[LAEM] actor age?

[Opteron-O3]

pretty much they need to find some older actors then 14 or else none of the "Asuka IS HOT" fans will be very interested.

He has a point...

[Timstuff]

I've seen some debate about this topic on some other boards recently, and I figured I'd revisit this thread with my most recent thoughts and opinions. Basically, I am in favor of making the characters a year or two older than in the anime, and casting 18-25 year old young looking adults in the roles. There's nothing new or controversial about casting young looking adults as teenagers in movies and TV, especially when there are adult themes present in the story.

Some people have argued that if the characters are 15 or 16 it would fundamentally change the story, but I don't think so at all. I mean, in the anime, half the time the characters weren't acting their age anyway, so I don't believe that argument really holds a lot of water.

They could also avoid a lot of production problems by using young adults versus teenager as well, which is why they are typically preferable to TV and movie producers. In addition to being able to work more hours and act in certain kinds of scenes without red tape, they don't have to worry about the actor for Shinji shooting up to 6 feet tall and having a massive voice change halfway through the production or between movies.

And as I have mentioned several times, there are certain aspects of Evangelion that simple wouldn't work if they were using 14 year old actors because there'd be too much red tape / controversy surrounding them. Teen sex is everywhere on TV, but the reason it doesn't cause controversy is because the actors are adults, so it makes sense that Evangelion's adult themes would be handled the same way. Also, there's the whole issue of the plugsuits...

[URL=http://img244.imageshack.us/my.php?image=zuzweit015.jpg][/URL]

I mean, really... Asuka and Rei basically are drawn looking like adults half the time anyway, so why not embrace it and give the fanboys some eye candy? Not only would they be able to stave off controversy, but they could also cash in on some pinup posters and associated fanservice. I think there'd be a lot less complaints from fans if the characters are slightly older, than if they had to re-work how they're depicted (read: unsexied). And on a more selfish note, Asuka was my first cartoon crush, and it'd be disappointing if the live action version of her was off limits.

[Axell]

they're also drawn to be lesbian like in stuff like that. Evas promotional art has never shown the characters as they are in the show. Shinji smiling? Asuka looking innocent? pff

While i do agree that slightly older actors would be fine, if they go the sleazy route i'll be disappointed

[BattleMonkey]

I don't see how they look like adults in that picture, even in the series they never really look like adults especially when you compare the dimensions and sizes of the kids compared to the adults.

Some of the promotional art though sometimes seems a bit risky though, but it's all about cheesecake.

A live action eva is never going to please the fans, and really they shouldn't be bothered with trying to keep it all perfectly like the anime anyways. The kids really should be cast and played by older teens, and really they should be treated as teens in the live action movie and not 14 year olds.

Besides various issues with using kids in the live action, theres always that.... young kids generally suck at acting. Theres a couple bright examples in hollywood, but overall I usually cringe at real young actors in films and with the subject matter of Evangelion, I don't see it working at all.

[Timstuff]

they're also drawn to be lesbian like in stuff like that. Evas promotional art has never shown the characters as they are in the show. Shinji smiling? Asuka looking innocent? pff

While i do agree that slightly older actors would be fine, if they go the sleazy route i'll be disappointed

I'm not advocating that they sleaze things up, but I'll certainly be the last to complain if Asuka and Rei are played by 18-25 year olds who can fill out their plug suits in all the right ways.

I do agree that the characters should be teenagers, however I don't think they should use underage actors for the reasons that have been mentioned already.

[Gendo'sPapa]

It's good to know sex comes before talent.

[oOoOoOo]

The mind and its problems are not always related to the body and its capabilities.

Actually, I wrote that myself. The story would in no way be changed by having all the pilots in their final year of high school. I was voting age in my final year. I've noticed fourteen wasn't the only year where I was loopy in the head. You could make a mecha anime about the inside of my brain right now. %#_@&

[Timstuff]

It's good to know sex comes before talent.

Why can't the actors be talented and have sex appeal? Most kid actors are lousy anyway.

[BattleMonkey]

It's good to know sex comes before talent.

There's very little actual young talent out there..... really what good 14 year old actors are out there that can fit the roles of the characters?

I'd rather have older, good looking, and actual good acting actors. If they have to they can always try casting older teens who look young to play the parts, but for simplicity as well as making the movies easier to swallow for an American audience I would imagine they would need to go with older characters of 16+ years

[Timstuff]

It's good to know sex comes before talent.

There's very little actual young talent out there..... really what good 14 year old actors are out there that can fit the roles of the characters?

I'd rather have older, good looking, and actual good acting actors. If they have to they can always try casting older teens who look young to play the parts, but for simplicity as well as making the movies easier to swallow for an American audience I would imagine they would need to go with older characters of 16+ years

Yay, someone who understands!

[Gendo'sPapa]

Cough-thewholefilmisastupididea-cough.

[backseatjesus]

Cough-thewholefilmisastupididea-cough.

Well that's just, like, your opinion man!

Personally, I think it can be pulled off. Just don't get Fox to rape it.

[Timstuff]

Agreed. Fox would be the kiss of death for this movie, but in the hands of an auteurially tolerant studio I think it could turn out good.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

Warner Brothers should produce a LAEM. They've always been making darker films than the rest of Hollywood. It'd be a match made in Heaven.

There are a few 14 year old actors I can think of right now who could play the roles. But acting does need to come first. If need be you could fake a 14 year old face to a certain extent with make-up on an older actor. As a matter of fact, that might be the best way to go about it, since, as Timstuff stated, their bodies do kinda look a little older than 14.

As for the nudity aspect of it, you could always get a body double. That's not out of the normal for actors to get a body double for nude scenes.

I see little hassle in the casting of it.

[Timstuff]

I'm pretty sure that there'd still be a lot of controversy if they had nudity where an adult body double substituted for an underage actor. These movies are probably going to be PG-13 anyway, so I doubt there will be anything graphic anyway.

As I've said several times now, the most logical solution would be to make the characters be 15-16, and use adult actors in the 18-25 year old range to play them. Evangelion's story isn't tied directly to the fact that the pilots are 14, but that they're in their mid teens, and undergoing a lot of hormonal stress while coping with traumatic life experiences. They often times didn't act like 14-year-olds in the show either, so I don't think that the characters being a year older or so would have to have much impact on their behavior in the story. They stand to gain a heck of a lot more than they'd lose by going this route:

Better actor selection
Don't have to deal with child/young teen actors
No awkward growth spurts between sequels
Minimal controversy
More appeal to young adults and older teens
More sex appeal

I'm trying to look at this all from a practical perspective, and it seems to make a lot more sense than using untested 14 year old actors and having to deal with all of the headaches and red tape that would come with them.

[BattleMonkey]

No American studio is going to make an Evangelion movie that is totally going to please fans of the anime, it's a story and production that is going to have to be changed to work with a more general audience if it has any chance of success. No US studio would ever really stay true to the source material, all we can hope for is an entertaining film.

[Axell]

its also almost impossible to stay to the story. Notice how rebuild is different? Different format requires different story. The point is it can be good if they keep to the feel of eva. Making a copy but in live action is doomed to fail

[BattleMonkey]

I assume a Eva live action would simply be young pilots in giant robots defending against aliens called Angels or some nonsense like that.

Hey I don't care, as long as it's well made and is fun to watch, I'm not gonna care if it's not accurate to the cartoon. I enjoyed Transformers live action even though it was so far from the original.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

I'm pretty sure that there'd still be a lot of controversy if they had nudity where an adult body double substituted for an underage actor. These movies are probably going to be PG-13 anyway, so I doubt there will be anything graphic anyway.

Yeah, I can see that. I remember a movie where child actress Dakota Fanning portrayed a character that got raped. Even though you never saw anything nude, the controversy was off the charts.

I assume a Eva live action would simply be young pilots in giant robots defending against aliens called Angels or some nonsense like that.

Hey I don't care, as long as it's well made and is fun to watch, I'm not gonna care if it's not accurate to the cartoon. I enjoyed Transformers live action even though it was so far from the original.

True. Although I wouldn't trust Michael Bay with anything character driven.

I think James Cameron would be a good LEAM director. He's got a good action resume and has already done somewhat complicated story lines with Terminator 1&2 (though not nearly as complicated as Eva in the slightest), so I would trust his interpretation of an Eva movie, whatever it might be.

[Timstuff]

Just remember guys, this is a thread for discussing the actors' ages. If it's about the director or story direction, we've got other LAEM threads for that. ;)