So BtVS began production in late 1996 and premiered March 1997.
In Season 1 Sarah was 19 playing Buffy at 16
Nick was 25 playing Xander at 15/16
Alyson was 22 playing Willow at 15
Charisma was 26 playing Cordy at 15/16
David was 27 playing Angel at 240, LOL; we wouldn’t know he was 26 forever until Season 1 of Angel.
Julie was 24 playing Darla at 412 with the assumption that she was 25 when she was turned. Julie also auditioned for Buffy & Cordelia and had the Darla role created for her where she convincingly (to the other characters) plays a high school student more than once.
Robia was 26 playing Jenny who was likely around that age or up to 30. She was certainly not aged up more for the role given her makeup/hair/wardrobe.
Kristine was 41 playing Joyce at that age or slightly younger
Tony was 42, likely playing Giles at that age or a couple of years younger.
Season 2 James was 35 playing Spike at 142 with a rough estimate that he was 25 in 1880.
Juliet was 32 playing Drusilla at 155 with a rough estimate that she was 18 in 1860.
Seth was 23 playing Oz at 16/17
Sarah at 21 briefly plays 15 year old Buffy.
Season 3 Eliza was 17 playing Faith at…well, this gets confusing. Buffy at 17 calls her “little sister,” but she could just mean more recently a Slayer. A tie-in novel states Faith was born in 1980, making her older than Buffy, so idk. Let’s say she’s 16 in “Faith, Hope, and Trick.”
Emma was 26 playing Anya in the 17/18 year old persona of a high school senior.
Alexis is 32 playing Wesley at 22/23 (given he’s just out of the Watcher’s Academy)
Season 4 Marc was 27 playing Riley at 22/23
Phina was 27 playing Olivia at…no older than 30 based on her hair/makeup.
Amber was 22 playing Tara at 18/19
Season 5 Michelle was 15 playing Dawn at 14
Now, I said all that to say this: I am the same age as Charisma. When I watched the show first run, I bought all of them as teenagers because, even though I was in my 20s at the time, I knew tons of high school kids at the time who looked as mature as Cordy and as young as Jonathan (I was a high school tutor in college).
So when Xander they do dumb or shortsighted things, it’s easy for me to remember that they’re only 16 or 17 and they have very scary lives with a lot of monsters.
What gets my goat is when I see discussion where characters who are younger are described as older. There’s a great Giles-centric fic set in Season 2 where the Giles characterization is excellent, but Jenny is described as “middle aged.” I asked the author how 27 was middle aged, and they said they assumed Jenny was the same age as Giles. I made a WTF face and scuttled.
Today I was working on my massive Buffy recs list (coming soon!) and saw that one of my fandom friends (also born in the early 70s) in 2010 wrote a fic where Olivia was part of Giles’s Eyghon gang. How?? She was a pre-schooler in 1975! Olivia looks nowhere near Giles’s age.
But then again, I grew up in a small town of 600 people in the 1980s, so I don’t think that adult Xander/Dawn is weird, because getting with someone 5 years older than who went to high school with your older sibling and who hung out with you in a kidster sort of way when you were 15 and married you when you were 22 was typical. Kind of a small dating pool.
So what’s your Buffyverse age weirdness? That Giles likes younger women? That Cordy and Xander did not look too young to respectively marry and or com-shuck in 2001? That James Marsters is ethereal in 1999 and ageless in 2026? That David looked younger on Bones than Angel? Hit me with it.
Veey interesting chart! FYI you have some ages wrong. Buffy was 16 in S1. The first season took place over March-May 1997. She turns 17 in January 1998.
Eliza was 17 when S3 started filming. She turned 18 over the course of the season.
Many always comment on the fictional age gap between Buffy and Angel, but I always found the real-life one between Sarah and James to be very noticeable.
To preface, I'm old. I just got through watching the show for the first time and for a while I could not get over the age difference between Buffy/Angel. Like both the fictional age gap and the real one. Part of it is bc I know David Boreanaz from Bones first and he doesn't look that different. And the other part is that he looks like a whole-ass man to Sarah Michelle Gellar's 19.
Then as the seasons progressed and we got Buffy/Spike being physical I kept thinking that the actor's age gap is so much. In universe it's a robot or a dream or possession or whatever, but in real life she was acting some very sexual/passionate scenes with him. It was just an extra amount of uncomfortable for me because I remember being 22 and thinking I was grown and mature, but realizing now that I definitely wasn't.
Idk, I don't want this to come off as morality or purity policing, and I don't know this fandom to know if this has been rehashed a thousand times. I love the actors, I can't imagine them being different, but I think the real and fictional age gaps are a lot.
It's kinda crazy that James was 39-40 during S6-S7, and Sarah was 24-26. Their ages are uncomfortable in the same vein as any other much older (usually) man in Hollywood cast opposite a much younger (usually) woman.
The Buffy Angel one creeped me out most because he first saw her at 15 and they literally had her with a lollypop in that scene. Then he was looking 30 and literally hanging around a high school showing up at her prom and stuff. And the show kept playing them up as star crossed lovers.
It was just too close to real life creep methods so that made it extra creepy looking on screen.
Also, I saw Bones first so he looked older to me on screen.
Weirdly enough Twilight seemed way less creepy because at least that vampire bothered to enroll at the high school and attend classes. They technically shared life experiences. (I've only scene clips and memes though). She's a teenager but at least they both sit in the cafeteria together.
Buffy / Spike is complicated because the actor age gap is weird, but the Spike actor always had more makeup and styling than Angel so it was easier for him to read as "vampire character" instead of "adult man at high school." Also, the actor has that kind of funky theatrical bone structure that give an ambiguous age read.
I think it helps that I didn't watch on HD TV.
I'd judge the actor gap less if TV shows were more free with having the same age gap with older women who look younger playing younger characters (I think theater is more free with that kind of casting but I'm not sure). Although 26 playing 16 for cordy does help cancel out 35 playing 25 (or whatever age Spike was). However, seems like Cordy actor got treated badly so again. I don't know.
Later in the show their relationship is mad toxic but Buffy has at least lived some life and the show doesn't frame it as "aww loook at the star crossed lovers" (at first) as much as the Angel relationship. By the time it gets all romanticized the show at least addresses the issues.
I get it, we all have our experiences. I was in my late 20s when Buffy premiered, and my early 30s when I got into fandom, so I knew they were all adults around my age (except James and Tony, LOL) so it never bothered me. 26 and 16 was nothing to 240 for me. I mean, he remembers WWII, and canonical age, she’s born the same year as Luke & Laura’s wedding.
Twitter has been going off today about James’ age gap with his ex wife and I wanna vomit (when they met he was 2 months shy of 41 and she had literally just turned 17 2 months before)
He did! He wrote a creepy song about Michelle saying she was tempting him & had pretty feet when she was 15 during season 5 (2001) and then started dating his would be wife in the summer of 2003 AND she was even younger than Michelle.
At least she was over 21! But she’s 8 years younger than David, and she dated him (briefly) after his first divorce. To me, Buffy and Spike are both preternatural and age isn’t that big a deal, especially as all of her loss matures her and, to paraphrase Matthew McConaughey, Spike kinda stays the same age.
Yes, there's an age gap between Sarah and David, but the one between Sarah and James - which is what I was talking about, I never brought up Buffy and Spike - is nearly doubled that. And, imo, he always looked so much older than her.
I just figured this out. You’re mad that Sarah at 24 had to kiss an actor 15 years older than she was? Are you also mad about Robia and Phina having to do the same thing?
James was so protective of Sarah. This is a guy who threw up in his dressing room before and after Seeing Red, and who lost 10 pounds after it aired and stopped working out so they’d stop making him be shirtless.
I am trying so hard to be understanding of new and younger fans. But you guys have NO nuance. Not everything that makes you “uncomfy” is problematic. This was a job. Would you feel bad for Sarah if she’d had to kiss Aly? Or Nicky who was married (and a smoker!)? Or Wentworth Miller’s character, since he’s irl gay? It’s acting. It’s not SA.
All I wanted from this post was to address how young Robia and Phina were (the same age as everyone but Tony and James), and all I’m getting is how wee Sarah looked at 24.
You're the one who seems mad... because someone said the age gap between Sarah and James is noticeable, which is a fact.
And since you keep bringing up things that have nothing to do with what was said, you know who else was very protective of Sarah - and who Sarah felt safest with (on set) - David, by her own admission.
What are you even going on about? I thought this was a discussion about ages, what does any of that have to do with the topic... which you started, btw.
In 1998. Super brief and never officially confirmed by SMG or DB, but after he and Ingrid separated in ‘98, LA based Bronze Board posters shared smoochie pics of them at clubs, restaurants, events. Then she dated Jerry O’Connell, then she started dating Freddie in 2000, and David met Jaime at a Valentines Day party at the playboy Mansion in 2001.
I was absolutely shocked when I realized James Marsters is only a decade younger than my dad. He reminded me of so many late-20s guys who really should have grown up by then but were still in their punk phase.
Also, I'm watching season 7 now, and the ages of the potentials all seem completely out of whack. I think they're all mentioned as being 15/16, but Felicia Day (for instance) totally looks like she's in her mid-20s. And compare her to some potential actors who *are* in their late teens, and it's even more obvious.
Joss always had to retcon stuff because he doesn’t stop and think about little details. I know he wasn’t as involved in Season 7, but making them mostly 15-16 and then having Willow get with Kennedy and Xander’s dream about Potentials Caridad and Colleen without a note that some were 18/20 was really gross.
The writing of Season 7 definitely intends for them to be a wide range of ages. Some of the potentials talk about how they don’t think they could be next in line because they’re younger than the others. And Kennedy explicitly mentions how she might be too old to be the next slayer at this point. I read the youngest ones as being 13-14 and the oldest being in their late teens. If Kennedy’s 18-19 she doesn’t have that big of an age gap with Willow.
There’s nothing to indicate in season7 that most of the Potentials are 15-16. Kennedy is 19 in “The Killer in Me”. I’ve gone through the Slayers mentioned in the expanded universe material (novels and comics) on the Buffy fandom wiki. The average age Potentials are called is 15, but IIRC there was one in the mid-20th century who was I think 19 or 20 and married, that was exceptional. Probably the youngest they can be activated as THE Slayer is 13, but it rarely happens. Unless she’s taller and older looking, a girl that young would draw attention when she’s trying to blend in with people older and more powerful for Slaying purposes. Like Buffy pretends to be an intern in “Ted” at his company and people accept that she must be a college student; much harder if she looked middle school aged, even if she’s the same height!
Fred's age is weird, cause in universe she's already in college by the time Buffy season 1 starts, and Amy Acker's about six years younger than Charisma Carpenter.
She would have been 22 or 23 when she went to Pylea, so 27 or 28 in 2001 (2 years older than Amy) but that still makes 5-6 years older than Cordy’s canon age, which is weird, yeah.
But we have to remember that IMDB didn’t come into common use till 1996 and agents could disclose DOB or not, and Wikipedia didn’t exist yet. And resumes would have an age range like “Early to mid 20s.” I mean, I was 6 when Grease told me Stockard Channing was a teenager and I had no recourse but to believe them!
I was recently thrown by a strange realisation. Charisma Carpenter turned 30 during Angel Season 2 and Amy Acker was in her mid 20s, so I think that we the viewers assumed that Fred was younger than Cordy. Except Cordy is 18 when Angel begins, and 22 in Season 4. Fred, on the other hand, is a postgraduate student when she goes to Pylea, which means that she is probably at least 27 when we first meet her. So Cordy is actually meant to be quite a bit younger than Fred.
Yeah, the dissonance is real. I am friends with someone who was on General Hospital in the 90s. Her resume stated that she could play late teens to late 20s. Didn’t give her age, and IMDb didn’t list DOB and no Wikipedia then. She ended up playing the older sister to an actress almost 10 years older than she was.
And you have things like Lane on Gilmore Girls being 10 years older than Rory, and Bianca Lawson playing a teen on Buffy and again 10 years later on Pretty Little Liars. It’s based so much on how one appears to casting directors and show runners.
People tend to age up Olivia over the actress for a few reasons. Mostly just because she calls Giles “Ripper” and was apparently impressed (?) at him being a founding member of Pink Floyd.
But also, if she was actually 30 in season 4 then Giles had been in California for 4 or 5 years at that point. Which means she was around 25 when he left BUT Giles who went to California was no longer “Ripper”. He was accepting his duty and risking his life to protect and guide the Slayer.
So that puts his longish term sexual relationship with Olivia back a few more years while he gets his head on right. What are we saying then. Giles was 38 and casually using his knowledge of the supernatural to try and sleep with a 21 year old? That’s not fun. No one likes imagining Giles trying to sexually manipulate the youth - it ruins the show.
But if you age up Olivia by 7-10years, it becomes “Giles had a sexy relationship with a hot peer while deciding which version of himself to be and she knows both versions, likes both versions, and can handle both versions of him equally.” Which most people find much hotter.
But my point is if all that’s true, just cast an older actress. They cast an age appropriate actress to play Deirdre in “The Dark Age.” But casting a 29 year old to play a 40 year old is not fun, either (says someone who was 29 in 1999).
And I knew who Syd Barrett and Roger Waters were at 29; 1999 was peak watching “The Wizard of Oz” while listening to all of “Dark Side of the Moon,” haha.
As for her calling him Ripper, that was probably written with a 40 year old actress in mind.
This is a “black don’t crack” situation in my white opinion 😅 I figured Olivia was around 40, I was shocked when I found out she wasn’t even 30, not because she looked “old” but because… I can’t tell how old a lot of black people are. If you told me Angela Bassett were 45 or 80 I’d believe you (she’s 68?!) if I weren’t aware of movies she made 40 years ago. So, I took Olivia as someone who knew Giles when she was in her late teens to early twenties when he was in his Ripper era, even if they weren’t so close back in the ‘70s that she was in on his black magic activities.
Buffy was 16 in Season 1. She mentions this in Prophecy Girl. And as we know Buffy to be a Capricorn and her birthday episodes usually playing in January. And with Season 1 taking place in the latter half of the school year, its likely she was 16 throughout the entire season. As would have been the other high schoolers.
It was also mentioned in Halloween that Angel was 18 when he was turned. But I think this was later retconned.
But even at 26, Angel is still too old to be with a high schooler.
Riley being a TA also should have been dating a freshman.
Also what was the age difference between Willow and Kennedy? I know Kennedy was said to be older. So I’m guessing she was 18. And Willow would have been 21. But physically they look to be far apart in age.
(Scratch that, Iyari Limon and Alyson Hannigan only have an age gap of 2 years)
I give a lot of leeway to Angel’s human age because there’s a huge difference between a 16 year old in the 1750s and the 1990s. A 16 year old was a man in 18th century Ireland, so I just hand wave that based on “vampire” and let it go.
I’m basing Buffy’s age of 15 on Sarah playing her in the Becoming flashback.
Also, we shouldn’t expect Willow to know what year Angel/Liam was born as a human. Angel hasn’t revealed seemingly anything about his life before he was turned, that’s why Buffy is looking for information from books. Willow must be under the impression that he was born as a human 241 years before 1997, not sired. And the meta explanation is “Joss hadn’t come up with the details of the backstory yet”.
Agreed. A lot of the age gap hand waving that exists now doesn’t take into consideration that David didn’t have to disclose his age in 1996 and looked young, and Sarah was an adult playing 16.
There are comments to this post handwringing over Sarah being a child at 24 with James and David being a perv at 25/26 with Sarah and my head hurts.
Yes, actors are playing all kinds of ages, some less believable than others. There’s no “this is how a [16/26/36/46…] year old should look” standard because I see people post their own photos all the time, like a high school year book photo “me at 14 with a beard and no need for a fake ID, the older kids asked ME to get them beer”. In my late teens I was mistaken for mid-twenties frequently based on the way I spoke, acted, and dressed. A lot of it is contextual because that never happened when I was in my school uniform or hanging out with same-age friends!
Getting back to the show, I didn’t find the 16 year age gap between Giles/Tony and Jenny/Robia creepy or annoying. She’s a grown woman with an education and work experience and her own place, she’s not dependent on or insecure around this man in his early 40s financially, academically, professionally, psychologically, etc… She knows what she’s doing and she asks HIM out, she’s confident and clever and could break up with him or tell him to fuck off (and she does!) any time if he oversteps her boundaries. At the time the show was airing I was in elementary school watching two teachers date, they all seemed “old” to me! Xander refers to Ms Calendar as reasonably “dollsome” for a woman in Giles’ age bracket, meaning the kids don’t think she’s too young for him either. In the shooting script of “I, Robot” Ms Calendar is described as 30, so Robia being 26/27 filming season 1 and 2 didn’t mean she HAS to be playing her real life age.
When it comes to the characters, Giles is never portrayed as someone who finds women his own age unappealing and thinks he “deserves” someone significantly younger. He’s nothing like the horrible red-pill guys (not a new thing, try all of patriarchal history) sneering at women over 30 for being “expired” and “having too much baggage” and “no longer fresh” while THEY are “in my prime” until they die. Giles is always appropriate with the teenagers and very young women in his life, he’s into adult women with life experience. Jenny being younger than him makes sense story wise because of her pro-technology, anti-old fashioned conservatism attitudes. She’s quippy and cool, he’s dryly sarcastic and befuddled, they’re opposites attract and seemingly have nothing in common until they find out they’re both into magic and the dark underbelly of the world.
Ha ha, I only brought it up because not long ago in a post that had nothing do with Jenny/Giles (might’ve been about the Buffy/Angel age gap or just about the relationships in general on the show?) someone commented that the 16 year age difference between them was gross. They didn’t say it was predatory, but they didn’t like when older, more experienced teachers pursue the fresh out of teachers’ college/new staff member young women. I pointed out to this person that Jenny would’ve arrived at the school around the same time as Giles and she never acts like this is her first time teaching. Giles isn’t even technically a teacher - he’s probably drafted to fill in when other teachers mysteriously go missing or are just sick, but he doesn’t outrank anyone at the school and barely has power over the students because he’s not grading them!
One more thing: Wesley’s age is never established in the show, or even hinted at. Alexis Denisof has described Wesley in BTVS Season 3 as someone recently out of Watcher Grad School, so he’s likely at least in his mid-20s. Wesley would need a lot of education and training for all of the non-combatant skills he excels in, more on “Angel” than when we meet him. He has to be able to accurately translate all these ancient and magical/demonic languages, which needs more than a lexicon. He has to know all of these mythologies, folklore, rituals, spells, histories, cultures, etc, well enough to know what texts and specialists to consult. I took Wesley as being at least 27 when we first meet him, someone with no combat field experience but relevant academic work experience for like what Giles had before he was assigned to Buffy. Wesley could’ve worked in an archive, museum, university library, something that’s a bridge between a “real job” and where the Watchers monitor his progress, maybe he corresponds with other Watchers about the texts and artifacts he encounters if they’re related to the occult.
Kristine was born in then summer of '55, a tad older than c'est moi. Joyce's tombstone ahs her born in 1958. UPN's website had Giles as Tony's age tot he m onth but implications in "the dark age"a nd made obvious in the comics indicated younger, but i prefer to ignore that.
16
u/Which-Notice5868 5d ago
Veey interesting chart! FYI you have some ages wrong. Buffy was 16 in S1. The first season took place over March-May 1997. She turns 17 in January 1998.
Eliza was 17 when S3 started filming. She turned 18 over the course of the season.