In the last 20 years more and more movies started delivering appropriate casting for f->m age gaps, mainly because of pr0n revolution and popularity of MILF trope.
American Pie 1999. Jennifer Coolidge -> Eddie Thomas = 19.
Don Jon 2013. Julianne Moore -> Joseph Gordon-Levitt = 21.
>It’s also the age of 35 year old women playing the mothers of 25 year old men
Its my gripe with the latest Dune adaptation. No way that actress was old enough to be Paul's mom unless she had him when she was 6 years old. She looked more like his siter than his mother.
It bugs me when they don't have age apropriate family members with such obviously wide age gaps.
I understand your complaint in the larger context of popular culture. But in the context of Dune, which takes place 1000s of years in the future, and in which there exist a genetically manipulating pseudo-cult group of witches/spies who are desperately seeking the ascendancy of humankind to a higher plane of existence, it is slightly more reasonable that Jessica Atreides looks the way she does, as a hyper attractive concubine that was intended (you might say "designed") to eventually develop the bloodline of a pseudo-god. But that also only really makes sense if you're invested in the narrative.
The real kicker is that Paul probably should have looked younger. In the novel, he arrives on Arrakis when he is 15.
This is the basic problem with adapting Dune. It has absolute loads of worldbuilding, and tells a reasonably complex plot at the same time. It doesn't matter how many times it's adapted, the viewer is just going to have a better time if they have read the book.
Jessica is a Bene Gesserit, they are explicitly noted to stay youthful in appearance and live a long time. This is one of many hundreds of details that just have to be shown, there's no time to explain them.
> No way that actress was old enough to be Paul's mom unless she had him when she was 6 years old.
If you know anything about Dune's lore, you would know why this is the case. The movie absolutely does not go into enough detail about this or explain the abilities of Bene Gesserit.
Well there is only 12 years age difference between actors, but Chalamet looks 15-17 all the time. Maybe creators wanted to emphasize strict gene selection happening behind curtains, and people in year 10,191 have better healthcare/skincare on position of queen.
Never met 40+ woman who looked as if she just finished university? Smooth skin, no moles or wrinkles, energetic. Genes + upkeep + generally healthy lifestyle + good sleep. And probably no kids.
Its not outrageous to have 15 year old son and looking very fine, plenty of world even in 2022 start having kids before/at 20. Look at all the photos of young moms from Ukraine escaping, often almost teenagers around young mom, in age that here where I live local women start thinking about having a child.
Considering the peculiar genetic projects of the Bene Gesserit and other Dune groups is unnecessary: the real world trend of somewhat aged people looking so good that they can pass as significantly younger (in particular, actors who are credible as younger characters) can be easily and obviously extrapolated to the wealthy nobility of a far future high tech SF setting.
Jessica Atreides at about 40 is supposed to look so extraordinarily youthful that a younger actress like Rebecca Ferguson is needed.
This is not a new trend though. In Lawrence Oliviers Hamlet from 1948, Hamlets mother is played by an actress which is 10 years younger than Olivier.
The article shows a graph of the age gap between leads, and it shows it slightly narrowing, while both men an women stars are getting older on average.
They don't cite the source, but the claim in the article is that the average age of top-billed actors has gone up faster than the average age of the audience, not that yesteryear had 0 older stars.
His latest movie was also filmed 3 years ago in large part due to how long CGI takes but also how long movies are edited. So not only do Actors age more between filming and release, but it also takes longer for a new actor to catch on.
Aka they film a movie when their 20, it’s a breakout hit when their 23, their next movie comes out when their 26.
It was filmed 3 years ago because the release was delayed due to the pandemic. They didn't want it to flop because people weren't going to the theaters.
It was finished filming almost a year before they started shutting down movie theaters for the pandemic and they didn’t release promotional materials back then.
So, that pushes the earliest summer release as 2 to 2.5 years after filming each scene assuming COVID actually delayed things.
Implying gift/inheritance not theft. If I was a grandpa and had one in my shed, I'd probably give it to my grandkid that happens to be a top gun pilot/instructor.
Yep, and the reverse also... 35+yo people playing highscoolers was the norm.
I mean, i guess it's kinda hard to film scenes not-in-chronological-order with a teenager who visibly changes during the filming, but it's not an impossible thing to do.
I was rewatching earlier seasons of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and it's hilarious that the character Xander Harris(0) was perceived as a scrawny high school nerd.
> I was rewatching earlier seasons of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and it's hilarious that the character Xander Harris(0) was perceived as a scrawny high school nerd.
Uh, except he wasn't perceived as scrawny, and was a jock-adjacent slacker, almost an anti-nerd.
Funny that actors in their 20s, especially early 20s isn't the obvious solution when bodily change has slowed but age can still easily pass for HS aged.
> Funny that actors in their 20s, especially early 20s isn't the obvious solution when bodily change has slowed but age can still easily pass for HS aged.
They are. Sure, there are some that are wildly out of that range, but since someone else raised BtVS let's look at how old the main cast was in 1997, when they were playing sophomores in high school:
I hard that in the recent book from the Howard brothers.
If you are under 18 there are all sorts of restrictions on hours worked, supervision, etc. So it is a lot easier to get a 18+ actor to play a 12-17 year old than someone the actual age.
Part of the reason child actors struggle to transition to adult roles. 3-4 year enforced gap in their career.
Now do the actors of Beverly Hills 90210. When the show started, Ian Ziering was 26. Jason Priestly was 21. Lukey Perry was 24. Gabrielle Carteris was 29. Shannon Doherty was 23.
It’s seems more reasonable to use 26 year old actors to play a ~16 year old high school students than 11 year olds.
Daniel Radcliffe on the other hand was actually 11-12 when playing an 11-12 year old character. By comparison Tom Felton as Draco Malfoy simply didn’t fit nearly as well because he was a 2 years older. https://fantasytopics.com/harry-potter-cast-real-life-ages-d...
I haven't seen a conclusive answer. My search results suggest that she may be 22, but it is mostly based on the fact that she has some voice acting credits from 2003. Someone on Reddit mentioned that they read an article saying "(...) she moved to LA w her family when she was 6, and then took up acting classes “a while later”" and this suggest that voice acting would probably be after this. So she would be from 1997 at least and that would make her 25 (or more). The show had its premiere on January 2021.
Regardless it is remarkable or even more remarkable.
I looked her up, because my daughter was asking about her.
Bancroft was 36 at the time of release.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Graduate
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dustin_Hoffman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Bancroft