MovieChat Forums > Carrie (1976) Discussion > Sissy Spacek was wayyy too old for the r...

Sissy Spacek was wayyy too old for the role.

posted 7 years ago by prolelol (1423)
31 replies | jump to latest

Don't get me wrong, I love this movie, but..

And so all other actors who played as teenagers were too old because they all completely looked like an adults more than teenagers. I couldn't see Spacek as 16 years old girl while she looked like almost 10 years older than me (I'm 20).

Yes, this movie is a good, and Spacek gave a fine performance, but again, I found this movie a bit unrealistic because of it. I don't know why they always pick adult people to play as teenagers and couldn't real teenagers to play? I think Chloe Moretz hit the better role.

[–] MissMargoChanning (6630) 7 years ago

I guess it may look as though they are too old to play these parts if you know the actor's real ages.
In 1976, when I saw this in the theater, I thought they all looked pretty much like high school kids. During the 70's Sissy always looked much younger than her age. That's what most people thought.

If you look at year books from the 50's or the 60's you will probably think that those people look way too old to be in their teens.
Look at an actual picture of Ritchie Valens. He was a teenager in the 50's, believe it or not.

[–] Otter (24464) 7 years ago

Oh honey, we NEVER know actors' real ages!

But Carrie should look like hell, both younger than her years and old before her time.

[–] MissMargoChanning (6630) 7 years ago

LOL! Well, if they had stuck to what Carrie had looked like in the book, Kathy Bates would have been a good choice. She wasn't quite fat then, and she certainly wasn't a teenager, but in 1976, she could have pulled it off!

[–] Otter (24464) 7 years ago

Bates would have been 28 in 1976 (by her count), but yeah, Spacek was great but I can totally see Bates in the role. But yeah, other than her age she'd have been GREAT in the role, can you imagine the depths of repressed fury she could have brought to the finale?

Carrie Fisher actually did audition for "Carrie", or rather, Brian DePalma and George Lucas were casting for "Carrie" and "Star Wars" at the same time, so they looked at every actress 18-22 in Hollywood together. Obviously Fisher was marvelous in "Star Wars", but would have made the worst Carrie conceivable. I wonder who else the two of them saw?

[–] Cookie.L.A. (2117) 7 years ago

These performers went through the joint auditions for CARRIE and STAR WARS...so were considered for both projects.

As you click through them, you'll see William Katt (Tommy Ross) and Amy Irving (Sue Snell)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ob-k0Rr6Fg&list=PLC3CD575DE35513CA
.

[–] MissMargoChanning (6630) 7 years ago

These auditions are fun to watch!

I did watch the special features on my Carrie DVD. The actresses were discussing the joint DePalma/Lucas casting auditions.
I had no idea about some of these actors though....
Kurt Russel? Cindy Williams? Linda Purl?
Very interesting!

[–] Cookie.L.A. (2117) 7 years ago

I don't know if Cindy Williams would be idiotic or actually father formidable as Carrie White (!!)

THIS is the actress De Palma was sure would be his first choice...Betsy Slade. (She's the one with short hair.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6us7ApR-hfE
.

[–] MissMargoChanning (6630) 7 years ago

Betsy Slade would have been good!

Cindy Williams..... At the time, she was Shirley (Lavern & Shirley) in everyone's mind!

[–] Cookie.L.A. (2117) 7 years ago

I think "Laverne & Shirley" actually came out the same year as "Carrie", so the projects would have been being put together around the same time. Williams kind of only comitted to a long term TV contract after her film career didn't take off. (She'd had supporting parts in "Travels with My Aunt", "American Graffiti" and "The Conversation" -- as I'm sure you know -- without exactly setting the screen on fire.)

At least, that's how I understand it?

Maybe losing "Star Wars" is what made her throw in the towel and think, "Okay, maybe a sitcom's the way to go. WHATEVER!"

[–] MissMargoChanning (6630) 7 years ago

Whenever I watch Rita Tushingham, like in A Taste of Honey, I am always reminded of Cindy Williams.

[–] PaladinNJ (20459) 4 years ago

I had heard that Carrie Fisher was actually offered the role and turned it down. So then they offered it to Sissy Spacek who was in serious contention for Princess Leia and had to bow out. In effect they switched roles.

[–] Otter (24464) 4 years ago

In "The Princess Diarist", Fisher's book about everything Star Wars, she described auditioning in front of Lucas and DePalma in detail, and didn't say anything about being offered the role of Carrie. She actually said that she immediately liked Princess Leia and felt enthused about the role, and frankly, she would have been a godawful Carrie.

And Spacek would have been so vulnerable as Leia! I mean Spacek is a fantastic actor and her vulnerability is great and she sure knows how to use it, but Leia is one of the least vulnerable young women ever put on screen. She's cool, she's confident, she's in charge, and she's faaaabulous!

[–] [deleted] 7 years ago

People looked older in those days. She was not too old for the role at that time.

[–] Washingtonnative (2613) 7 years ago

She was perfect for the role.

[–] lordbishop34 (1442) 7 years ago

The use of older actors for key teenage parts has been going on for a long time. I think its partially name recognition and partially because as you get older you typically get better at your craft. On top of that you don't have to deal with issues related to being underage and in real school. Even for the time she looked too old for the part, but if you are making Carrie and Sissy Spacek is available, you make it work.

[–] Otter (24464) 6 years ago

They had to cast slightly older than the character no matter what, as actors in their mid-teens aren't allowed to work long hours by law. And they needed someone with the skill and experience to carry a full-length movie, which is beyond the ability of most teen actors. Spacek was small, waiflike, and girlish, I always thought she looked like the right age... or at least closer to the right age than the "kids" in "Grease".

Better her than Carrie Fisher, who was 18-19 when the casting was going on. Can you imagine anything worse than a Carrrie White with a sense of humor?

[–] lordbishop34 (1442) 6 years ago

I think when Carrie came out you didn't think about the age of the actress so much. Going back to watch it now, its pretty noticeable she is not a teenager..at least to me. I don't think I could see Carrie Fisher in that role, not sure she has ever shown the dramatic range for that kind of part. Still she wouldn't have had to memorize the name at least.

[–] Otter (24464) 6 years ago

Fisher wrote about the mutual audition with Lucas and DePalma in "The Princess Diarist", and basically she totally got Princess Leia and didn't get Carrie White. She'd have been terrible as "Carrie", she had no real training and didn't identify with the character, plus she had a great sense of humor and used it to deal with her real-life troubles.

Carrie White can't laugh off her troubles, can't have any sense of humor. Not just because a person with a sense of humor would have been slower to reach a point of absolute desperation, but because humor is such a threat to authoritarian figures that it would have been beaten out of her at a young age.

[–] Truthtalker (1884) 6 years ago

Thought i was the only one who noticed that

[–] [deleted] 6 years ago

It seemed in the late 70s early 80s teenagers were always being played by people that looked like they were approaching 30. Carrie....Grease....Welcome Back Kotter...and that's just stuff with John Travolta in it.

[–] modica (4169) 4 years ago

Travolta was only 21 when he filmed Carrie.

[–] pepetoony (1558) 4 years ago

You thought she looked old in this?? I actually Googled "How old was Sissy Spacek when Carrie was filmed?" and was SHOCKED when it said 29. I legit thought she was a teenager in this, and was blown away that a teenager could've acted that well.

[–] rudeboymurray (3241) 4 years ago

Have you seen Coal Miner’s Daughter? Spacek portrays Loretta Lynn from her teens to her thirties and is utterly convincing throughout.

She certainly passes for a teenager in Carrie, too.

[–] modica (4169) 4 years ago

Spacek was actually 25 when Carrie was filmed in 1975. She was born in 1950.

[–] pepetoony (1558) 4 years ago

Weird. Google tells me she was 29 when I ask.

[–] modica (4169) 4 years ago

That is strange, but I looked up her birth year and it says she was born in 1950. Carrie was filmed in 1975, so that means she was 25. Stockard Channing played Rizzo in Grease and I think she was in her early 30's. Now that is stretching it, but even then, I never questioned that Channing was too old to play Rizzo.

[–] RtlDeceptionist (29) 4 years ago

If it was senior prom wouldn't she be 17/18?

[–] modica (4169) 4 years ago

I saw it when it first came out(when I was 14)and kids in high school looked pretty much like that then. I really don't feel any of them looked too old.

[–] modica (4169) 4 years ago

Most of the main actors were in their mid twenties. John Travolta was the youngest at 21. Betty Buckley was only a couple years older than Sissy Spacek and the other main actors. When I was younger I never thought about how old the actors were. They all played their parts so well that I totally believed they were high school teens.