Ageing Things: Stranger Things & The 10 Oldest Actors To Play Teenagers
Hollywood has a long-standing tradition of casting actors well beyond their teen years to play high schoolers, college freshmen, and awkward adolescents—often with a mix of convincing results thanks to makeup, lighting, and a healthy dose of good will and fantasy from the audience. From the neon-soaked summers of the ‘80s to modern streaming hits, these age-defying performances keep us believing in eternal youth, even when the math doesn’t quite add up.
Stranger Things set a high bar by starting with age-appropriate kids, but as the seasons dragged on, even they aged over the limit. But as you’ll see, the Upside Down isn’t the only place where these age gaps are found. Whether it’s ghosts in girls’ bathrooms, high school mean girls, or nerdy web-slingers, these actors pulled off teenage illusions that either fooled us completely or we wanted to be fooled enough to let it slide. So, let’s count down the oldest offenders who dialed up the teen vibe!
Stranger Things tried harder than most productions to cast age-appropriate actors. The core four—Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Will—were all close to 12 years old at the start of Season 1, and were played by actors around that age, too. Finn Wolfhard, who plays Mike, was 13 at the time of filming the first season, as was Gaten Matarazzo (Dustin); Caleb McLaughlin (Lucas) was 14, and Noah Schnapp (Will) was 12 years old.
Although in each season the characters are supposed to be one year older, the real-life timeline was unable to keep filming at such a snappy pace, and the main characters have since aged out of their roles. In Season 5, Finn is 22, Gaten is 23, Caleb is now 24, and Noah is 21. There are some clear telltale signs the core four are well past 16, but the costume and makeup departments do a convincing enough job that I’m happy to buy it.
While Nicola Coughlan effortlessly blended in with the others on Derry Girls, she was in fact already 31 at the time she started playing the 15-year-old Claire Devlin in the series. Her youthful features also served her well while playing Penelope Featherington in Netflix’s hit Regency-era fantasy series Bridgerton.
As the roughly 17 or 18-year-old Penelope was shrinking to the sidelines during the seasonal balls and penning her devastating anonymous column, Nicola was actually already 33 years old. Now that’s a fact Lady Whisteldown would have gleefully spread around town!
By now, it’s become a running joke that Paul Rudd never ages. From his role at 26 as Cher’s down-to-earth stepbrother Josh in 1995’s Clueless to starring in Marvel’s Ant-Man films at 44, he has pretty much looked the same throughout his entire career. Did he find the Holy Grail? Is he a vampire? The speculation continues!
Back in 2001, Rudd starred in the iconic teen comedy Wet Hot American Summer as the 17-year-old Andy. Rudd was actually already 31, but what’s 14 years when you’ve got eternal life?
In the Harry Potter books, it was well known that Moaning Myrtle—the ghost of the girl killed by the basilisk in the girls’ bathroom on the second floor of Hogwarts—remained the age at which she died: 14.
In the films, she is played by actress Shirley Henderson, who was already 35 at the time Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was filmed. But her youthful looks, coupled with the opaque ghost filter and her signature baby-ish voice made it genuinely shocking for me when I discovered how old she really was.
Rachel McAdams was already 26 years old when she played a high school junior in the razor-sharp teen comedy Mean Girls. As the popular leader of The Plastics, Regina George, she ruled North Shore High with cruel perfection while making it her business to build up and destroy Lindsay Lohan’s Cady Heron.
In that same year, McAdams also starred in her other breakout role in the tearjerking romance The Notebook. Like in Mean Girls, her character, Allie, is a mere 17 years old at the start of the film. While I personally didn’t find her totally convincing as a teenager in either role, there’s no doubt that she smashed it performance-wise in both films—so I say we let it slide.
The Archie Comics Netflix series Riverdale was a mesmerising mix of the type of plastic sheen you’d expect from teen drama series like 90210 and sci-fi horror like Supernatural. As per tradition in glossy teen romance series, all of the actors were significantly older than their on-screen counterparts.
Cole Sprouse was already 24 years old when he donned Jughead Jones’s jagged-edged beanie in the first season of Riverdale. Jughead was supposedly just 16 years old; luckily, Sprouse was able to channel his Suite Life charm into the role, despite being firmly in his mid-20s. The show’s soapy twists aged everyone up fast anyway, making it all feel rather well timed.
Lane Kim might have been 16 years old at the start of Gilmore Girls, but the actress who played her, Keiko Agena, was already 27 at the time of filming Season 1. As Rory’s quirky best friend dreaming of rock stardom, Agena nailed the angsty teen energy and awkwardness of those delicate years.
Keiko Agena returned to Stars Hollow for the reunion series Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life in 2016, reprising her role as Lane. In the revival, Agena was 43 years old while Lane was somewhere in her late 30s—somewhat bridging the gap between real life and fiction.
When Jennifer Grey starred as 17-year-old recent high school graduate Frances “Baby” Houseman in Dirty Dancing, she was already a decade older at 27. Despite the age gap, she was able to carry the role through a mix of bashful acting and a frumpy wardrobe—both of which transformed into a daring confidence and scandalously sparse articles of clothing by the end of the film.
Although he didn’t play a teen in the film, Patrick Swayze’s Johnny also deserves a nod. Despite his killer dance moves, the actor was already 35 at the time of filming. However, Johnny was supposed to be 25 years old, making the age gap between both the actors and their characters the same, just with a 10-year difference.
In the deadpan indie hit Napoleon Dynamite, Jon Heder played a 16-year-old high schooler—despite being 26 at the time of filming. His lanky awkwardness and killer Nunchuck skills snagged every vote for Pedro, and his endearingly nerdy style and earnestness made him into a kind of Millennial superhero.
Speaking of Pedro—the actor who played him, Efen Ramirez, was 30 at the time they filmed Napoleon Dynamite. Meanwhile, Aaron Ruell, who played Napoleon’s brother Kip, was 28 playing a 32-year-old.
When Andrew Garfield put on the skin-tight spidey suit as Spider-Man and his real-world counterpart Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man, he was 27. Peter Parker was supposed to be a 17-year-old high school student, and while Garfield generally has a boyish, youthful look to him, not everyone was sold on his age. That being said, his performance was so good, and the film itself was beloved by superhero and normie fans alike, that Garfield has since gone down as one of the all-time favourite actors to swing through New York.
Shoutout to Tobey Maguire, who was also 27 at the time of filming 2002’s Spider-Man. He was even less convincing as a teenager, but I truly didn’t care when I first saw the film.
