The world of acting is a very complex one, and actors have to give their all to deliver outstanding performances in each of their roles. But most of the time, parts are limited and are not created for a particular actor — or, on the other hand, the director wants to work with one specific actor, despite the fact that they may not be physically similar to the character to be played. Whatever the case may be, once the actor gets the role, there is sometimes a complex process of physical transformation to achieve the expected look of that character.
The makeup and costume crews can help with this transformation, just like they did with Colin Farrell in the recently released movie The Batman. Farrell spent several hours in the makeup chair in order to achieve Penguin’s look, and the results were so impressive that he went for a coffee and was not even recognized. Nevertheless, there are occasions in which the intervention of the makeup team is not so extreme, as the artists, regardless of their age, are able to play characters with very different ages than their own due to their looks. Some can play younger characters, such as Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, who was 32 years old when she portrayed 19-year-old Holly Golightly. Other actors can play characters that are older than their actual age, like Gwyneth Paltrow, when she played a 32-year-old character in Se7en when she was only 22.
These actors’ appearance in such films can be achieved to a greater or lesser extent, but they all succeeded in conveying the essence of their respective characters. In this article, we will take a look at eight actors who played characters whose ages were very different from their real ones.
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8 Thomas Brodie-Sangster

Thomas Brodie-Sangster rose to stardom in 2003 with his performance of Sam in Love Actually, then two years later, shared the screen again with Emma Thompson in the children’s movie Nanny McPhee, adapted from the literary series Nurse Matilda. In this 2005 film, Brodie-Sangster played Simon, the eldest son of Mr. Brown, who was in charge of masterminding each and every prank that got rid of all of their previous nannies before Nanny McPhee’s arrival. The funny thing about the young actor’s performance is that the character was written as seven years old, but Brodie-Sangster was actually 14 years already! Even today, the actor continues to amaze the audience, who still can’t believe his current age.

7 Jennifer Lawrence

Jennifer Lawrence boasts a very diversified portfolio considering her 31 years of age, particularly regarding the different ages of the characters she has portrayed. The actress can move from teenage characters to adult women with envy-worthy versatility. It is worth mentioning specifically her performance in Silver Lining Playbook, the movie she in which starred alongside Bradley Cooper and for which she won an Oscar as Best Actress. In this 2012 production, Lawrence played Tiffany Maxwell, a widowed woman written to be in her mid-to-late 30s. But the actress’ actual age when the film was shot was a mere 21 years old. Her portrayal of Tiffany did not only earn her the Oscar, but also praise from critics and audiences as well.

6 Michael J. Fox

Back to the Future is one of the classics that any movie fan should watch. This trilogy landed Michael J. Fox one of his most iconic roles: Marty McFly, the teenager who accidentally time-traveled to the past in the DeLorean time machine of his friend Dr. Emmett Brown during the first movie. In order to return to his own era, Marty had to find Doc in the past and get his help. The film was such a blockbuster that it spawned two additional movies, in 1989 and 1990. Although the actor might have passed for a 17-year-old in the first movie, for Back to the Future Part III he was far from Marty’s 17 years. At 29 in real life, watching him play a teenage character felt a little less convincing than in the previous films. Nevertheless, the audience was already fond of the character, so the film was still very well received and critically acclaimed.

5 Jason Earles

Jason Earles rose to fame alongside several young actors in 2006 as part of the Disney TV series Hannah Montana, which featured the double life of the teen pop star as she attempted to have, at the same time, the ordinary everyday life of a regular teenager. This series starred Miley Cyrus, and the cast also featured her father Billy Ray Cyrus, Emily Osment, and Jason Earles, the latter starring as Jackson Stewart, Miley’s teenage brother. By the premiere of the series, however, Jason was no longer a teenager: he was 29 years old. For the final episode of Hannah Montana back in 2011, Earles had already turned 34, yet he still maintained a youthful look and Jackson’s messy, lazy vibe.

4 Emma Thompson

Emma Thompson is an incredibly talented artist in several fields. As an actress, she collected countless awards, but has also managed to perform as a comedian and writer, a position for which she also garnered a few nominations. Among her most critically acclaimed productions was the adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility, a film that she not only wrote but also starred in. In this 1995 movie, Thompson portrayed Elinor Dashwood, a sensible, thoughtful, and secretive 19-year-old. Nonetheless, by the time she starred in Ang Lee’s movie, Thompson was already 35 years old. Her performance and screenplay earned her Oscar nominations for Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay, the latter category in which she was named the winner.
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3 Florence Pugh

The movie Little Women premiering in 2019 was one of many adaptations of Louisa May Alcott’s best-known novel. Written and directed by the acclaimed Greta Gerwig, Little Women chronicles the life and growth of the March sisters. Among the cast, alongside Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, and Eliza Scanlen, is Florence Pugh, who played Amy March. This character has always been presented as frivolous, capricious, and was, to the audience’s eyes, among the least liked. Yet, Gerwig’s script and Pugh’s terrific performance managed to twist the situation and reveal a different dimension of the much-hated Amy, and for her performance, the actress received many nominations. It is worth mentioning, though, the big age difference between the actress and her character: Amy is 13 years old in the story while Pugh was 22 years old when filming took place.

2 Amy Poehler

Amy Poehler‘s performance as June George in Mean Girls is one of her most memorable roles. She was Regina’s mother, a woman who was constantly striving to please both her daughters and any other guest they invited into the house. June considered herself a “cool mom,” usually engaging in very controversial behavior, such as encouraging teen-drinking inside her home or dancing wildly in public. Poehler excelled in her role, and her characterization quickly conveyed June’s essence. Nonetheless, at the time of filming, the actress was only 33 years old, whereas her character was a mother of a teenager almost finishing high school. What’s more, Poehler was only six years older than Rachel McAdams, who was playing her daughter in the film.

1 Shirley Henderson

This is probably the most astonishing age difference on the entire list. Shirley Henderson is a Scottish actress who has studied drama since her teens. She became world-renowned for her part in the Harry Potter franchise, first appearing in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as Moaning Myrtle, the ghost of a student murdered by Tom Riddle in 1943 that haunts the girls’ toilets on the second floor of Hogwarts. When she first played this student, who by the time of her death was supposed to be 14 years old, Henderson was already 37. For her final cameo in the saga back in 2005, in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Henderson was 40 years old.

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