Young American Movie Actors: Shortage?
Kyle Buchanan has compiled an alarming chart: It surveys the last decade of performers who were Oscar-nominated for a role they filmed while 25 or younger. There are 17 women and 3 men, and no men since Ryan Gosling in 2006’s “Half Nelson.” The article suggests that teenage boys in the U.S. are steered to athletics and that by the time they’re in their early 20s the Brits — who live in a country where doing both sports and arts is more accepted — are way ahead in their training. I don’t buy this explanation fully. There are plenty of in-training young male American actors; the movies aren’t trying hard enough to find them, and, what’s more, they can get more reliable work on television. And if the Brits are so great, why aren’t any of them being nommed before they’re 25? Huh?
