10 Actors Too Young For The Roles They Played

1. Jennifer Lawrence As A Ton Of Characters

Green Lantern Ages
Columbia Pictures

The queen of actors who are too young for the role they played: Jennifer Lawrence. In Silver Lining Playbook (2012), America Hustle (2013), Joy (2015) and Mother (2017) Lawrence play characters older than herself.

In Silver Lining Playbook Lawrence was only 21, playing an early to mid-thirties widow. Her love interest is 37-years old. In American Hustle a now 23-year old Lawrence plays another thirty-something woman. This time she is married and has a 5-year old child. At 24 Lawrence stared in Joy playing a woman who is in her mid-thirties to early forties.

In Mother, a 27-year-old Lawrence is meant to be similar in age to the 48-year old Javier Bardem who plays her husband. Lawrence is at the very least a decade off, and looks it.

Lawrence is a talented actress who is clearly attracted to roles that let her showcase her skill more than parts written for early 20s actresses often do. Her authentic and nuanced acting have won her a ton of awards including a BAFTA and 3 Golden Glove Awards.

No one can fault Lawrence for seeking out meaty roles, but one has to side-eye the casting choices on a few of her films. There is something eerie about watching a mid-thirty-year-old character embodied by someone who at worst looks just this side of legal, and at best looks impossibly untouched by the age and experiences which are meant to define them.

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West loves pop culture, movies, comics and TV-shows just as much as you do. Probably. Since you're reading this. Also, she has a cat. He's pretty awesome.