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

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… 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.” 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. 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