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The teenage rebel was 26 years old in real life. Will you ever believe on-screen high school students again? Probably not, and for good reason.
See also: You won't believe the age gap between these celebrity couples!
In this historic drama, Damon played a 17-year-old Scott Thorson. In reality, he was 43!
In the recently popularized 'Archie' spin-off, this incredibly young-looking actor plays the role of a teenager named Josie. In real life, however, she's somehow 30 years old.
At age 13, Moretz starred as Hit-Girl, a comic book character who cursed like a sailor and was no stranger to extreme violence. The film was rated R, meaning she technically couldn't watch it.
The directors of these Shakespeare remakes raised eyebrows with their choices to cast Hussey at 15, and Danes at 16. The naked scenes, and the fact that DiCaprio was 21 did not help.
A stalker soon became obsessed with Foster's role, and he turned out to be John Hinckley Jr., the man who later attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan in an effort to impress her.
Broadway star Ben Platt reprised his famous on-stage role for the film adaptation of 'Dear Evan Hansen' in 2021. The 27-year-old Platt squeezed himself back into a high schooler for the film despite all odds. Platt said of his transformation, "I’d lost about 15 pounds and did a very specific diet, grew my hair out, and was shaving to make sure that I didn’t look like I had five o’clock shadow all the time, you know. I was just stripping myself into being a teenager for the last time. For what is hopefully the last time,” Vanity Fair reports. Both Platt and director Stephen Chbosky wanted to immortalize Platt's award-winning stage performance on film.
In this dystopian art film following post-tornado devastation, Reynolds was just 13 years old, but his character killed cats, huffed glue, and paid for sex with a girl with Down's syndrome.
At 12 years old, Fanning played an Elvis Presley-loving girl in a very broken family who is raped on-screen (though you can only see her face). The scene received a lot of backlash from viewers.
On the 20th anniversary of the release of 'Spy Kids,' actress Carla Gugino reflected on being way too young for her role. The actress co-starred alongside Antonio Banderas as retired spies with pre-teen children, but Gugino wasn't exactly a convincing age for her character.
“I was at least ten years too young for the role because I was supposed to have been a spy for ten years, then had two children who were now 10 and 12. I was 28 years old," Gugino told Variety. "I think it only hurt me a little because people did think I was older than I was for a period of time." Still, she says she wouldn't have given up the experience for anything. "It was just this little tiny movie we made alone in Austin and it became a phenomenon that continues.”
Shields' young on-screen sexuality was a hotly debated topic, especially when, at age 11, she played a girl who lives at a brothel and has her virginity auctioned away.
Dunst played a vampire who was supposed to have already had adult experiences and who is well-acquainted with violence. At just 10 years old, she had her first kiss on-screen with costar Brad Pitt, who was 29 at the time.
Her big-screen debut, Portman was cast when she was just 11 years old as a girl who takes refuge with a hit man with whom she develops an uncomfortable chemistry. In the film, a pint-sized Portman consumes cigarettes and even holds a gun to her head.
In a film some adults are still too scared to watch, 13-year-old Blair became a demon-possessed Regan MacNeil, who was subjected to some of the most disturbing, vulgar, and disgusting scenes of the 20th century.
A few years later, Shields starred in another heavily sexualized film as a shipwrecked girl who grows up on an island with only one other boy. As she was only 14, the nudity in the film was ill-received.
Emmy Rossum is defending her role in the Apple TV+ miniseries 'The Crowded Room' as Candy, the mother of suspected criminal Danny Sullivan, played by Tom Holland. Rossum is 36, which is only 10 years older than Holland, but she said it makes sense for her character. "It makes sense when I read the script," Rossum told Entertainment Tonight. "Candy's a super young mom, she's almost a child in her own right when she becomes pregnant at age 16. You watch as I age from 25 to 35, which is actually younger than I am now."
Quite a different role from Kevin in 'Home Alone,' Culkin plays an evil child with psychopathic tendencies and wicked murder plots, all at the tender age of 12 years old.
The impressive actor was just 13 when he played Jim in Steven Spielberg's war film. Bale was subjected to brutally realistic scenes, and the degree to which he pulled it off is a little frightening.
Audiences willingly suspend their disbelief when they dive into the fictional universe of film and television, but the reality behind the actors playing those roles can be shocking!
From pre-pubescent stars embodying the darkest parts of humanity, to aging actors completely changing our perception of high school students, check out this gallery to see which actors were way too young, and way too old, for their roles.
Actors who were way too young or too old for their roles
The strange truth behind the scenes
CELEBRITY Famous actors
Audiences willingly suspend their disbelief when they dive into the fictional universe of film and television, but the reality behind the actors playing those roles can be shocking!
From pre-pubescent stars embodying the darkest parts of humanity, to aging actors completely changing our perception of high school students, check out this gallery to see which actors were way too young, and way too old, for their roles.