These actors played their "child" roles so convincingly that we never
had any idea they were actually grown ups. Join us as we explore
the history of adults who played kids in movies and fooled us all.
In the 2002 romantic comedy Bend it Like Beckham, Parminder Nagra stars as a London teen named Jess,
who joins a local women's soccer team at the urging of her friends. Her natural talent
for the sport shines through, and Jess is soon leading the team on its way to the championship.
In the movie, Jess becomes close friends with her teammate Jules, played by Keira Knightley, and a
budding romance develops between Jess and her young and attractive coach, Joe. Not everything
is perfect, though, as the championship takes place on the same day as Jess' sister's wedding,
and Jess' strict parents have forbidden her to play and don't even know she's on the team.
Although Bend it Like Beckham is just a sports-themed spin on the traditional
teen romcom, the star of the movie wasn't even close to being a teenager herself.
When Nagra played 18-year-old Jess in the film, the actress was actually 26.
Casting directors frequently age up when picking actors to fill roles in teen movies,
and Amy Heckerling's 1995 coming-of-age comedy Clueless is a pretty classic example of this.
In fact, most of the main Clueless cast members were slightly older than the characters they
played in the movie. At the start of the film, Cher, played by Alicia Silverstone,
is 15 years old, while Silverstone herself was 17 at the time. Similarly, Josh, played by Paul Rudd,
is a college undergraduate student, while Rudd was 25 during filming. However, the one Clueless
star that really fooled audiences was Stacey Dash, who played Cher's best friend Dionne.
If you've seen Clueless, you might have assumed Dash was around the same age as her onscreen
classmates. In fact, the actress was actually 28 when she played the 16-year-old Dionne.
What's more, Dash went on to reprise her role in 62 episodes of the Clueless television series
spinoff from 1996 to 1999. While the teens do grow older during the course of the show, that
still left Dash, then in her early 30s, playing an 18-year-old when the series drew to a close.
In 2004, the small indie comedy Napoleon Dynamite took the world by storm. This quirky cult classic
takes a look at the awkward and awesome adventures of high school student Napoleon Dynamite,
played by Jon Heder, as he navigates life in small-town Idaho alongside his friend Pedro, who
was played by Efren Ramirez. Filmed on a budget of just $400,000, Napoleon Dynamite earned over
$46 million at the box office and turned Heder and Ramirez into celebrities almost overnight.
“That’s a pretty good idea.”
Heder could probably still pass for a high school student today, so it may not surprise you to
learn that the baby-faced actor and producer was actually 26 while working on Napoleon Dynamite.
What we really want to know is how Ramirez keeps his youthful good looks, though.
Not only was he nearly 30 during filming, but the mustache he grew
for the part actually made Pedro look even younger than he was supposed to be.
In the classic 1987 romance Dirty Dancing, recent high school graduate Frances "Baby"
Houseman spends a summer with her affluent family at a resort in the Catskill Mountains,
where she meets dance instructor Johnny Castle, played by Patrick Swayze. After
Baby agrees to fill in for Johnny's dance partner Penny at an upcoming performance,
she and Johnny grow closer as they practice together and help Penny out of a tough situation.
She may have been playing a fresh-faced 17-year-old, but Grey was no "Baby" when she
appeared in Dirty Dancing. Although she definitely looked like a typical American teenager,
the actress was actually 27 years old, which would become one of her most widely remembered roles.
In fact, in 2020 it was announced that Grey would
be reprising her unforgettable role in a sequel to the original movie.
Even if you've never read a single one of J.K. Rowling's wildly popular Harry Potter books,
you're likely familiar with the minor character "Moaning Myrtle," though you might not have known
her name. Myrtle is one of the many ghosts that haunt Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry,
and her first big-screen appearance came during 2002's Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
In that film, Harry, Ron, and Hermione learn more about Myrtle and how she died
during some uncomfortable encounters in the bathroom she likes to haunt.
Her exact age isn't specified in the Harry Potter movies or books,
but context clues suggest she was killed when she was around 13 or 14 years old.
"Looks like Moaning Myrtle's flooded the bathroom."
Believe it or not, Scottish actress Shirley Henderson was actually 37 when
she first appeared as the distressed ghost in 2002's Chamber of Secrets.
This makes her, by far, the oldest actor to portray a Hogwarts student onscreen.
Ghosts don't age, of course, so Henderson later beat her own record when she reprised the role
of Myrtle in 2005's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire at age 39.
In the 1996 comedy The Birdcage, Robin Williams stars as Armand Goldman, an openly gay man who
owns a drag queen club in South Beach. Near the start of the film, Armand learns that his son Val,
played by Dan Futterman, is in love with 18-year-old Barbara Keeley,
played by Ally McBeal favorite, Calista Flockhart. The only problem is, Barbara is the daughter of a
prominent Florida senator, and she worries about how her conservative parents will react if they
learn the truth about Armand's lifestyle. As a result, Armand agrees to pretend to be straight
when the Keeleys come for a visit, even arranging for Val's mother to pretend to be his wife.
As you might expect, things don't work out quite according to plan.
Although Calista Flockhart and the rest of The Birdcage cast were mostly a backdrop
for the comedic talent of the late Robin Williams,
Flockhart did a convincingly good job in her role as the nervous 18-year-old Barbara. Her
performance was especially impressive considering the fact that she was actually 31 during filming.
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