Top 10 Celebs Who Lied About Their Age to Get A Role
#10: Rebel Wilson
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In 2015, the “Pitch Perfect” actress found herself in hot water following an article that claimed that she’d adjusted some details about her life. Apparently, an irate former classmate was desperate for the world to know that Rebel was in her mid-30s, rather than 29 as was publicized at the time. Initially, Wilson took to Twitter to have fun with this new info. However, it soon spiraled out of hand, resulting in a court case. Wilson sued on grounds of defamation and was initially successful, though it was followed by an appeal. Perhaps if Hollywood was kinder to women beyond their 20s, this whole sticky situation would have never happened.
#9: Carla Gugino
This actress made her silver-screen debut in the 1989 comedy, “Troop Beverly Hills”. Casting called for a 14-year-old actress so Gugino decided to knock a couple of years off of her real age to land the job. Eventually, she came clean but by that point, it was too late to recast. Although the director, Jeff Kanew admitted that had he known the truth he wouldn’t have hired her. She confessed that with no online public database at the time, it was easier to get away with this white lie. Some things are just meant to be and she’s enjoyed an impressive and varied career ever since.
#8: Gillian Anderson
Normally, we hear about women having to appear younger to land their dream jobs. However, a 24-year-old Anderson claimed to be 27 in order to nab the role of Dana Scully in “The X-Files”. She revealed this on NPR to explain how someone so young could play an accomplished FBI agent. Her chances of getting the job were already on a knife’s edge since the Network wasn’t convinced that she was the right fit. Luckily the series creator, Chris Carter was adamant that she was their Dana Scully. We wonder if he would have felt the same way had he known her real age?
#7: Geri Horner [aka Geri Halliwell]
Ginger Spice’s true age has always been a bit of an enigma. Back in 1994, an advert was printed in “The Stage” calling women aged 18-23 to audition for a girl group. Horner, formerly Halliwell, claimed to be 21 during her audition though reports say she was actually closer to 25. If this was indeed the case, then it’s crazy to think that this minor white fib landed her a place in one of the greatest girl groups of all time. Though her year of birth has generally been reported as 1972, her former bandmate Mel B has all but confirmed that Horner is older than she’s claiming to be. The mystery shrouding her real age earned her the rather misogynistic nickname, “Old Spice”.
#6: Rachel McAdams
It’s relatively well-known that McAdams was 24 when she was cast as high school Queen Bee, Regina George. But this isn’t the only occasion she’s supposedly moved numbers around to get a gig. Around 2007, there were several conflicting sources that aged the actress somewhere between 28 and 30 with her birth year being reported as both 1976 and 1978. It appears that like many women in the industry, McAdams has claimed to be whatever age her desired roles call for. If true, then considering her plethora of amazing performances, it’s served her well. It’s a testament to her talent that she can claim to be any age and we’d totally believe her.
#5: Sandra Bullock
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To counter Hollywood’s sexist double standards, this multi-award-winning actress has often remained coy about her age. But as it turns out, this is a practice she had to adopt quite early on in her career. During an interview with Barbara Walters in 1992, Bullock confessed that she’d lied about her age to get cast in “Love Potion #9”. The part of biologist Diane Farrow called for a 29-year-old, but she was actually younger. She apparently told Detour magazine that while she wasn’t an advocate for lying, experience taught her otherwise. She said, “I figure you just keep them guessing.”.
#4: Laurence Fishburne
You probably recognize this actor from movies like “The Matrix” franchise, “Boyz n the Hood” and the “John Wick” series. However, one of his biggest early roles was booked when he was the age of 14 for the star-studded Vietnam War drama, “Apocalypse Now”. He’d successfully convinced the filmmakers that he was 16 in order to get cast as Tyrone "Mr. Clean" Miller, a 17-year-old river patrol boat crew member. To be fair, the film took so long to shoot that by the time they wrapped, he had caught up to his character’s age. It might have started as a little lie, but it ended up launching his career.
#3: Whoopi Goldberg
Goldberg is another actress who decided to play the system at its own game by distorting her real age. In fact, speaking to “The Washington Post” in 1986, she shared that she “giggles about the secrets contained on her California drivers license,”. But while many try to seem younger to make it in the biz, Whoopi took things the other way. The actress was interested in more mature roles that she was deemed too young for. So, she simply added an extra five or 6 years to her age in the ‘70s. This actually worked! She would eventually go on to nab her breakout Academy-Award nominated role as Celie in “The Color Purple” in the mid-80s.
#2: Gabrielle Carteris
It’s nothing new to see an adult actor cast as a high school student in film or TV. But we can understand why Carteris was wary about revealing her real age during her “Beverly Hills, 90210” audition. She was up for the part of Andrea Zuckerman, who was in her mid-teens, even though in actuality, she was 29. After getting the job, she was assured by a lawyer that as long as she wrote that she was ‘over 21’ then her fib wouldn’t land her in trouble. The truth eventually came following illegally obtained info from the DMV. By then, the show had garnered enough popularity that they were hardly going to fire her because of it.
#1: Mila Kunis
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“That ‘70s Show” simply wouldn’t have been the same without Mila Kunis playing the spoiled and self-centered Jackie Burkhart. But to land the job she had to distort the truth a little…or a lot. During her audition, she told the team that she would be 18, she just didn’t specify when. Had they probed her a little more they might have discovered that 18 was still a good four years away! Yep, she was only 14 at the time. They cottoned onto her lie when, while signing the contracts, she requested a studio teacher. We’re not condoning lying, but Mila Kunis is a household name today.
