Thirty-somethings playing teenagers is a tale as old as time in Hollywood.
Shirley Henderson, who portrayed Moaning Myrtle in the “Harry Potter” franchise, opened up about just how old she was when she took on the role, which called for a teenager.
She was 37 years old at the time, portraying a 14-year-old schoolgirl.
“The casting director said, ‘Go for it – and don’t mention your age,’” Henderson recalled in an interview with The Independent, published last week.
She conjured up a “wee bit of moaning,” which her character calls for, and also dressed the part.
“I went to the audition dressed as a schoolgirl — white shirt, black skirt, ponytail — thinking, ‘This is ridiculous,’” Henderson, now 60, said in an interview with the Radio Times earlier this month.
“I did my wee bit for them, and they thanked me. Months went by and I thought that was it, but then they phoned my agent, asked to see me again and offered me the part,” she said.
“Myrtle is an old person in a young person’s body and because she’s ghosty, there’s a kind of mistiness,” the actor shared. “You’re not looking closely at my face so we could get away with it.”
Actors, primarily women, being asked to hide their age is nothing new.
Nicole Coughlan, star of “Derry Girls” and “Bridgerton,” has spoken before about being asked to obscure her age at auditions, as she looks many decades younger than her 38 years.
“I mean, it’s a weird thing, because I had been advised many, many years ago by people in industry to lie about my age,” Coughlan said in an interview with Refinery29 last year. “I really wasn’t comfortable with it, mainly because I’m like, I’m not a good liar. And I would feel weird about that.”
Coughlan said she does usually say her age, which is “a difficult thing, because the industry is ageist.”
“I do have times when I go home and I’m like, should I have just not disclosed it? Should I have not done that?” she wondered.