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The Immortal Quandary: When Your TV Show Ages Slower Than You Do

Vampires and cylons might not age, but actors do.  Here's five case studies TV producers should look at when casting their "immortals."


There's a little problem with building your TV show around a character who will never age: actors, in real life, get older. Don't know if you knew that, but it's true. Clearly, TV producers don't know that, because time and again, they cast actors as immortal characters and then five seasons later, have to come up with increasingly convoluted explanations why their supposedly forever perfect character is suddenly three hundred pounds and wrinkly.

Take, for example, Zoe Graystone on Caprica; or rather, Zoe's computerized clone, who will live forever as a memory of Eric Stoltz's dead daughter only in computer code.

Sure the actress, Alessandra Torresani, is only 22 now (and playing a high schooler), so chances are that even if Caprica ends up trumping it' parent show Battlestar Galactica and runs for six seasons, we won't have to deal with an episode where Stoltz programs wrinkles and gray hair into his daughter's avatar. But if I was a betting man (which I bet you I'm not), I'd say that Zoe Graystone in the Caprica pilot, and Zoe Graystone's avatar whenever the show ends are gonna be a leeeeetle bit different.

Maybe the writers of Caprica should take a page from other immortal TV characters' books and see how they did (or didn't) handle their actor's "growth:"

claire bennet
Credit: NBC

Claire Bennet - Heroes

Okay, to be fair, the Heroes producers were smart enough (and that's the only time you'll ever hear that phrase in reference to anything) to give a loophole here, that Claire would most likely be immortal at some point, but she may just still be growing up until then. At least they'll never have to answer that particular question, since the show was cancelled after the first season. Or, at least that's what I like to pretend when I'm playing "Network Exec" with my friends.

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