[Netherrealmer]

Reese Witherspoon plays the role of Adam Sandler's mother in Little Nicky. She looks younger than her onscreen son. To be fair her character is an angel so she is immortal. She is 10 years older than him though but that is like she got pregnant at age 10.


Kate Mara and Heath Ledger are daughter and father in Brokeback Mountain, he is only 4 years older than her and she is playing a teenager.



Remember when Angelina Jolie played the role of Collin Farrell's mom in the historical movie Alexander. Jolie is one year older than Collin Farrell. Make up team didn't make an effort to make her look older.



In the Hobbit, Orlando Bloom is 3 years younger than the actor playing his father but to be fair, they are playing immortal elves.




In the movie "In time" Olivia Wilde is 3 years younger than Justin Timberlake but she plays the role of his mother. This movie set in the future, Aging has been stopped but with a terrible dystopian consequence.

[Jem Smith]

Yep, it's a common trope. I don't have any issue with it when it's explained by the story, as it is in 3 of your examples, but when the characters are just supposed to be regular humans it's weird.

Often it's female characters who are played by younger actors, since until pretty recently actresses weren't allowed to look old (I don't mean it was an actual written rule, just the way things were done). So you'd often get an actor who was the age he was supposed to be, but the woman playing his wife would be 10 years younger than her character.

Another example of age inappropriate actors as mothers- in Shameless Emmy Rossum played Tom Holland's mother, even though she was 35 and he was 25.
https://www.sheknows.com/entertainment/articles/2538844/emmy-rossum-cast-as-tom-holland-mother-twitter-reacts/

[Netherrealmer]

Anne Hathaway also played the role of Amanda Siefried's mom in Les Mierables but the scene on the picture is ai. It never happened because Anne's character died before Amanda's character becomes adult. Their age gap is 3 years.

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[Jem Smith]

Anne Hathaway also played the role of Amanda Siefried's mom in Les Mierables but the scene on the picture is ai. It never happened because Anne's character died before Amanda's character becomes adult. Their age gap is 3 years.

image.jpg

Well that's not an unrealistic age gap-she is many more years older than the actress who played the child version of the character.

[eldavis]

Lol most of the times I just ignore the age gag cause some of them don't even make sense in anyway.

[Netherrealmer]

If your an actor on your 30s and you played the role of parent of someone who is adult and your role is not immortal... it means producers thinks you are old. Thats why I remember there is an actress who will only accept a mother role if the son or daughter is younger than a teen. In Asia its like career suicide as you will be typecast to parent roles.

On this Bollywood movie the actress playing the mother... Is younger than the actor playing her son. Actresses age faster than actors in Bollywood. They make women on their 30s play grandma roles. Meanwhile love interests of male actors are old enough to be their daughters. No wonder Priyanka moves to Hollywood.

[arunima]

At least the stories have a base for those young looking parents in the films that you have mentioned. We have many movies in Bollywood where young actor/ actresses have played parents. But the make up and delivery has done justice to the characters

[Netherrealmer]

This one is terrible though, they cast woman on their 30s to play the role of 2 real life grannies who are competitive shooters.



The make up to make them old is terrible

If I am an actor I will only accept the role of an Adult's dad in my current age if my role is immortal or time travel is involved.

[cmoneyspinner]

In the very first Manchurian Candidate movie, the mother and son were almost the same age in real life. Angela Lansbury (37) and Laurence Harvey (34).

In the 2004 remake, Meryl Streep played the mother (55) and Liev Schreiber played the son (36). More realistic.

[germainebull]

In "Little Nicky," Reese Witherspoon plays Holly, the angelic mother of Adam Sandler's character. It’s a quirky casting choice, considering that Reese Witherspoon is only a few years older than Adam Sandler in real life. But as you mentioned, her character being an angel provides the perfect excuse for her youthful appearance—immortality does have its perks!
It’s a great example of Hollywood's creative liberties when it comes to casting and storytelling.

[mrki444]

It is movie. Stop doing to much background research. Soon we will lose all movies about space when people realize they are made on Earth.

[Netherrealmer]

Umm I am an entertainment writer and its a fun trope because of how ridiculous it was