a high schooler (his actor, Channing Tatum, was in his early 30s during the film), and his sensibilities on what is "cool" is out of date. He pretends he was held back a lot to explain his apparent age.
778* ''Gone'' - the twentysomething Amanda Seyfried blends in with a group of teenagers to escape the police, referencing how she continued to play teens well into her twenties.
779* Walk Hard, which is a parody of biopics even parodies older actors playing the characters as teens with 42-year-old John C. Reilly and 34-year-old Kristen Wiig playing their characters starting at 14 and 12 respectively.
780* Parodied in the first ''Film/ScaryMovie''. The teenage characters talk about how if their story was made into a movie, they'd all be played by actors in their 20's and 30's and laugh at how glaringly obvious it is...even though every "teenager" in this movie is played by an adult. The camera particularly lingers on Creator/ShawnWayans, who was '''29''' during filming (old even by this trope's standards).
781* Baby Herman in ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'' appears to be a cute infant who causes plenty of trouble for Roger when they're filming a cartoon together. Once the cameras stop rolling, [[TheNapoleon Herman is immediately revealed to be a tiny loudmouthed grown man]] who looks just like a baby and even smokes a cigar.
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