11 Actors Whose Kids Were Cast to Play Younger Versions Of Themselves

The children of Tom Hanks, Melissa McCarthy, Meryl Streep, and more stars joined their famous parents on screen to portray younger versions of their characters.

In Hollywood, nepotism may be a growing issue -- but sometimes there truly is no one better to take on a role than a member of the family. When a film or TV show is looking to cast an actor to play a younger version of a character, sometimes it just makes sense to bring in the kids. For actors like Tom Hanks or Laurie Metcalf, their children were cast to portray younger versions of their characters on screen -- and they nailed it. While their offspring still needed to audition for the part, it’s hard to deny the opportunity to cast an actor who has played the part in real life too!

Find out which celebrities cast their kids…

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1. Tom Hanks

When Tom Hanks starred in A Man Called Otto, his son Truman Hanks was cast to play a younger version of Tom’s character Otto Anderson. While Tom says it was a special opportunity to work with his son, he noted that Truman also earned the role because of his talent.

“Without a doubt, it’s special because, you know, I changed his diapers,” Tom told People. “But you get past that right away because you gotta show up, and you gotta hit the marks, and you gotta do it on time, and you gotta be right there.”

He continued, “I know what that takes, and he does too. It’s a little different when it's the whole shebang. He was cast for a very specific reason. We resemble each other, he’s not a stranger, and he knows what the pressure is, and he’s gotta do it.”

2. Laurie Metcalf

Laurie Metcalf and her daughter Zoe Perry have shared the screen on more than one occasion. When Zoe was just a little girl, she appeared on Roseanne playing the younger version of her mother’s character Jackie Harris. As an adult, Zoe shared the role of Mary Cooper with Laurie on The Big Bang Theory and its prequel, Young Sheldon. While Zoe says she tried to make her role stand apart from Laurie, she did make sure to have her mother’s stature and dialect down.

“It’s been a cool experience getting to share this with her,” Zoe told Backstage. “I had come to know and love the character from watching her on the show, and I know many fans did, too. So I felt an obligation to get that right and to model what I was doing, to an extent, after her. Because we’re introduced to this character in a different stage of life, it offered me a fair amount of freedom to discover who this person is separate from what comes later.”

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3. Mark Consuelos

Mark Consuelos starred on Riverdale as Hiram Lodge and when the show was looking for an actor to portray a younger version of his character, Mark’s son Michael Consuelos was asked to audition. Looking back, Michael says it was an interesting experience -- especially considering how many other actors looked just like him.

“Dad told me that they wanted me to audition for it, and I was so nervous. I never auditioned for anything before,” he said on Live with Kelly & Ryan. “So, I went there with a bunch of people who could've been brothers or cousins. It looked like there was a bunch of Michaels in the audition room.”

4. Melissa McCarthy

Melissa McCarthy has shared the screen with her daughter Vivian Falcone in two different flicks. In both Thunder Force and The Boss, Vivian portrayed younger versions of her mother’s characters. Vivian was just seven years old when she appeared in The Boss, so Melissa was “very hesitant” to cast her in the role.

“By hesitant, I mean, we kept saying flat out, ‘No.’ School plays? You can do that. You don’t need to be doing this as a job. You’re in school. That’s your job,’” she told Bust magazine.

But Melissa says Vivian knew there were other kids in the movie and asked why she was not even allowed to try to audition. Melissa finally caved -- and Vivian landed the role.

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5. Tina Fey

When 30 Rock was still on the air, Tina Fey cast her daughter Alice Richmond to portray a younger version of her character Liz Lemon. Alice appeared in an episode called “Mazel Tov, Dummies” which features a flashback scene where Liz recalls her first wedding experience as a flower girl. And not only did Alice appear on the show, but she also inspired quite a few lines in the script.

“She’s said, ‘I want to go to there,’ and we used that for Liz Lemon one time. With Tracy [Morgan] we had her say, ‘Touch my knees-butt,’ which is some weird thing she used to say,” she said on Conan in 2011. “And I’m hoping that even though she’s getting bigger we’ll have some more. There’s some more that I want to use, for example, she still thinks the plural of ghost is ghostesses, and I mean, [it’s] perfect.”

6. Ice Cube

When it came time for Ice Cube to find an actor to play a younger version of himself in Straight Outta Compton, his son O’Shea Jackson Jr. was an obvious choice -- but he wasn’t a shoe in for the role. In fact, Ice Cube made his son go through extensive acting classes and auditions before landing the part.

“They put me through the wringer. For two years I was going to acting classes, learning techniques, going to auditions, callbacks, and things like that,” he told People. “When you haven’t acted before, it’s a big dish. But I couldn’t sit in a theater and think someone is portraying my father the wrong way. If I was thinking ‘Oh, he wouldn’t have done that’ it would’ve nauseated me.”

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7. Vin Diesel

In 2021, Vin Diesel got the chance to appear in F9 alongside his son Vincent Sinclair. The little boy portrayed the younger version Vin’s character, Dominic Toretto, but the actor says he “can’t take the credit” for the casting though -- as it was all director Justin Lim’s idea. Looking back, Vin says the best moment of the day was coming home when they could both get out of character.

“We’ve been making these movies for so long, that every time one of my children were born, I was usually working on a Fast and Furious movie. So the director and the cast all have their own relationship with my children. And it was [Lin’s] idea for my son to play young Dom,” Vin said on The Tonight Show.

He continued, “And the irony is, the thing I remember the most, was coming home that day. Because when you see the movie, it’s kind of a deep scene, so Dom is in a deep state of mind. And my son was watching me work the whole day, and it wasn’t until I got home that I saw a twinkle in his eye because he had finally seen his father come home, as opposed to being Dom Toretto the whole time.”

8. Glenn Close

Glenn Close got the chance to work on set with her daughter Annie Starke in 2017. The mother-daughter duo starred in The Wife, where Annie played a younger version of Glenn’s character in flashback scenes. Glenn and Annie even worked closely together to develop the character of Joan.

“I actually said [to Annie], ‘You’re the one who has to lay down the character. You play the young Joan. So whatever you do in the flashbacks has everything to do with how I am later,’” Glenn told People.

Annie added, “We really worked hard on this character and put a lot of our souls into. I had to go super deep for this one.”

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9. James Gandolfini

The late James Gandolfini infamously portrayed Tony Soprano throughout his eight year run on The Sopranos so when talks began about a prequel film following the early years of his character’s life, James’ son Michael Gandolfini was a top choice. Michael hadn’t seen much of The Sopranos so he prepared for the audition by watching the entire show, but still figured he wouldn’t get the role.

“My manager called me and said, ‘They want you to audition,’ and I said no. It was really terrifying. I didn’t know anything about The Sopranos and was nervous about the nepotism thing. But my manager told me I was not in a place where I could turn down auditions, and that’s when I started watching the show. The first season was the hardest. On top of watching my dad for the first time, I had anxiety about going into an audition room. I auditioned three times, I think,” he told Interview magazine.

He added, “For me, the emotional part was watching the show for the first time and being so proud of my dad and so shocked at how good the show was. Even when I watch it now, it feels like spending time with my dad. It’s a gift that a lot of people don’t have with their lost loved ones.”

10. Meryl Streep

Meryl Streep shared the screen with her daughter Mamie Gummer in the 2007 drama Evening. In the film, Meryl portrays a woman named Lila Wittenborn in the present day while Mamie plays the same character back in the 1950s. While discussing the flick, Mamie revealed that she was actually cast in the movie first before her mom signed on.

“I was cast before she was, I’ll say that,” she told New York Magazine. “We did [have a conversation], but it was brief. Basically, it was, ‘You know, f--k it. Why the hell not?’”

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11. Susan Sarandon

Susan Sarandon has had the opportunity to work alongside her daughter Eva Amurri on many occasions. Starting back in 1995, Susan starred in the crime thriller Dead Man Walking and recruited her daughter to play a childhood version of her character in a flashback scene. Then in 2012, they teamed up again for That’s My Boy where they played the same character at different ages.

Most recently, Eva was cast in Susan’s music dynasty drama Monarch, where she had a recurring role as a younger version of Susan’s character Dottie Cantrell Roman.

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