Quote:
Originally Posted by BWinmill
If you can play the role and you fit the appearance of the role, should age even be a consideration? Clearly a 70 year old actress is going to have a tough time looking like a 7 year old character, but that's an extreme case. But what of a 40 year old actress playing a 30 year old character? That should be doable, yet hiring someone based upon arbitrary range of ages (say 25 to 35) and that actress is out of the running. I'm not sure how casting is done, but I could quite easily imagine someone being left out of the running based upon a database query simply because computers can't tell the difference.
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It has to do with streamlining the casting process. The arbitrary range is a way to filter at the start. Many people are likely ruled out based on age just on paper alone. Headshots are great, but headshots can get out of date quickly. (Headshots are also not always a very good representation of how a person looks on camera. Especially in HD - aging skin is even more obvious.)The idea is for those that end up actually auditioning for the casting team to already be narrowed down quite a bit.
Obviously it's a little different for "cattle call" auditions where groups are being cast as extras, etc. Even then, age ranges are often specified but they know full well that people outside those ranges will show up anyway, so they may state a more narrow range, then filter out those who show up based on actual appearance.