Making it big in Hollywood? Sounds like a dream for a lot of kids. But the industry can wind up being a nightmare for many, and these former child stars aren't afraid to talk about it.
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00:00Making it big in Hollywood sounds like a dream for a lot of kids, but the industry
00:05can wind up being a nightmare for many, and these former child stars aren't
00:08afraid to talk about it. Many viewers know Brooke Shields for her
00:12various TV roles from the 90s onward, but early on in her career she was notable
00:17as a child actor who took on a series of highly sexualized roles, most notably the
00:21characters she played in Pretty Baby, The Blue Lagoon, and Endless Love.
00:25What am I good, gentlemen? Don't we get a look before we buy?
00:30Speaking about her career at a 2024 South by Southwest panel in honor of
00:34International Women's Day, Shields opened up about her experiences as a child star
00:38who was cast in several inappropriate roles. She credited her mother and the
00:42people around her with keeping her safe from predators, saying,
00:45There was this sexualization of young women, and I was at the center of it.
00:48I was surrounded by a strong mom, had a community around me.
00:52I did not become the type of statistic that Hollywood created.
00:55She argued that, quote,
00:59and affirmed her passion for making the industry a more inclusive place for women
01:02over 40, telling attendees,
01:10After taking the world by storm in the 90s with her child roles in Matilda,
01:14A Simple Wish, Miracle on 34th Street, and Mrs. Doubtfire,
01:18Mara Wilson stepped away from film acting.
01:21She focused intermittently on stage work while joining the ranks of child stars
01:24who wound up with normal jobs as grownups.
01:26In the 2010s, she reinvented herself as a writer and social commentator,
01:31and her 2013 article for Cracked, titled Seven Reasons Child Stars Go Crazy
01:35in Insider's Perspective, became notable for the honesty with which it exposed
01:39the many difficulties of dealing with child stardom.
01:41According to Wilson, although she started acting of her own volition at age five,
01:45not all kids in the profession are so lucky,
01:48with many being pressured into it by their parents
01:50and becoming primary breadwinners for their households.
01:53Wilson added that celebrity kids are especially vulnerable to predators
01:56and to sexual objectification beyond their parents' control.
02:00Wilson advised up-and-coming young stars to think seriously
02:02about whether they really want to be actors
02:05and to trust their own ability to reinvent themselves career-wise.
02:08She wrote,
02:09Make sure it's really your choice.
02:11Get out of it when it stops being fun and get an education.
02:14I want to be in school.
02:16Todd Bridges, who became known in the 70s and 80s
02:19for the role of Willis Jackson on Different Strokes,
02:21revealed on The Oprah Winfrey Show in 2010
02:23that he was a victim of sexual abuse at age 11,
02:26perpetrated by his own publicist.
02:29A few years later, he went on CNN to advocate for a California bill
02:32that would make background checks mandatory for some film and TV professions,
02:36particularly jobs that gave people close access to child stars.
02:40Speaking in support of the bill, Bridges noted that the abuse he suffered
02:43was facilitated by the entertainment industry.
02:46He told viewers,
02:47We have to make people realize that children need to be safe on these sets,
02:50and they're not safe.
02:52Because parents want their kids to be in show business so bad
02:55that they're willing to do anything,
02:56and they'll send them off with strange people.
02:58The bill in question, AB 1660,
03:00received support from the Screen Actors Guild
03:02and was ultimately signed into law by then-governor Jerry Brown in late 2012.
03:07Drew Barrymore is one of the most popular
03:09and widely beloved American actors of her generation.
03:11There was a point in time, though,
03:13in which she was known as Hollywood's foremost teenage rebel.
03:16A highly in-demand actor since her early childhood,
03:18she grew up in the spotlight
03:19and had a notoriously turbulent adolescence as a result.
03:22In her 2015 memoir, Wildflower, she wrote,
03:25I was out of control due to working since I was 11 months old
03:28and what that had done to my childhood,
03:29which made me grow up too fast.
03:31Can you remember a time when you were not somewhere on a set?
03:35Mm-mm.
03:36To be quite honest, no.
03:38Due to her struggles, Barrymore became wary of letting her own kids
03:41face the kind of overexposure she did.
03:43In a 2024 interview with People magazine, she said,
03:46My kids would love to be in film or on social media or seeing,
03:49and I always just say, school plays, theater, camp, everything, yes.
03:54But no to being out there in the public eye until I think you're ready.
03:58Even so, she stated that she didn't feel the movie business in itself
04:01was inherently toxic, saying,
04:03It has given me every opportunity under the sun
04:06and I couldn't appreciate my life more.
04:08Nickelodeon's iCarly was proof enough of Jeanette McCurdy's immense talent
04:12and ample comedic skill.
04:13But in 2022, following years of retirement from acting,
04:17McCurdy showed she also had the goods as a writer
04:19by publishing her critically acclaimed memoir, I'm Glad My Mom Died,
04:22in which she discussed her struggles with child stardom
04:24through the lens of her fraught relationship with her late mother.
04:27McCurdy was never the same after iCarly,
04:29and she explains why in her book.
04:31She reveals that she took up acting to fulfill her mother's dreams,
04:34that being a teen celebrity pushed her into anxiety and eating disorders,
04:38and that the work environment at Nickelodeon was often grueling,
04:41vexing, and detrimental to her development.
04:43She says that she endured it all because her mother claimed it was the price of success.
04:48You're playing an adult's game. You're in an adult's world.
04:52Following her exit, Nickelodeon reportedly offered her $300,000
04:56in exchange for never discussing her experiences at the network,
04:59which she turned down.
05:00She told The New York Times in 2022 that she never watches the shows she was on, adding,
05:05My whole childhood and adolescence were very exploited.
05:09I want my life to be in my hands,
05:11not in eating disorders or casting directors or in agents or my mom's.
05:15Mine.
05:17As teen star to adult artist transitions go,
05:19Miley Cyrus is one of the big success stories of our era.
05:22She's so consolidated now as a beloved, versatile, dazzlingly talented recording artist
05:27that it's sometimes hard to remember that she used to be the star of Disney's Hannah Montana.
05:31She loved being on the show at that time, Cyrus told CBS Sunday Morning.
05:35But looking back, she can see how all that pressure was problematic.
05:39She said on the show,
05:40I think now that I'm older now, I realize that's a lot to put on a kid.
05:44Cyrus has also said that the media scrutiny she received for the controversies of a rebellious era
05:48made her feel guilty and ashamed for years.
05:51She told British Vogue,
05:53Now that I'm an adult, I realize how harshly I was judged.
05:56She has also opened up about developing body image issues while playing Hannah Montana,
06:00telling Marie Claire,
06:02I was made to look like someone that I wasn't,
06:04which probably caused some body dysmorphia because I had been made pretty every day for so long.
06:09And then when I wasn't on that show, it was like, who the f**k am I?
06:13Does this mean that she's done with Hollywood for good?
06:15Not necessarily.
06:17Cyrus would return to acting on one condition.
06:19She told W Magazine,
06:21The role would really need to be right,
06:23since it's kind of hard for people to see past me and buy into a character.
06:27Before headlining Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy as Frodo Baggins
06:31and becoming a worldwide movie star,
06:33Elijah Wood was prolific as a child actor in 90s films like North,
06:36Avalon, The Good Son, and Flipper.
06:39Hey, what are you doing here?
06:42In 2016, the actor discussed the subject of predatory behavior in Hollywood
06:45during an interview with The Times.
06:47Wood said,
06:48There are a lot of vipers in this industry.
06:51People who only have their own interests in mind.
06:53People with parasitic interests will see you as their prey.
06:56Although he made a point of saying that his mother kept him safe as a child,
06:59many interpreted his comments as Wood speaking from personal experience.
07:03He then took to X to clarify that his indignation stemmed from a documentary he'd watch.
07:07He wrote,
07:08Let me be clear.
07:09This subject of child abuse is an important one
07:12that should be discussed and properly investigated.
07:14But as I made absolutely clear to the writer,
07:17I have no first-hand experience or observation of the topic,
07:20so I cannot speak with any authority beyond articles I've read and films I've seen.
07:24With her role as the clairvoyant Raven Baxter on That's So Raven,
07:27Raven-Symoné became one of the biggest Disney Channel stars ever.
07:31And in the years since that show ended,
07:33she hasn't kept mum about the downside of being a Disney teen celebrity.
07:36Speaking to Yahoo! Entertainment in 2020,
07:39Raven-Symoné, who is a lesbian,
07:40recalled being called a liability by an industry higher up at the age of 15.
07:44She said that she was encouraged to hide her personal life and pressured to,
07:48quote,
07:48stay in a little box to make sure that everybody else is making their money.
07:52She went on,
07:53This industry, as long as I've been in it,
07:55will break you down, build you up, break you down, build you up.
07:59I'm so over it.
08:00I sit in that anger for this industry because it's been so many different things.
08:04Raven-Symoné realized years later through therapy
08:07how much trauma the industry had burdened her with,
08:10though she believes things are different now.
08:12She said,
08:13There's so many people out here opening the doorways to so many subcultures you know,
08:17whether it's size, whether it's sexuality, whether it's gender identity.
08:21That's the acceptance that I was waiting for when I was a kid.
08:24Being a kid in the early 2000s meant watching movies starring Frankie Muniz.
08:28The actor became recognizable worldwide for his roles in films like My Dog Skip
08:32and Big Fat Liar, as well as Agent Cody Banks and its sequel.
08:35He also wrote his name in the TV history books by playing the titular character
08:38on the hit sitcom Malcolm in the Middle for seven seasons.
08:41Muniz stepped away from his acting career to become an auto racer.
08:44He currently competes in the NASCAR Xfinity series.
08:47Muniz has spoken critically about the movie world.
08:50I would never let my kid go into the business.
08:53Although he noted that his own experience in the industry was positive,
08:56he said he knows of many who had much worse experiences than he did.
09:00I know so many people, friends that were close to me that had such insanely negative experiences.
09:08Corey Feldman is one of the most recognizable child stars of 1980s cinema,
09:12with major roles in films like The Goonies, Stand By Me, Gremlins, and The Lost Boys.
09:17In recent years, he has become notable for speaking up about the sexual abuse he
09:20suffered in Hollywood alongside lifelong friend and regular collaborator Corey Haim,
09:25who died in 2010.
09:26Feldman told The Guardian in 2020,
09:28The biggest problem in Hollywood is pedophilia.
09:31I believe there's a lot of darkness in Hollywood right now.
09:34In the documentary My Truth, The Rape of Two Corys,
09:37Feldman alleges that former talent manager Marty Weiss,
09:40actor John Grissom, and nightclub owner Alfie Hoffman are among Hollywood's abusers.
09:45He also said that Haim had confided in him that
09:47Charlie Sheen sexually abused him on the set of their film Lucas.
09:51Sheen denied the allegations, calling them, quote,
09:53"...sick, twisted, and outlandish," in a statement given to Entertainment Weekly.
09:57Feldman has also opened up about the pressure placed on him by his mother,
10:01who reportedly made him take diet pills because she thought it would help him land roles.
10:05Asked by The Guardian if he'd let his son Zen join the film business,
10:08he responded with an emphatic,
10:10Hell no!
10:11If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available.
10:15Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org.