How Old The Twilight Cast Was Compared To Their Characters
Some of the Twilight cast were a little too old to play their characters, while others were technically way too young to play ageless vampires.
The cast members of the Twilight Saga weren’t all the same age as their characters, although this is understood given many of them played ageless vampires. The Twilight Saga was a phenomenally successful series of fantasy romance movies based on the novels of the same name. Twilight follows Bella Swan, a 17-year-old human girl who moves to the town of Forks and falls in love with her mysterious classmate, Edward Cullen. When Bella discovered Edward was a vampire, she was introduced to a world of vampires, werewolves, and centuries-old battles between them.
While the Twilight Saga’s financial success was impressive, the movies didn’t fare too well with critics. Some of the vitriol aimed at the Twilight movies was arguably the result of their popularity among a primarily teenage fan base, but there were also some legitimate criticisms. Like the source novels, the Twilight Saga’s adaptations were quite low on self-aware humor and meaningful tension. The story often focuses on the relationship between Bella and her love interests instead of the battle between werewolves and vampire factions. Furthermore, not all Twilight’s cast were the right age for their characters.
9. Kristen Stewart: 17 Years Old
Bella Swan: 17 Years Old
When Kristen Stewart was cast in the star-making role of Twilight’s teenage heroine Bella Swan, she was the same age as her character. Author Stephenie Meyer wanted Emily Browning for the role, but the Australian actor was considered too old to play the part.
8. Robert Pattinson: 21 Years Old
Edward Cullen: 104 Years Old
Robert Pattinson was 21 years old when he gained the role of Edward Cullen. Edward is 104 years old when the story of the Twilight Saga begins. Meyer’s first choices for Edward, Charlie Hunman and Henry Cavill, were both too old to play the part by the time production began.
7. Taylor Lautner 15 Years Old
Jacob Black: 15 Years Old
Taylor Lautner was a child actor best known for Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3D when he gained the role of Jacob Black at fifteen years old. After Black played a minor part in the original Twilight, producers wanted to replace Lautner with an older actor for the sequels. However, Lautner famously gained a lot of muscle to hold onto the part and played Jacob in every Twilight sequel as a result.
6. Ashley Greene: 20 Years Old
Alice Cullen: 104 Years Old
Ashley Greene was twenty years old when she took on the role of Alice Cullen in Twilight. Like Edward, Alice is canonically 104 years old in the Twilight novels. While the twenty-year-old could just about pass as a high school student in the early Twilight movies, this admittedly grew less believable as the series progressed.
5. Nikki Reed: 19 Years Old
Rosalie Hale: 90 Years Old
Nikki Reed was only fourteen when she worked with director Catherine Hardwicke on the actor’s breakout movie Thirteen. As such, Hardwicke’s vision for Twilight inevitably included a supporting role for Reed as Edward’s adoptive sister, Rosalie Hale.
4. Jackson Rathbone: 23 Years Old
Jasper Hale: 161 Years Old
While it is not unusual for teen movies to cast older actors as children, the Twilight movies generally steered clear of this approach. Unlike Riverdale or 13 Reasons Why, the Twilight Saga didn’t cast any actors in their mid-twenties as high school students. That said, Jackson Rathbone’s Jasper Hale was almost the exception to this rule.
3. Elizabeth Reaser: 32 Years Old
Esme Cullen: 110 Years Old
While Rathbone was a little old to be playing a high-schooler, Elizabeth Reaser had the opposite problem. At 32 years old, the actor appears way too young to play the mother of the Cullen “children.” It’s a good thing that the cover story for the Cullen vampires is that Esme and Carlisle adopted all of their children during their travels. Fortunately, the wealth of the Cullen family meant that their cover story was rarely questioned in Forks, provided they kept to themselves.
2. Kellan Lutz: 22 Years Old
Emmett Cullen: 90 Years Old
Kellan Lutz might have been younger than his Twilight co-star Jackson Rathbone, but the actor was arguably the least believable high school student in the Cullen family. Thanks to his imposing frame, Lutz looked every bit like his twenty-two years when filming Twilight.
1. Peter Facinelli: 34 Years Old
Carlisle Cullen: 365 Years Old
Like Elizabeth Reaser, Peter Facinelli was technically much too young to play the father of the Cullen family. However, since Carlisle’s Twilight backstory explained that he was 365 years old by the time the story of the saga began, he got a pass. Carlisle spent his centuries as a compassionate healer and learned everything he could about medicine as it changed, always solidifying his place in a new town as a friendly doctor.
