It’s pretty common for actors to play characters who aren’t exactly their same age—especially when it comes to women, because youth unfortunately still rules supreme in Hollywood. Since male actors don't face that same scrutiny, many onscreen couples have huge age gaps that are totally ignored by the plot. This trend of young women starring opposite much older men doesn’t seem to be dying out anytime soon, even though it’s a bit uncomfortable looking back at these fictional relationships where viewers weren't supposed to think anything of it.
For some of the onscreen couples with the most glaring age differences, read on.
RELATED: 27 Celebrity Couples With Huge Age Gaps.
1 | Emma Stone and Colin Firth in Magic in the Moonlight
Sony Pictures ClassicsIn the 2014 Woody Allen film Magic in the Moonlight, romantic leads Emma Stone and Colin Firth are almost 30 years apart in age. Stone was 25 and Firth was 54 when the movie premiered—and apparently, he didn’t love talking about it.
“I felt old,” Firth admitted to Yahoo! Movies UK. “If there’s going to be an age difference, you don’t really want to be on the unflattering end of it.”
2 | Catherine Zeta-Jones and Sean Connery in Entrapment
20th Century-Fox/Getty ImagesWhen Entrapment hit theaters in 1999, Sean Connery was 68 years old, while Catherine Zeta-Jones was 29. She played a detective and Connery played a thief, and their 40-year age difference—one of the biggest out of all of these couples—was never actually explained by the film.
3 | Helen Hunt and Jack Nicholson in As Good As It Gets
TriStar Pictures/Getty ImagesThough As Good As It Gets has since been criticized for the age difference between Jack Nicholson, who was 60, and Helen Hunt, who was 34, it’s something that the movie itself glosses over. Nicholson stars as a novelist who falls in love with Hunt’s character, a waitress and single mom, and the three decades that separate them are never addressed. Both won Oscars for their roles, however.
4 | Emily Blunt and Tom Cruise in Edge of Tomorrow
Warner Bros. PicturesWhen action movie Edge of Tomorrow hit theaters in 2014, it was pretty obvious that stars Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt were not in the same age group. Today, Cruise is 58 while Emily Blunt is 38, and when the actors were originally cast, The Hollywood Reportercalled out the movie for the age gap (as well as the gaps between Cruise and his other female co-stars).
RELATED: The Worst Tom Cruise Movie of All Time, According to Critics.
5 | Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany in the MCU and WandaVision
Disney+It was easy to fall in love with the Disney+ series WandaVision, as well as the relationship between Avengers Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) and Vision (Paul Bettany) that started in the Marvel movies. However, Olsen is only 32 while Bettany is 50, creating an age gap that a lot of fans rarely discuss. The fact that Vision isn't a man but a robot might have a little something to do with that, though.
6 | Mila Kunis and Mark Wahlberg in Ted
Universal PicturesGiven that 2012's Ted is literally about a teddy bear that comes to life, there’s already a reasonable suspension of disbelief going on. But it’s hard to ignore that the couple central to the movie, John and Lori, are nowhere near the same age. Mark Wahlberg is now 50 years old, while Kunis is 37.
7 | Scarlett Johansson and Ewan McGregor in The Island
DreamWorks PicturesThough Scarlett Johansson already had experience acting opposite someone who was much older (see: Bill Murray in Lost in Translation), in 2005's The Island, the fact that she and co-star Ewan McGregor were nowhere near the same age wasn’t part of the plot. Today, Johansson is 36, while McGregor is 50.
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8 | Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook
The Weinstein CompanyJennifer Lawerence and Bradley Cooper play characters who fall in love in 2012's Silver Linings Playbook, though the age difference between them IRL is pretty jarring. At the time, Lawrence was only 22 while Cooper was 37, and in an interview with The New York Times, she admitted that she was already used to being cast as older characters.
"It’s not like I was old enough for American Hustle. And I was way too young for Silver Linings. That’s why I almost didn’t get it,” Lawrence said in 2015.
9 | Demi Moore and Robert Reddford in An Indecent Proposal
Paramount Pictures/Getty ImagesMany reviews of the 1993 movie Indecent Proposal have pointed out how awkward the 26-year age difference was between Robert Redford and Demi Moore, but the movie made it seem like it was no big deal. However, Woody Harrelson—Moore’s initial match in the movie—is just one year her senior.
10 | Gwyneth Paltrow and Michael Douglas in A Perfect Murder
Warner Bros.In 1998’s A Perfect Murder, Michael Douglas and Gwyneth Paltrow starred as a married couple, though the actors were almost 30 years apart. But as The Los Angeles Times pointed out, that wasn't much of a departure from the casting of the film A Perfect Murder was based on. In Dial M For Murder, stars Ray Milland and Grace Kelly are 24 years apart in age.
11 | Margot Robbie and Jared Leto in Suicide Squad
Warner Bros. PicturesJared Leto and Margot Robbie famously played the Joker and Harley Quinn in the 2016 DC movie Suicide Squad, and if they hadn’t been in such elaborate hair and makeup, it probably would have been more obvious that there’s a huge age gap between them. Today, Leto is 49, while Robbie is 30—nearly 20 years younger.
12 | Margot Robbie and Will Smith in Focus
Warner Bros. PicturesRobbie scored two places on this list, thanks to her role opposite Will Smith in the 2015 movie Focus. At the time, Robbie was just 26 years old, while Smith was 46—something that he said wife Jada Pinkett-Smith took pretty seriously.
"When Margot got hired for the gig...[Jada] saw that Margot was young and hot and in shape, and she said, 'Boy don't embarrass me. Get in shape now,'" Smith told E! News.
RELATED: 15 Onscreen Couples You Totally Forgot Dated in Real Life.
