Dawson casting

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Dawson casting is an observed cultural phenomenon and movie trope in film and television in which many of the actors appear and are really much older than the characters they portray. The concept is observable in teen dramas such as Glee, Gossip Girl, and Pretty Little Liars where grown adults are cast to play teenage characters. Derry Girls is a non-American example of Dawson casting of teenage characters. The term was originally circulated on the Internet in response to the casting choices of Dawson's Creek,[1] though the phenomenon predates that series, with examples such as the 1948 film Joan of Arc,[2] the 1978 film Grease,[3] the 1985 film The Breakfast Club,[1] and the 1990s teen drama series Beverly Hills, 90210 casting actors in their twenties and thirties to play high-school aged students.[2]

Criticism[]

Canadian teen drama franchise Degrassi is often noted and praised for being one of the few major exceptions to the trope within the genre (along with Skins[4]), casting most of its actors age-appropriately.[5][6] Franchise co-creator Linda Schuyler has been a critic of the practice as early as 1986, during the development of Degrassi Junior High, where she stated that the show would cast age-appropriately was due to the fact that "so much of the American stuff set in high schools is played by late teens and early 20s - and then some".[7] She further elaborated to IndieWire in 2016 that "I like to talk about the fact that you can take a 25-year-old who looks 15 and have them play a role, but that actor is bringing 10 more years of life experience to that role. By having our cast be age-appropriate, they bring the freshness and the authenticity of that age."[8] Samantha Wilson of Film School Rejects cites the trope as having contributed to the failure of the American adaptation of Skins.[4]

Social ramifications[]

It has been suggested on several occasions by critics that Dawson casting has several negative implications, specifically for adolescents. These commonly include accusations of unrealistic beauty standards, negative body image, low self-esteem, and general mental health problems, especially in regard to one's self-perception.[4][9]

A clinical psychologist, Barbara Greenberg, told Teen Vogue that casting twenty-year-old actors for the roles of high-school students can worsen the struggles of adolescents, stating "It can give the message that they’re supposed to look good all the time" adding "That leads to all kinds of body-image and social-comparison issues".[9]

References[]

  1. ^ a b Linda Yang (5 May 2017). "Inside the Phenomenon of Grown Adults Playing Teenagers on TV". VICE. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  2. ^ a b Katherine Webb (8 June 2016). "15 Older Actors Who Played Teenagers in TV And Movies". Screenrant.com. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  3. ^ Harry Low (7 August 2014). "When adult actors play teenagers". BBC News. Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  4. ^ a b c Samantha Wilson (9 May 2014). "Why Teenagers Need to Play Teenagers on Screen". Retrieved 20 July 2018.
  5. ^ "'Degrassi' is on Netflix now. It's still the realest show about teens". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 14 August 2021.
  6. ^ Lancaster, Brodie (19 December 2020). "Quit the moralising, HBO's Euphoria isn't pretty but neither is being a teen". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 14 August 2021.
  7. ^ Taylor, Bill (7 August 1986). "Degrassi Junior High crew aims for slice-of-life reality". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 14 September 2007.
  8. ^ Miller, Liz Shannon (18 July 2016). "Here's Why Degrassi Will Never Die (And No, It's Not Just Because of Netflix)". IndieWire. Retrieved 14 August 2021.
  9. ^ a b "The Problem With Teen Characters Being Played by Adults". Teen Vogue. 7 June 2017. Retrieved 20 July 2018.


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