It may be hard to get a job the older you get in Hollywood. However, that is not the case for everyone. Sometimes an actor can find a dream job playing a character that is much younger than themselves. You see this a lot on shows where the characters are all in high school like Friday Night Lights, The OC, or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Some series will actually cast teenagers to fill these roles (think Saved by the Bell with Elizabeth Berkley being the oldest cast member at 17), while others, such as the ones included on this list, will even resort to hiring actors in their late 20s to play a teenager. Here is the list of 10 actors who played characters much younger than themselves.
Ben McKenzie as Ryan Atwood on The OC
Ben McKenzie was a relative newcomer before he began playing Ryan Atwood on the FOX teen soap opera The OC. Though he was playing a character in the 10th grade, McKenzie was actually 24 years old when filming began on the series in 2003. Adam Brody, who played Ryan’s BFF Seth Cohen, is only a year younger than McKenzie and was also playing a high school sophomore.
Cory Monteith as Finn Hudson on Glee
Glee premiered in May 2009 after American Idol and became an instant success. Right around that same time star Cory Monteith was turning 27 year old. His character Finn Hudson would have been in the 10th grade or roughly 16 years old during season 1, which means when the character graduated from high school at the conclusion of Season 3, Monteith was 30.
Gabrielle Carteris as Andrea Zuckerman on Beverly Hills, 90210
Gabrielle Carteris had only starred in a few After-School specials before winning the role of Andrea Zuckerman on the teen soap Beverly Hills, 90210. When filming on the series began, Carteris was already 29 years old, while her character was in her sophomore year of high school. Fellow cast member Ian Ziering was 26 and Luke Perry was 24 during season 1.
Trevor Donovan as Teddy Montgomery on 90210
I guess the creators of Beverly Hills, 90210 thought since they got away with it in the ’90s that they could do the same thing with their reboot that debuted on The CW in 2008. Trevor Donovan began playing teenager Teddy Montgomery when the second season premiered in 2009, the same year Donovan would be celebrating his 31st birthday. In comparison, Shenae Grimes was 20 and AnnaLynne McCord was 22 during season 2.
Stacey Dash as Dee Davenport on Clueless
Before Clueless began its three season run on television, it was first a 1995 feature film that starred Alicia Silverstone as Cher Horowitz. Her BFF Dee was played by Stacey Dash in the movie and the television season which first aired on ABC in 1996 before moving to the UPN network the following year. When the television series started, Stacey Dash was 29 years old. That means when the series concluded, she was a 32-year-old still playing a teenager. In comparison, Rachel Blanchard was 20 years old, and Don Faison was 22 years old at the beginning of Season 1.
Scott Porter as Jason Street on Friday Night Lights
When you watched Friday Night Lights did you ever think how incredibly attractive the cast of characters was even though they were intended to be high school students? Did you also think back to your own days in high school and wonder how students in the sleepy town of Dillon, Texas were so much better looking than your classmates? Well, a lot of it stems from the fact that a majority of the cast was well past high school age and in some cases, like with Scott Porter, beyond their college years as well. When the series debuted in 2006, Porter was 27 years old. Cast members Minka Kelly and Taylor Kitsch were 26 and 25 years of age respectively during the first season of the show.
Tom Welling as Clark Kent on Smallville
When Smallville began airing way back in 2001, young Clark Kent was about to start his first day of high school as a freshman. He was not even old enough to drive a car yet. When Tom Welling began playing Clark Kent, he had already been old enough to drive for 8 years as he was 24 when the series started. That means Welling was playing a character roughly 10 years younger than himself.
Charisma Carpenter as Cordelia Chase on Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Buffy the Vampire Slayer was a film the premiered five years before the television series began airing in 1997. Sarah Michelle Gellar was only 19 when the series began, which was not that much older than her character. Charisma Carpenter played Cordelia Chase for the first three seasons before moving over to the show’s spin-off Angel alongside David Boreanaz. Carpenter was 26 years old when season one of Buffy began.
John Hensley as Matt McNamara on Nip/Tuck
Nip/Tuck was one of the series that paved the way for FX to start airing successful dramas like Rescue Me and also Ryan Murphy’s current project American Horror Story. The series focused on two plastic surgeons living in Florida before making the trek to California in later seasons. John Hensley played Matt McNamara who was in high school when he learned that his father was Dr. Christian Troy. When season one began in 2003, Hensley was almost 26. He also dated Joely Richardson, who played his mom on the series.
Troian Bellisario as Spencer Hastings on Pretty Little Liars
The first season of Pretty Little Liars began all the way back in 2010. At that time, Troian Bellisario had only appeared on television in small roles, mostly on television series her father Donald Bellisario had created. When she finally got her big break playing high school student Spencer Hastings she was already 24 years old. In comparison, cast members Ashley Benson, Lucy Hale, and Shay Mitchell were 20, 21, and 23 respectively at the time the first episode of Pretty Little Liars aired.
Were you surprised by anyone on the list? Do you know of any other actors playing characters much younger than themselves? Let us know in the comments section below.
Photo by Jason Merritt/Getty Images For DirecTV
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