Couldn't they have just done some makeup/prosthetic work to make Henry Thomas look older? Don't get me wrong Timothy Hutton looked enough like him i guess but i just didn't think it was necessary to recast an adult character for just 20 some years later, adults don't change THAT much look wise.
shareWell, I thought the makeup looked totally ridiculous on Annabeth Gish and the actor playing her husband.
So in my opinion, they made a good call casting Timothy Hutton, especially since the younger him was an unknown.
The younger him wasn't an unknown it was Henry Thomas, everyone knows him, he was the kid from ET and he'd been in alot of movies recently and even some netflix movies like Gerald's Game.
shareI saw him in Better Things and had no idea who he was then either.
Don't remember anything from ET at this point.
Regardless, I see no issues with an older actor playing the older character.
Agreed with both points. C, maybe B list actor is not known by everyone. I had never seen him before. I saw E.T. when I was a kid in the 90's, so I'm not gonna recognize the adult version of a kid from that movie. Given this and the Gerald's Game example, you could almost say people should know every actor who has been in a movie ever.
Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Ryan Reynolds, etc are actors where the term everyone knows them apply. Not Henry Thomas lol.
And I also had no issue with casting an older actor. I enjoyed current day Hughs acting a lot more anyway. The scene in the past where Mr. Dudley tells the story about his mother (which I thought he delivered perfectly), younger Hugh (Thomas) had such cringe worthy replies in that scene.
They could've made Henry Thomas grey haired and grey-stubbled instead of putting these staring, unnatural-looking contact lenses into his eyes to make him look more like Timothy Hutton... they kept distracting me :/
shareYeah, those eyes were absolutely horrible. They seemed to be made of really thick material, so they even bulged a bit. Maybe that's because normal blue contacts provide little result when used on his natural eye color, which I think is hazel.
shareI agree with the OP ...yes, you need adult actors for the children who have grown up, but not their parent, just gray his hair.
shareOne of the dumbest casting decisions ever made. Both are good actors, but they don't look anything alike and it was completely unnecessary.
shareThe series cut between 1992 and 2018 - 27 years later. They could have aged Henry Thomas up but I think recasting him was just fine. Timothy Hutton was really good as well. People are complaining about his contacts or whatever but I didn't notice anything and I doubt most people did.
shareNo lol alot noticed his eyes, look at this gif
https://64.media.tumblr.com/1295a34f5be052cd2c9bcc7d96f42567/tumblr_pk7g4kK2Mj1xjkfxpo3_400.gifv
He looks like a demon or something, those eyes are in no way natural.
I actually thought it was Henry Thomas but with some very convincing prosthetics and makeup, they really looked alike with the beaming blue eyes and small, high button noses. Only their jawlines looked clearly different but I put that down to a prosthetic jowl.
Great casting and both actors nailed it.