Skewed Perspectives

Countless times, in all facets of film, older actors and actresses have portrayed younger high school students. It is so ingrained in film that people don’t even realize it is going on. Many people seem to know that students who are actually in high school look a lot different than TV or movie “high school” students.

The recent release of The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 has resurfaced criticism on the portrayal of high school students by much older actors. Ironically, the film addressed how make-up and artificial lighting makes youths look much older, despite their actual age. It seems rare that a 14-18 year old is cast to play a high school student in movies or in television. We have accepted that older actors and actresses portray young students, but we do not realize that this can change our body image. When I first thought about this, instantly a picture of the tall, curvy Jennifer Lawrence from House at the End of the Street came to mind. Jennifer Lawrence was 20 when she shot the movie but she played a 17 year old. Although much larger disparities in age exist, my friends and I could not help but talk about the lack of high-school looking students in the movie, including Jennifer Lawrence.

And no one can forget about High School Musical, but “high school” may be a bit of a stretch. During the year of filming, Corbin Bleu (Chad Danforth) turned 16 and Chris Warren Jr. (Zeke Baylor) turned 15. The boys were two of the youngest cast members, but played roles one or two years older. On the other end of the spectrum is Monique Coleman as Taylor McKessie, a 25-year-old playing a 16 or 17-year-old. If the characters from High School Musical were transplanted into Madison High School, it is apparent that they would not be sticking with the status quo because they would just look out of place.

It can be heard in the hallways or at lunch, especially among girls, the question of why the boys at their school look so young and are so immature compared 16 year olds to 22-25 year olds on TV. Twitter, a site that is used by a large percentage of teens, is filled with complaints and pictures again comparing these “fake” teens with their reality.

Although it is not impossible to find shows and movies with freshman-looking actors and actresses, it is more common to see college and upperclassmen age people acting as all grades of high school. With all evidence indicating that students are aware of this aspect of media, one would assume that they feel influenced by it. However, this is not the case. After polling students in study halls and around the hallways of MHS, we cannot draw conclusions that this affects students. After asking students “did you have higher expectations or a different view of what you were supposed to look like in high school when you were younger due to the TV shows or movies you watched?” students responded unlike we predicted. Most of the students asked brushed off this idea, saying “no…not really.” Only a few, who were all seniors, said that they did think they would look different, some noting this because they “look really young” or one saying that she thought she would “wear high heels in high school because of TV.”

This brings a whole other level of this idea because it means that most students are so accustomed to seeing older actors portray younger students that they aren’t really aware of the effect it has on them. Georgia Turvey, another senior, refutes this: “the things that you see affect the way you think, you don’t decide whether they do or not”.

In TV shows, students look much more put together, well dressed and don’t ever seem occupied with schoolwork or stress. Many remember watching a very mature Hilary Duff act as a seventh-grade Lizzie Maguire. However, moving into high school, most knew that people in reality don’t actually look like that. To many, it’s an obvious fact that teenagers in “real life” aren’t going to resemble actors from TV and movies.

Height, weight, and overall body shape is a very messy subject not dealt with well by the perfectly sculpted actors of Hollywood. Extremely impressionable teens may have the unrealistic expectation of what they should look like from the actors who play high school students. In school, if you want to find someone who looks 20+ years old you look to the teachers, not the students. But when a 20+ year old is playing someone 14-18 we are left feeling like we should look older, shapelier, and just different.