Life as a child actor.

Precocious children, pushy parents, fat pay checks and missing school. These are all part and parcel of being a child actor. Having been a child actor back in England and having directed children on screen as an adult, I love working with kids. But would I put my two year old daughter in front of the lens? Hummm… Now that’s a different story! 

It’s a strange world for kids. Yesterday I went to see the musical Wicked with good friend Johnny Duda. Johnny was a child actor too. A little more successful than I was. He played the young Kirt Russel in the flashback scenes of BackDraft as well as parts in Flatliners, Eyes of an Angel and Rudy. We recounted similar stories of jumping from audition to audition and always seeing the same kid actors. You see, there aren’t that many child actors out there, and there are even fewer good ones, which is why a small community of child actors begins to emerge. But it really is amazing how one or two from that group really pop big. For Johnny it was Johnny Galecki. For me it was Keira Knightley (we played brother and sister in a never seen short for 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea – even at the age of 12 or so she demonstrated that she had that special quality that the camera loved.)

But back to the point. Would I let my daughter act professionally? If she really really really wanted to then yes. It is an amazing experience. You very quickly learn how to deal with rejection – which is brilliant as I see a lot of people trapped in their lives as a result of that fear. You get to do some AMAZING things – drive expensive cars, stay in great hotels, eat at amazing restaurants, travel the world, you see the importance of team work in action and you get a lot more attention from the girls back home at school.  The only real problem with child actors are pushy parents. But, my guess is that if a pushy parent didn’t push their child into acting they’d push their child into something else and do as much damage. So the key is that it has to be 100% the child’s choice. And that this has to be reminded to the child at every step of the way. If they don’t want to do it, then it’s not a problem.

On my second acting job at the age of 14, a Children’s BBC based television series called The Demon Headmaster, I realized that where I really wanted to be was behind the camera in the directors chair – in this case the wonderfully generous Roger Singleton-Turner. From that moment on I took every acting job as the opportunity to ask the crew what they were doing and how they were doing it. As an actor you are in one of the most brilliant positions on a film set. You can ask any question you want and no one will tell you to get lost! As a result of my inquisitive nature I made acquaintances with two people whom enabled me to really forge ahead as a director at such a young age: Producer Giles Ridge and Producer Selwyn Roberts – Gentleman I thank you very much for helping a young actor with lots of questions!!!!!

Next week I’ll talk about how we are putting together our cast list for my next movie based on Errol Flynn. I’ll also be talking about the day Jeremy Irons broke down in tears and, as I tried to console him, I realized what it is that makes a truly remarkable actor!

Until then have a good week and go check out a few of the other blogs… THE SCRIPT READER got a good run of comments last week after knocking Tucker Max’s new script (there were 63 comments in three days!!!) and for some really cool insight into how a story is shaped check out THE EDITOR.