It’s not that they couldn’t transform Jared into Rumple, of course they could. It’s that 1) they already had a young Rumple who was not Jared and 2) Jared playing RC playing Rumple is a very big task and would confuse the HECK out of the audience. No matter how much they play around with Jared’s makeup, to look like young Rumple he would still look like Jared and thus Henry. Also, A and E have said in panels and tweets and interviews that PP WAS LOOKING FOR HENRY, not an older version of himself which is confusing and complicated and would drive away viewers.
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"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"