Daniel Radcliff/Emma Watson/Rupert Grint

[Carol]

Steve Van wrote:
> >
> > Harry/Hermione/Ron respectively are no longer the kids from Harry
Potter and the Sorcerers Stone but rather are all grown up. <snip>
Except for Watson all are out of their teens. Considering the big bang
takes place when Harry is 17 does this not beg the question are the
Gryffindor Three too old for their roles?
> 
> 
Potioncat responded:
><snip>
> Are they too old? Hardly. It's pretty rare an actor is the exact age
as his character. They are strongly identified with the roles. There's
no reason to have someone else play the parts at this point.
>
Carol adds:

Just for the record, Christian Coulson was 23 when he played the
sixteen-year-old Tom Riddle (the diary memory who nearly became real)
and Shirley Henderson, who played Moaning Myrtle, the ghost of a
schoolgirl, was born in November 1965 and would have been 36(!) during
the filming of CoS. Since Moaning Myrtle is referred to as a "little
girl" in the books (and cries a lot), I always thought of her as no
more than twelve or thirteen. I can't imagine a fifth- or sixth-year
student crying in the bathroom because someone made fun of her
glasses. (Crying for other reasons, yes.)

Anyway, as long as actors or actresses look young, it doesn't really
matter whether they're still in their teens. Not to mention that to
some of us, twenty or even thirty is young!

All that's required if we know that, say, Tom Felton is 22 but playing
a sixteen-year-old in HBP is willing suspension of disbelief. If we
can believe that these young people or Wizards (or Witches), surely we
can believe that they're still in their teens.

Personally, I have a harder time with some of the adult actors (Lupin,
Black, and Snape are all supposed to be in their thirties; Lily was 22
when she died), but, admittedly, filmgoers don't know that. I have an
especially hard time with poor Richard Griffiths, 61 and showing his
age, playing Vernon Dursley, who would be only a few years older than
the characters I just mentioned, say about forty when they're in their
mid-thirties. He looks more like Dudley's grandfather than his father
now. 

Carol, who could see Richard Griffiths playing Slughorn is he weren't
already established as Vernon Dursley