15 actors who played characters way older or younger than they are in real life
Hollywood actors sometimes go to extreme lengths to fit the perfect roles, whether its using method acting strategies or losing massive amounts of weight. But other times the actors manage to blend into characters much older or younger than themselves with simply a bit of makeup or the right wardrobe.
Keep reading for a look at 15 actors who were far older or younger than the parts they played on screen.
Stacy Dash played a high school student in "Clueless" when she was 29 years old.
Dash's character, Dion, was meant to be a 17-year-old high schooler in the cult classic "Clueless."
Emma Thompson starred as 19-year-old Elinor Dashwood in "Sense and Sensibility" when she was 35.
Thompson wrote the screenplay (which won her an Oscar in 1995) and played the lead character in the period drama.
Winona Ryder was 28 when she played an 18-year-old in "Girl, Interrupted."
Ryder was cast as 18-year-old Susanna Kaysen when she was nearly a decade older than the character.
Beyoncé played Foxxy Cleopatra "Goldmember" when she was just 20 years old.
Beyoncé was Austin Powers' love interest, even though Mike Meyers was 39 years old (nearly twice her age at the time).
Orlando Bloom played Kiera Knightley's late-teen love interest in "Pirates of the Caribbean," despite being eight years older than her.
Both Elizabeth Swan (Knightley) and Will Turner (Bloom) are meant to be around 18 years old in the first "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie. But Bloom was 26 years old at the time, while Knightley was exactly 18.
Scarlett Johansson starred in "Lost in Translation" when she was just 18 years old, though her character was meant to be a college graduate.
The age difference was made even more stark due to Bill Murray, who was 53 at the time, starring alongside Johansson in the semi-romantic role.
Rachel McAdams' portrayed high school junior Regina George in "Mean Girls" when she was 26.
In retrospect, it's impressive to know McAdams blended in so well as a high school mean girl despite being a decade older than her character.
See what the "Mean Girls" cast is up to now in our round up here.
Another "Mean Girls" star, Lindsay Lohan, was aged up at least six years for the 2006 movie "Just My Luck."
When she was 20 years old, Lohan portrayed a successful executive who gets romantically tangled up with a man played by Chris Pine (who is six years older than Lohan). Not that it's impossible, but we doubt Lohan's character was meant to be a 20-year-old.
Jason Earles played Miley Cyrus' 16-year-old brother on Disney's "Hannah Montana" when he was 29.
Miley Cyrus starred as Miley Stewart on "Hannah Montana" starting in 2006 when she was 14, but Earles played her teenage brother despite being 15 years older.
Blake Lively was 24 when she was cast as Ryan Reynold's love interest in "Green Lantern," but he was 12 years older than her.
Lively's character Carol Ferris is meant to have known Hal Jordan (played by Reynolds) since they were children, but Lively and Reynolds are 12 years apart in age. The pair fell in love on the movie set, and are now married with two kids.
Jim Parsons is seven years older than his "The Big Bang Theory" character, Sheldon Cooper.
Sheldon is meant to be 37 on "The Big Bang Theory," but Parsons is actually 44 years old.
Some fans took issue with Diane Lane, then 47 years old, playing the much older Martha Kent in "Man of Steel."
In "Superman" comics, Martha Kent is always portrayed as a very elderly woman. Lane was cast as Martha for the 2013 movie "Man of Steel" when she was still in her 40s.
Jennifer Lawrence, currently 27 years old, has been aged up for several major movie roles.
From her role as an unhappily married women in "American Hustle" at age 23 to the Oscar-nominated character of a widow in "Silver Linings Playbook," Lawrence has been consistently aged up for her roles as her career moves forward.
Cole Sprouse is 25 years old, but his "Riverdale" character Jughead is meant to be just 16.
While most of the "Riverdale" cast is in their early 20s, Sprouse stands out as being close to 10 years older than the high school rebel he plays on screen.
Erinn Hayes, 41, played the wife of Kevin James, 52, on the CBS sitcom "Kevin Can Wait."
Hayes was more than a decade younger than her costar and onscreen husband. Fans were upset with the way "Kevin Can Wait" handled Hayes' departure from the show. Actress Leah Remini, 47, is now a series regular opposite James.
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