One of the acting message boards I frequent has been all aflutter with questions about how to get IMDb to remove your age. The reason being is that these actresses (they’re almost always actresses) think they’re losing out on parts because IMDb listed their birthday and it shows they’re really 30 even though they think they can play high school kids.
IMDb says actors are public figures therefore they can post obvious information like birthdays and hometowns about actors without being all creepy and I completely agree. The fact that I have an IMDb page means that there are people out there (millions, I’m sure) who want to know about me and they’re free to go on IMDb and look me up. IMDb’s in the information business and if you can’t go on there and find out when Keifer Sutherland was born then you’ll go to another site.
Everyone in Hollywood thinks they look younger than they really do. I”d say 95% of actresses I meet say, “I look 10 years younger than I actually am.” Now this is logically impossible. It’s like driving, almost everyone thinks they’re an “above average driver” which doesn’t make sense. You can’t all look younger than you really are. Chances are the vast majority of you look exactly your age.
Now and then a high school friend, enemy or well meaning parent will list someone’s birthday on IMDb and these actresses will all throw a fit because they honestly believe that casting people go on IMDb, see they’re really 40 and decide they can’t play high school students.
Let me tell you a little secret about casting directors: they can guess your real age. One casting director I know would actually make a party game out of it and would love to tell these actresses who think they look like middle school students that they were really 29. Casting directors do not care about anything other than if you can play the role.
Casting directors don’t care if you’re in SAG, they don’t care if you are a natural blonde and they don’t care about your actual age as long as you can play the role better than anyone else. Their job is to find the best person from the role.
Want proof? How old are those “kids” on Glee? You probably already knew that as of 2010 Dianna Agron (Quinn) is 23, Cory Monteith (Finn) 27 and Lea Michele is 23. Maybe you didn’t know the exact numbers but you sure as heck knew a ballpark figure. If you aren’t into TV these days you no doubt know that Gabrielle Carteris was 89 when Beverly Hills 90210 was being filmed (that number may be off by a little bit).
And how do you know all this information? It’s on IMDb. Somehow, magically, these people all got cast as teenagers even though everyone knew they were years removed from the teens. There was no IMDb when Carteris was cast but I remember hearing her age at the time even though I barely watched the show (honest).
There are dozens of movies in which one actor plays another’s father even though he is only four years older. These stories aren’t even the exception, they’re the rule: people are cast in parts regardless of their age.
I’ve played a stalker before even though no one bothered to check if I really was a stalker. It’s called acting, pretending. If you can be made to look younger and act younger then you can be cast younger. No one cares how old you are.
Now, you shouldn’t go into auditions for high school students saying, “This is so funny, I’ve got a daughter in high school” but if your birthday does get posted online don’t freak yourself out.
Of course I’ll have dozens of actresses read this and say to me, “but I KNOW I lost out on a part because someone figured out my real age.” To them I have to say: probably not. You probably lost out on the part because someone was a better fit for it. Ouch.
P.S. In full disclosure mode my age isn’t listed on IMDb. This isn’t because a lawyer blocked them or I had someone at IMDb take down my birthday, it’s because no one’s cared to update it or post funny things in the trivia section.