Casting Question...

Hey, for my short idea I'm hoping to get writing soon, both of the characters are adult males.
Trouble is, I don't know any adult male actors.
Is it possible to have teenage actors (like, aged 16 or 17) to play older characters effectively?
 
Yes and no. I had some friends when I was 16/17 who could have passed for being in their mid-twenties… others would have struggled to get in to 15 rated films without ID. If your characters are in their twenties, you might be able to pull it off, but probably not if they're playing balding 48 year olds.

Of course, the acting capabilities and emotional maturity of your actors are equally important and they can only be chosen by you, but no matter how fine their acting is, if you don't pass the first hurdle of appearance and voice you'll never convince the audience.
 
Yes and no. I had some friends when I was 16/17 who could have passed for being in their mid-twenties… others would have struggled to get in to 15 rated films without ID. If your characters are in their twenties, you might be able to pull it off, but probably not if they're playing balding 48 year olds.

Of course, the acting capabilities and emotional maturity of your actors are equally important and they can only be chosen by you, but no matter how fine their acting is, if you don't pass the first hurdle of appearance and voice you'll never convince the audience.

I suppose age wise the characters will be one in their late twenties, one in their early thirties.
 
Very rarely does this work.

Using make up it's easier to make a 16 year old look 90
than 32. As chilipie mentioned, if the actors already look
older, it may work, but making a 16 year old look 28 or
32 just ends up looking silly. I cringe when I'm watching
a movie in which teens play adults. I remember doing
just that with a couple of my early films. I was embarrassed.
So from then on I wrote scripts that were age appropriate
to the actors I had available and cast adults to play adults.

I know this isn't what you asked, but if all you have available
to you are teen actors you are in a unique place - to write
and make a movie from a teen perspective. Choose a story
that is unique to 16/17 year olds and have them play their
age.
 
Depending on your comfort level-have you thought about approaching a local community theatre to see if any of their members would be interested if you're having trouble finding people?
 
I'd like to say if this is your first short or film endeavor of any kind, I think younger actors will be fine. If it's your first project, you're learning so much on set anyway that it more than likely won't be a masterpiece. Not to be negative, you should try to make it as great as possible, but this is probably an educational experience more than anything else.
 
I can't recommend just throwing something up on Casting Call Pro highly enough...

The first short that I shot using jobbing actors (The Samurai, coming soon ;) ) I was nervous about getting in professionals for what was, essentially, an amateur production. But jobs are scarce and if you're serious, they'll respect you and have no problem dealing with you. For my second, film school, short I had almost two hundred applications spread over 4 roles. I'm interviewing 12 people tomorrow evening.

People will want to work for you.

It is always better to get people who are the appropriate age for the characters, especially if you ever plan on showing this to anyone other than your friends.
 
There are various places on line to place casting calls for free. Nick suggested a good on. There is also castingnetworks.com, Mandy.com, and ShowBusinessWeekly.com. The last one may charge now. I haven't used them in a while. I recommend casting strangers over friends, unless your friends are experienced actors you have seen perform before.
 
In the UK the biggest free ones are Casting Call Pro and Talent Circle. If you can get hold of a Spotlight account it's a great way to get contact details for agents, but you can't post a casting call.

Mandy is also good but is more orientated towards Crew so neglects the actors a wee bit. There are some other casting networks which are subscription based and won't get the same yield that CCP does so I wouldn't recommend bothering with them...
 
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