Open Forum Friday: Why Is Hollywood So Obsessed with Casting Younger Actors?
There was a bit of concern among comic book fans this week when it came out that 19-year-old Anton Yelchin was being considered for the role of Green Lantern. While it’s probably just a slim possibility, the idea that Warner Brothers would want someone so young to play Hal Jordan brought back bad memories of the teenaged cast they had lined up for the aborted Justice League movie. Here’s the thing though: it’s not just Warner Brothers. Almost every major studio seems to be casting younger and younger these days… and is there really a good justification for it?
Yelchin will also star as Chekov in J.J. Abrams’ upcoming Star Trek movie, another movie that has been criticized for putting a teeny bopper spin on the franchise. I can understand having one or two young characters to attract new viewers (like Shia LaBeouf in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull), or casting age-appropriate actors in roles where the characters are supposed to be young (ie. Twilight). But why is it that no one can accept a protagonist nowadays who is even close to approaching middle aged? We live in a culture that is obsessed with youth, that much is for certain. Youth sells, even to an older crowd, but at what point does a youthful appearance become more important than actual acting experience? I suppose lack of experience typically also means a cheaper price tag, and to be fair, there are plenty of young actors who do have talent, but still… why can’t someone like Kurt Russell get any decent roles anymore? What do you think? Is this whole situation getting out of hand? Can Sylvester Stallone prove that 63-year-olds still have box office appeal with The Expendables? Give us your thoughts on ageism in Hollywood here on Open Forum Friday.
Comments (9)
I hate it when they fill a cast with teens acting above their age, but equally hate it when these near-30 actors gets cast as teens.
Anyway, it’s a problem that probably will only get worse over time, no matter if “The Expendables” becomes a hit or not (which I really hope it’ll be).
Posted by Kasper F. Nielsen on February 27th, 2009It all started when Hollywood realized that PG-13 was the most bankable rating. I don’t know how it is in St. Catherines; but at my local cinema 80% of weekend patrons (which is 90% of moviegoers) are all too young for R. So then Hollywood thinks that is they need to feed that annoying teen audience (which will rarely come out for one of the few G & PG rated films) with teenagers in lead roles.
It sucks because many films that would have been R (like all the pathetic j-horror remakes) are now weak-ass PG-13.
Damn you Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom! Sure, my Mom’s went into labor with me during a screening of the film but if it hadn’t been responsible for creating the PG-13 rating we’d still be enjoying a good R-rated action flick every now and then (that didn’t come from overseas).
Posted by Ryan M. on February 27th, 2009whoooooooa hold on! Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We can dislike older actors playing younger parts, unless said hot actress is playing a high school cheerleader, therefore, allowing said high school cheerleader to have uber boob job and engage in theatrical sexual activity allowed by union rules for an actress over 18 prior to being decapitated.
Cool…..o.k. carry on with debate.
Posted by rus in chicago on February 28th, 2009I think this is mostly an issue with action franchises. Looking at a list of the biggest box office hits last year, most of them involved age-appropriate casting. The Dark Knight, Iron Man, Hancock, Quantum of Solace, Sex and the City, Mamma Mia, Gran Torino. All of these films proved that thirty, forty, fifty, and in Clint Eastwood’s case, even seventy-year-olds still have box office pull.
This Anton Yelchin rumour sounds like it’s entirely based on the kid’s paycheque. He’s hardly a name actor, so he’d be a lot cheaper than Tobey Maguire, Jake Gyllenhaal, James Franco, Colin Farrell, Leonardo DiCaprio, or Hayden Christensen. It still sounds odd to me, it would be a huge gamble for the studio to cast Yelchin. Who knows if he can carry a whole picture? He’s appearing in Star Trek and Terminator Salvation this year though, so maybe they are expecting his star power to rise over the course of 2009.
Posted by Ashley on February 28th, 2009“But why is it that no one can accept a protagonist nowadays who is even close to approaching middle aged?”
Correction: why is it that no one can accept a MALE protagonist who is even close to approaching middle aged? This kind of thing has been a problem for women over forty for decades now; apparently the trend is now catching up with men as well.
Posted by Liz on February 28th, 2009I want a movie where kurt russell and bruce willis spend 90 minutes beating the shit out of hot-young-new tweens…but you couldn’t have them be human tweens, they could be vampires or whatever…Just watching them beat the everlonging piss out of Twilight-esqe actors and characters would be worth several admission prices.
Posted by Bob The Slob on March 1st, 2009Chekov is supposed to be a lot younger then everyone else in Star Trek. He’s the Wesley Crusher of the original show.
Also, does anyone know for sure that it is Hal Jordan who is going to be the Green Lantern? It could be Kyle Rayner and Yelchin would fit that casting pretty well, if slightly young for it.
Posted by Matt Gamble on March 1st, 2009True, I know Walter Koenig was a teen heartthrob himself when he was cast in TOS… but wasn’t he in his 30s at the time?
As far as Green Lantern goes, last I heard they were going with Hal Jordan for the movie, but it does seem odd because they were planning to use the John Stewart character for the Justice League movie (Common was supposed to play him).
Posted by Sean on March 1st, 2009Yeah, he was pretty damn old to be playing a teen. It just seems weird that people are complaining when Abrams casts the role much closer to the characters supposed age.
They may be trying to go with Hal Jordan, but I can’t imagine it would be that difficult to do a rewrite and change the character to Kyle if Yelchin is who they cast.
Posted by Matt Gamble on March 1st, 2009Leave a Reply