What’s the deal with Alexa Demie’s mysterious age?! Ever since Demie got famous for her role as high schooler Maddy Perez in HBO’s Euphoria, fans have speculated about how old she really is. But why has she felt the need to disguise her age – and what does this say about Hollywood at large?
It’s no secret that the cast of Euphoria aren’t actually teenagers – most of them were in their early twenties when the series began in 2019. And originally, Demie was thought to be of a similar age to her co-stars. In an InStyle article, Demie didn’t correct her interviewer when she was asked about “turning 25,” and a New York Times article from 2019 even listed her age as 24.
But later on, fans uncovered records from Demie’s high school, which listed her as graduating in 2008, which would make her 29-30 years old when Euphoria was released. Fans also found out that Demie founded a sunglasses company, Mainstream, when she was 18 – and that was way back in 2009. Notably, Demie’s age has also never been listed on her Wikipedia page. After these revelations went viral, Demie’s mysterious age became a meme on social media, with fans coming up with increasingly outlandish estimates of how old she really is.
Demie’s story may seem like a unique internet mystery. But hiding one’s age – especially for women – is nothing new in Hollywood. Hollywood favors younger women, while older women often struggle to find complex and interesting roles, putting pressure on actresses to fudge their age in order to get better parts. Gabrielle Carteris confessed that she told producers of Beverly Hills 90210 that she was 21 when she auditioned for the role of 16-year-old Andrea Zuckerman, even though she was actually 29. Rebel Wilson also claimed to be in her late 20s when she was really in her mid-30s.
The uproar over Demie’s real age reveals how ageism persists in the entertainment industry – and why it really matters. Andrew Garfield was 27 years old when he started filming The Amazing Spider-Man as teenager Peter Parker and 30 years old by the time he wrapped up the sequel – but his age has never been under as much scrutiny as Demie’s. Hollywood’s ageism double standard is just another example of sexism in the industry, which places outsized value on women’s perceived youth and unchanging appearance. Even though Demie’s real age has been revealed to be closer to 30 or 31, that doesn’t change anything about her performance as Maddy. Yet if Demie had gone into auditions as a 30-year-old, she likely would have been cast in the roles of the parents of the characters she plays, despite looking exactly the same.
Demie’s success in lying about her age and convincingly portraying a teenager might be a wake-up call for an industry still holding on to old-fashioned views – and proving once and for all that age really is just a number.