Top 10 Actors Who Were Way Younger Than Their Characters

When they filmed “Seven” Paltrow was 22-years-old and her husband in the film, Brad Pitt was 31. However, since the character’s ages in the film aren’t specifically mentioned this one will require a little detective work. Brad Pitt was a detective which means the character was at least in his mid to late 20s but more likely in his 30s as Pitt was. And yes, an age difference between spouses of about ten years isn’t so out of the ordinary. But here’s the catch. These two were supposed to have been high school sweethearts! So, unless Pitt’s Detective Mills repeated his senior year 5 or 6 times, we are going to say that Paltrow was a good deal younger than her character.

The 2021 film, “The Dig” tells the story of the excavation of the Sutton Hoo estate in the 1930s. One of the main characters of the film is estate landowner Edith Pretty, played by actress Carey Mulligan. And while the response to her performance was generally positive, there were those that questioned the casting, given Mulligan’s age. You see, at the time of the events in the film, Edith Pretty was 56 years old, whereas Mulligan was 35 during filming. Also, 58-year-old Ralph Fiennes plays Basil Brown in the film who, in real life, was five years younger than Edith.

Director David O. Russell has made a number of films featuring a main female character in her 30s and on at least three occasions he’s cast Jennifer Lawrecne, an actress in her 20s. In 2015’s “Joy,” Lawrence was 24 while the character, Joy Mangano was 34 when the main events in the film took place. Jennifer was 23 when she played a woman in her early to mid-30s in “American Hustle.” And in “Silver Linings Playbook” her character was in her mid to late-30s while Lawrence was just 21-years-old! Besides the age discrepancies, what these performances all have in common is that Lawrence earned an Oscar nomination for each, taking home the statue for “Silver Linings Playbook.”

In “Just My Luck” Lohan played Ashley Albright, a woman who has had nothing but good luck her whole life. Then one day she kisses Jake Hardin, played by Chris Pine, a man who has always been unlucky, and their fortunes are switched. The film came out in 2006 just a couple months before Lindsey turned 20. However, the character of Ashley is probably closer to 30 given her life and position at the public relations firm where she works. Her co-star Pine was a more believable 25, six years older than Lohan.

Kiera Knightley played Juliet in the much-beloved 2003 romantic-comedy “Love Actually” when she was 18-years-old. So, how old was Juliet? Well, we don’t know for sure. But what we do know is that she is getting married and moving into a nice home with her husband while his best friend has held a torch for Juliet for quite some time. And while it may be technically possible that Juliet was 18 at the time, the more likely answer is that she was at least in her mid-20s if not older.

In 2003, while Kiera Knightley was a teenager playing a character in her 20s, Scarlett Johansson was doing the same thing. When she was cast opposite Bill Murray in Sofia Coppola’s “Lost in Translation”, Johansson was not the big time superstar she is today. She was just a 17-year-old, relatively unknown actress. In the film she plays a lonely wife left alone in a Tokyo hotel by her photographer husband. It was a breakout role for Johansson who, although not legally allowed to drink alcohol in real life, was playing a 22-year-old character in the movie.

Ok boys and girls, time for some math. Actress Sara Canning first appeared in the pilot episode of “The Vampire Diaries” which aired in 2009. Canning was born in 1987, which would have made her, yes that’s right, 22-years-old at the time. Now, we also know that Canning’s character on the show, Jenna Sommers, was born in Mystic Falls in 1980, which would have made her 29 at the time of the pilot episode. And for those wondering about how age works with Vampires, Jenna didn’t “turn” until 2010, so for those first episodes we have a legit seven year age difference.

Not only was Oliver Stone’s 2004 film, “Alexander” a box office and critical disappointment, it also had a few glaring age issues when it came to the main characters - particularly Angelina Jolie. Jolie played Queen Olympias, the mother of Alexander the Great, played by Colin Farrell. The first age issue has to be the fact that at the time of the film's release, Farrell was 28, while Jolie was only 29. But as it applies to her being way younger than her character, the real Olympias was 19 when she gave birth to Alexander the Great and he became the king of Macedon at the age of 20. Which means that throughout much of the film Olympias is in her 40s.

It’s already hard to believe that a 15-year-old could be as manipulative and dishonest as Alison DiLaurentis, so what about a 13-year-old? Yup, Sasha Pieterse was just 12-years-old when she started filming the “Pretty Little Liars” pilot. Sure, it’s just three years difference but if you’ve ever met a 12-year-old and a 15-year-old you know that gap is fairly large! And speaking of little age differences, Pieterse’s castmate Bianca Lawson, who also played a 15-year-old on the show, was actually 31 when they shot the pilot.

Picture it! It’s 1985 and NBC premieres a show about four older women living together in Miami. Three of the characters, Rose, Dorothy and Blanche are in their 50s, but the fourth, Sophia, played by Estelle Getty, is 79, give or take a few years, at the start of the series. What makes this so great is that Betty White and Bea Arthur, who played Rose and Dorothy, were both in their 60s, and Getty at 62-years-old was actually the second youngest actress on the show. That means she was 17 years younger than her character - a full Scarlett Johansson in “Lost in Translation”!