#child actors

[shewhotellsstories]

People tend to treat child stars having breakdowns as amusing, but realizing just how many of these children were abused makes their mental health struggles feel like, "of course, they struggled, adults they trusted violated them."

[bodhrancomedy]

The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that child actors should have to take stage names. 

Like, I don’t think they should do interviews, I don’t think they should do red carpets, I don’t think we should bring them into celebrity culture at ALL.

I know it doesn’t avoid all of the problems with it but - as much as I dreamed of being discovered as an actor as a young child - as an adult with minor internet fame and a few roles under my belt, I am so FUCKING grateful I never was.

Having people see me and recognise me and approach me in public with my deadname and my skinny, vulnerable seven-year-old tomboy self, or that spotty, chubby, awkward teenage phase, or even the first few years of university would have destroyed me. 

I’m barely famous by any metric and it weirds me out completely now, let alone when I was stupid and sixteen. I had someone casually comment on a Live (which I don’t know why I do them, because I hate doing them) that they’d overheard me outside what they assumed to be my place of work - a place I was about to apply to work - talking about how I hated having to be watching myself constantly and be aware that sometimes people now know who I am and it was very disturbing. 

And I chose this. I didn’t go into this blind - and while I never imagined it getting to this stage - I had some idea of what this would entail. 

Some wide-eyed nine year old doesn’t. 

Fake names for child actors is the minimum. 

[flanaganfilm]

I’m curious what the challenges are to working with kids- such as in both Haunting series. All the child actors did a fantastic job but I can imagine it can be harder to direct kids vs adults.

The biggest challenge I've had working with kids is just logistical - they are not permitted to work nearly as many hours as their adult co-stars. And they have strictly regimented breaks between work periods that must be used for school. On projects where a younger actor needs to be in the majority of scenes (like Oculus or Before I Wake) it can create an enormous scheduling puzzle. Also, in a lot of markets they cannot work past a certain hour of night. We call it "pumpkining." So we'll need scramble to get all of their scenes done before they "pumpkin" and have to go home, leaving us with nothing to shoot - but with hours left on our day.

When it comes to the actual acting, I have spent my career being pleasantly surprised (if not downright shocked) by how prepared, professional, and precise they are. I've been very lucky, as well - I have worked with some of the absolute best young actors in the entire business. Jacob Tremblay, Lulu Wilson, Kyliegh Curran, McKenna Grace, Julian Hilliard, Violet McGraw, Annalise Basso, Garrett Ryan, Amelie Smith, Ben Ainsworth, Paxton Singleton - I mean these really are the A-team. Jacob Tremblay was 7 years old when we shot Before I Wake and he had to carry almost the whole movie. Not only did Jake show up completely prepared with his scene work every day (and delivered a heartbreaking performance), he also was prepared for his scene partners - I distinctly remember a few times Thomas Jane forgot his lines, and Jake casually reminded him what they were. That can sometimes create friction with actors on set, but because it was little Jake feeding him the lines, Tom just smiled and thanked him. I was very nervous when we were filming episode 6 of Hill House, which consists of several very long, unbroken takes. The second of these shots was a 10 minute take through Hill House that involved all five of my youngest actors. In that episode, if someone forgot a line, missed a mark, or didn't land in precisely the right place at precisely the right moment, we'd have to scrap everything we'd shot so far and start over. It was insanely difficult. I was very nervous that the kids (the youngest of which was 6) would not be up to the challenge. But when we filmed episode 6 of Hill House, the only actor in the entire cast who ever forgot a line during filming was the seasoned, established Oscar winner. The kids were PERFECT.

I've been very lucky in my career. I think I've worked with some of the absolute best young actors in the business. I have had challenges and intense difficulties with actors on my sets, but each and every one of those difficult people were grownups.

[cocukoyuncunasilolunur]

Çocuk Oyuncu Olmanın İlk Adımı: Yetenek Ajansları

Birçok çocuk oyuncu, kariyerine yetenek ajanslarına kaydolarak başlar. Ancak bu süreçte dikkatli olmalısınız. Güvenilir ve sektörde bilinen bir ajansla çalışmak, doğru projelere ulaşmanızda kritik rol oynar. Çocuk oyuncu nasıl olunur sorusunun cevabı, büyük ölçüde ajans seçimiyle başlar. Ajanslar, çocuğunuzu doğru projelere yönlendirebilir ve deneme çekimlerine katılmasını sağlar. Ancak, unutmayın ki burada başarıyı yakalamak zaman alabilir.

[antoniathetigerrusso88]

Remembering Dean Stockwell (March 5, 1936- Nov. 7. 2021). May his beauty and talent live on for all of the ages to see!

[bitchypuppystarlight]

Early on in my career a well-known actor from a show on Nickelodeon cried to me for over an hour because they no longer made enough in active or residual pay to qualify for insurance and they didn’t know what they were going to do.

Fans came up to them everyday asking for autographs and talking about how great it must have been to be famous and the whole time they couldn’t afford their medication.

I’ve never forgotten them and I sincerely hope they’re alright.

[oldshowbiz]

Ark II (1976) starring Helen Hunt

[lifenconcepts]

I HEADCANON ALL CHILDREN IN MEDIA AS ASEXUAL.

[koxhii]

Mary Tudor in The Spanish Princess (2019)

[etteraths]

As fun as it is to poke and prod at everything going on with Jojo Siwa, I think we're forgetting something critical here.

Time and time again, we have had this cycle happen of watching a young child actor grow up and be lambasted for them trying to change their brand or acting erratically, or just overall trying new things and failing at them.

Years later, though, we get stories from people like Amanda Bynes or Britney Spears, and we go through the same loop of, "poor Amanda" "Britney didn't deserve that treatment", so on and so forth. We feel bad for them when we find out what happened, but rarely do we ever support them when they're going through it - despite everyone knowing how terrible Hollywood, Nickelodeon, and other various titans of entertainment treat their actors.

There has always, ALWAYS been issue with how these corporations handle the safety of their workers, and especially those of child actors.

Even IF we were to suppose that Jojo Siwa (who was only 13 years old when she first got her show at Nickelodeon, prior to being on Dance Moms which we don't even need to touch with a 50 foot pole) was not mistreated in any way - the fact is, she didn't have a normal childhood. She was most likely confined to maintain her hyperfemme aesthetic up until she was presumably 18. She most likely did not have proper autonomy to express herself fully up until recently.

This isn't me saying that Jojo Siwa is exempt from criticism - far, far from it. But I think we as a society need to seriously reflect on how we perceive former child stars' actions following them becoming an adult.

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Montgomery Clift, right, aged 15, as Prince Peter in Jubilee, 1935. The other boy is Jackie Kelk, playing Prince Rudolph.

The show, a musical, had a book by Moss Hart and a score by Cole Porter, and introduced the classics "Just One of Those Things" and "Begin the Beguine." It included some characters based on real people: the swimmer who becomes an actor is a spoof of Johnny Weissmuller; Noël Coward is portrayed as Eric Dare; and the party hostess Elsa Maxwell is given the name Eva Standing.

The show received rapturous reviews, with one critic calling it "one of the great theatrical events of the 1930s." But after the orchestrations were lost in transit in 1948, the show was not performed for 40 years. There have been a number of concert performances since then, but no full-scale production.

Photo: Vandamm via MCNY

[myfandomrealitea]

Idk if it can be considered as fandom stuff, but I really want to know:

Why children acting in films isn't discussed as something wrong to do?

Like, if it's important to fight to end child labor, why almost no one bats an eye on it?

I can assure you plenty of people bat an eye at it.

While discussions about things like child labor laws and protections in regards to underage performers may seem drowned out by subjects like the SAAG strikes and the crew-company strikes and rights actions right now, child labor laws and protections for underage performers is still very much a prominent topic in the industry, especially as more and more past-child-actors come forward with their stories.

While we are far from a perfect state regarding the protection of child actors and their obligations and abilities within the industry, we have also seen several improvements and changes. Restrictive changes to how many hours they can work within a certain timeframe, changes to how they are represented and advocated for and changes to conflicts between performing and education are all things we have seen in the last decade.

Backstage.com - Child Actor Laws NNCEE - British Child Performer License Library of Congress Blogs - A History of Child Actor Laws

I don't view children being employed as actors as inherently a "wrong thing to do." However I absolutely and firmly acknowledge that child acting is a fucking minefield of exploitation and expectations. We are absolutely nowhere near a point where we can say that the majority of our activism for child actors has been fulfilled.

Often, expectations for child actors fall victim to the same pressure and demands of the entire Hollywood industry; churning out content as fast as possible on minimum cost. Crews are pushed to work 90 hour weeks, actors are pushed to work 14+ hour shifts, deadlines are made as tight as possible. The issues many child actors face are not necessarily exclusive to underage performers; they are broader issues faced by employees and workers within the industry as a whole.

There are still many groups and individuals campaigning for better protections and quality of treatment and advocacy regarding children in the film and performance industries, however. And like with any cause there are always ways you can support them to help further the cause. I suggest looking up the child performer laws in your area and seeing where you can lend aid.

[cocukoyuncunasilolunur]

Aile Desteği: En Önemli Güç Kaynağı

Çocuk oyunculuk sürecinde ailelerin rolü büyüktür. Çocuğunuzun kariyerinde ona en büyük destekçi siz olacaksınız. Çocuk oyuncu nasıl olunur sorusunun belki de en duygusal cevabı budur: Destek ve sevgi. Onu her adımda cesaretlendirmek, zorluklarla karşılaştığında yanında olmak çok önemlidir. Unutmayın, bu bir ekip işi!

[antoniathetigerrusso88]

“The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” -Dean Stockwell-

[snarkleharkle]

Child actors are the worst. I vote to have all children played by adults wearing those colourful hats with the propellers and shorts with suspenders.