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(kid chatter)
("If I Ever Was A Child" by Wilco playing)
♪ I've never been alone ♪
♪ Long enough to know ♪
♪ If I ever was a child ♪
♪ I was tied up like a boat ♪
♪ On a button like a coat ♪
♪ Set free for the wild ♪
♪ I'd jump ♪
♪ To jolt my clumsy blood ♪
♪ So, I... ♪
♪ Won't ever wanna touch ♪
♪ Your heart too much ♪
♪ Or hold you too tight ♪
♪ I saw ♪
♪ Behind my brain ♪
♪ A haunted stain ♪
♪ Will never fade ♪
♪ I hunt ♪
♪ For the kind of pain ♪
♪ I can take ♪
♪ I... ♪
♪ Never was alone ♪
♪ Long enough to know ♪
♪ If I ever was a child ♪
♪ ♪
Diana Serra Cary: Well, it was just one of those things.
I didn't know what a regular kid was
because I didn't have any friends.
There were certain limitations.
I didn't know there was another world out there for children.
(children chattering)
And the life of a child was not my life.
♪ ♪
As of 1920,
I started to work.
I was born in 1918, so I went to work at two.
I didn't realize it was so special.
I thought every parent had worked as a child
for their parents.
I had put that together.
It was a piece of cake as far as a director was concerned.
Anything they told me to do, I did,
you know, without any fuss.
(upbeat music playing)
My three big feature films were very successful.
So I went on with my career for quite a while.
We had employees, we had a chauffeur,
and we had maids, and we had a cook,
and this was because we couldn't function
as a star
without those accoutrements, you know?
They even had a doll made for me.
They featured me as the million-dollar child star.
Every film was gonna be a million dollars.
But my father discovered
that he would not be cut into the profits,
so my father got furious.
So, he quit. He broke the contract.
And my career was over at seven.
(upbeat music ends)
(birds chirping)
-(beep) -Marc: Hi. My name is Marc Slater,
and I'm reading for the role of Proud Peacock.
(creepy voice): Born to a family of former heroes
in the veil of the great spirit...
Melanie: With the kids, I feel like the rings around Saturn.
I feel like he and I, at this point,
we're on this outer ring.
Your physical appearance and your parents.
(quiet laughter)
-(beep) -Good.
I know they say for every 100 auditions,
you're gonna get one.
Okay, so if we're on the outer ring of Saturn,
how long is it before we get to the second ring closer
with the callback ring?
Okay, this is the callback ring of kids
that have done this or that--
So, it goes-- So, lemme get this straight.
It goes-- it goes audition...
callback, booked,
-and the planet is the job. Got it. -Right. (laughs)
♪ ♪
Melanie: We came out from Florida.
This is our second year,
and Marc had expressed interest
that he wanted to be an actor.
You know, he watched movies ad he was always trying to portry
that character in the movie.
And so, when he portrayed that,
he would do really good imitating.
The imitation was...
amazing, so...
You have the-- the stage moms,
you know, and I don't ever wanna be one of those,
because you see them,
and they have told me that I was a bad mother
because I let him go to karate.
-Ah! -I let him spar.
Okay, they said, "This is the moneymaker."
-"Moneymaker! Moneymaker!" -Don't let-- (laughs)
Well, I mean-- and I, you know, I'm horrified.
(stirring music playing)
(high-pitched tone)
I'll... be...
right... here.
Henry Thomas: Acting scared the hell out of me. Like, I--
I pissed my pants first time I was on stage.
Like, just outright. (whoosh)
And then, as I was sitting in the wings,
waiting for my pants to dry, I thought...
"It's not so bad. I don't think I'll do that again." (laughs)
(acoustic guitar playing)
I grew up in south Texas,
sort of in a rural community.
Being an actor wasn't really on the radar.
Like, there weren't a lot of guys
going off to Hollywood, like, in my neighborhood.
The only kind of show business was, like, rodeo show business.
My piano teacher was
the musical director for the local theater.
She got me involved in acting,
and I thought it was great
because it took me out of piano lessons.
I thought, like, I could do this.
I could do this acting thing.
Mama, did our daddy love us?
Henry: I mean, I was-- I was acting
and I was reading lines and doing all of that,
but I still didn't really have an idea of what I was doing.
And nothing about the film industry.
We didn't know what was fair or what was right,
and you hear all sorts of horror stories, of course.
Hollywood tales, right?
Breaking news from Los Angeles where '80s teen heartthrob
Corey Haim has died from an apparent overdose.
-(siren, paparazzi chatter) -Reporter 1: Troubled pop singer
Britney Spears has been carried out of her home
on a stretcher and taken to hospital.
Reporter 2: Shia LaBeouf taken out of a Broadway theater
in handcuffs after an outburst.
Lindsay Lohan spent her first night in jail Tuesday on charges
of parole violation relating to a 2007 DUI conviction.
Judge: That's 90 days in jail.
The court's also going to order...
My parents knew nothing about the business.
Not even a little bit, um,
it kind of scared them, I think.
It was kind of, you know,
'cause you hear all these horror stories.
Hey. I'm Cameron Boyce from "Jessie,"
and you're watching Disney Channel.
(stretch, pop)
Cameron: I was actually gonna ask if I could cuss
in this thing 'cause I was like...
-I don't know. But like, for a Disney kid-- -Man: Yeah, of course--
No, I know. It's HBO. No, I know. Fuck, right? Yeah, yeah.
But, like, from a Disney kid,
I'm thinking about that, right?
I'm like, Oh, should I... should-- you know?
Didn't anyone ever teach you to knock?
I did knock. You did not hear it.
After this, knock harder.
I hated it, to be honest. I hated working.
I hated going on set.
-(children chattering) -(rattling)
You know, I was-- I was 11 years old.
I was really a little girl that wanted to play with dolls.
Well, I always wanted to be in show business since I was kid.
I used to watch "Sanford and Son,"
and I liked television and I wanted to be on television.
I told my mom from the very beginning
that I was gonna be an actor on television.
♪ But they got, Diff'rent Strokes ♪
♪ It takes Diff'rent Strokes,
♪ It takes Diff'rent Strokes to move the world ♪
I did the first Parkay Margarine commercial
that was ever made where it goes "butter."
-Parkay: Butter. -(laughs)
-Tastes good. -You are butter.
(giggling)
-Parkay: Parkay. -(laughs)
-Did you say that? -No, it was the Parkay!
The songs that I would make up, the stories that I would make up,
and the performing that I would do,
people actually wanted to watch you perform.
It wasn't you, you know, holding--
it wasn't you holding your family captive on holidays
to-- to, you know, see the show that you made up about it.
That was when I kinda put that together and I went to my mom
and I told her that I wanted to act.
Teacher: And a-one
and two and three and four,
quietly.
Five and six, seven and eight.
One and two, three and four,
five and six and seven and eight.
Yeah, you're on the little toe on this foot.
(whispers): Quietly. Other foot.
Demi: I'm Demi.
I'm originally from Baton Rouge, Louisiana,
and I moved to New York when I was three years old.
-(piano playing) -Good afternoon, Times Square. How is everybody?
(cheering and applause)
Tricia: Early on, I knew
that she wanted to perform.
♪ I saw the cover and I judged the book ♪
♪ I turned away without a second look ♪
Demi: Before I started acting, I wanted to be a pop star.
I think before I started singing,
I wanted to be a ballerina or a gymnast.
(cheering)
Interviewer: What was the first thing you booked?
-What was the first... -Well, the first big thing
-was "School of Rock." -The first big thing was "School of Rock."
-Bring it in. -Children: Yeah!
Demi: So, I was in it for 10 months,
if you include the rehearsals and stuff.
It was a lot of fun, and I made a lot of friends.
♪ Stick it to the man ♪
She left "School of Rock," and then, two days later,
she booked "Lion King."
(woman vocalizing)
Interviewer: And how long were you in "Lion King"?
-Six months. -Just six months.
♪ ♪
-And then she left to do the Epix show, so... -Yeah.
Man: I've been on the street for 30 years,
and I'm still here.
♪ Just get it, just get it, just get it ♪
So, she's been really busy for the past couple of years.
Like, nonstop.
♪ I thought I could get over, I tried to play safe ♪
♪ But my mom said, "No, no way, uh-uh, forget it" ♪
Jada Pinkett Smith: I was three years old when I started performing.
I would perform every, um,
holiday for my family.
I would gather my cousins, and,
you know, construct different plays
and, oh, play something on the piano for Christmas.
It was always some kind of holiday show.
My grandmother made sure I was in dance class,
tap dance, ballet, pottery,
piano lessons, singing lessons.
My Saturdays and my after school
were full of learning different skill sets for the arts.
(imitates gunshot)
Wil Wheaton: My mom wanted to be an actor,
-and wanted to be a model. -(gunshot)
-And the way she tells it... -Both: Jesus!
she didn't get a lot of support
from my grandmother.
And, in my opinion,
she went maybe a little too far,
uh, encouraging me, um, uh,
to go into the industry that she wanted to go into.
'Cause it was never really my idea.
I don't know a seven-year-old who's like,
"What I wanna do is go to work."
You know somebody's a child star
when they're really good at juggling,
and Hacky Sacks
and, like, the string game.
Like, any kind of weird skill
that you had to master by yourself, I think I have.
And everyone's like, "Well, how do you know how to do all this weird stuff?"
Because I spent a lot of time alone on set
in a trailer, doing school in a trailer,
-being alone in hotel rooms. -I'm gonna go home.
You know, you're very much isolated most of the time,
and it's a very fulfilling but lonely experience.
It's, like, it's a lot of time alone.
(light, upbeat music playing)
Todd: Usually, you audition for an agency and you get an agen.
You take lessons, stuff like that.
But in my case, my mom taught me,
and she was an actress and an acting coach. She was both.
And also a manager. She does everything, so...
Don't you look wonderful, Willis?
(laughs) But, why the sunglasses?
So nobody recognizes me.
♪ ♪
Todd: I started out with a lot of commercials,
and then I slowly got a lot of different roles.
Would you rather be black and live to be 100,
or white and live to be 50?
And you weren't really a child there.
You were more of a mini-adult.
You know, that's kinda how it was.
And my mom was, you know, she was a real mom.
You know, I got to do kids' stuff.
You know, I got to play Little League baseball,
got to play Pop Warner football.
Even though I was working, I still got to do all that.
It kind of-- I was able to be a regular child
than most other actors were not able to do that,
but I was able to be a regular child.
Most child actors don't get a chance to be regular children.
I had that chance to be that.
There was this sort of snobbery in our family
about acting and about the right way to go about it
and the right way to present yourself in that
we weren't gonna be the cutesy, like, child stars.
We were serious. You know, this was-- We were gonna do this right.
It was about doing great work,
working with great people, and like...
We were kinda snobs.
(laughs)
("The Shoop Shoop Song" by Betty Everett playing)
Evan: I came from a family of artists.
I grew up in Raleigh, North Carolina,
and my father ran a regional theater.
Still runs the theater there.
My name is Cobweb. This is Mud. We're fairies!
I'm not Mud! I'm Moss Ladybug!
Evan: It was just kind of normal.
It's just something that I did
'cause everyone did it.
(singing along): ♪ Oh yes, it's in his kiss ♪
That's where it is!
-Having a party! -Oh!
Look what you girls have been up to!
Evan: There was a part of me
that just really wanted to play,
and it was really apparent early on
that you would get in trouble if you wanted to play.
It would be very disappointing to people
if I didn't want to do this
because I was talented.
I just, at a very young age, I guess,
connected to something,
and was able to communicate through this medium
in a way that...
if I didn't wanna pursue it,
the vibe was "What a-- What a waste.
"Like, what a waste. I can't believe you won't-- you won't do this.
You won't pursue this. You're so good at it."
And so I didn't feel like I could stop because I was good.
So, I just did it.
(acoustic guitar playing)
(traffic noise)
Melanie: If you get cast,
I think they're gonna let these chefs,
they're gonna try to make your dish,
and then you get to be the judge of what...
-Today? -No, I don't think that's today.
-Oh, that's gonna be on the show if I get it. -Yeah. (laughs)
Melanie: Jeff, my husband, sat down,
we had a conversation, and I'm like, "Can we do this?"
Last year, it was easier
because he had a better job last year.
He just changed companies.
This year, we've had to go into savings.
-I've got my drawings right here. -Alright.
Jeff Slater: I think it'll be easier for us
-if we make it than if we don't. -(laughs)
You know, we're spending a lot of money, and we're working hard.
We're both doing the equivalent of two jobs in some ways.
Melanie: Good? Okay.
-Wait, I wanna take a picture over here. -Marc: What a day.
Melanie: Good. Okay.
-So, how'd it go? -Great.
Wil: I spent nearly every day after school
driving into Hollywood
for auditions and going to the agency and all that stuff.
I'm the oldest of three kids.
I'm the only one who was put into show business.
I was a really successful commercial actor.
I was really good at taking direction.
Narrator: ..."Return of the Jedi" collection.
-Boy 1: How's business? -Boy 2: Not bad for a bounty hunter!
Narrator: Chewbacca, Princess Leia, new AT and AT-ST driver
action figures. Each sold separately.
Wil: I had been cast in a commercial,
and what they wanted me to do was, like,
take a big bite of this brownie, and then sing the song.
And-- so, I was doing what I was told to do,
but there was brownie in my teeth.
And this director kept yelling at me about it.
So, I was like eight or nine years old, right?
This guy's just yelling at me, and it's super abusive.
But, I'm nine or eight or whatever. I don't know.
I can't express that. I don't know how to do that.
What I ended up doing is getting through the day,
finishing the job, and then saying to my mom,
"I don't wanna do commercials anymore. I wanna do movies."
So, I stopped going on commercial auditions,
and I started going on
theatrical auditions.
(chatter)
I am Landon Olsen.
Hi, my name is Natalie Parker.
-Kaylee Mullins. -Karsyn Cameron.
Nigel Gonzalez.
-Hi. -Hi.
-Hello. -Hello. My name is Tam.
And I am eight years old.
-I'm four. -I'm 10 years old.
My age range is six to eight.
And reading the role of Alex.
(sighs) What do you think you're doing?
What do we look like, frickin' Charlie Brown?
Juiciest, freshest tomatoes made in our bottle.
(background chatter)
June and those kids have been harassing me at lunch
every dang day,
and I hit her.
That may be, but instigators will not be tolerated.
I'm suspending her for a week.
You can't do that. I'll miss band.
Mara: My mom and my brothers, they set up this kind of,
like, mock audition for me,
where they made me say certain lines,
and then told me at the end, "Okay, you were very good,
but you didn't get the part."
And I said, "Well, that's okay. I can just go on another one."
♪ ♪
I was born and raised in Burbank, California.
Growing up in Burbank, California, meant that
you were going to see other kids going to auditions
the same way you did. It was--
It was just kind of like the way that other kids did youth soccer
or-- or, you know, Girl Scouts or things like that.
I was a Girl Scout and I went on auditions.
That was what it was.
It felt kind of normal, and I don't think my parents
would've let me do it
if they had ever though that
I would be cast in movies.
I think they would've wanted to keep it, you know, very small,
sort of just, like, putting away money for college kind of.
Have some fun with it, but nothing really that big.
(hip-hop music playing)
(crowd cheering)
Cameron: So, I was a dancer originally.
At, you know, six years old, I was taking dance classes.
♪ That's life ♪
Cameron: We had, like, a little recital at the end of the year,
and that recital was sort of the thing
that lead my parents to go,
"Oh, he might be able to do that.
He seems like he's having fun."
I was the only kid who seemed interested at all.
Everyone else was picking their nose and, you know, digging in their butts.
-(shutter snapping) -There were plenty of times
where, you know, you'd go on 1,000 auditions,
and you book none of them.
And my dad is going, "Why am I pulling you out of school two hours early
just so you can go and fail at this audition?"
-(plays trumpet) -Woman: I'm gonna have to take you.
Cameron: Once I started booking things, it made a little more sense.
Just sort of became a part of my life.
A big, big, big part of my life for a long time.
I was not following you, and no.
Dad would not let you keep a falcon.
I always say genius skips a generation
'cause my daughter's this incredible actress,
and my mother's this incredible actress,
and I have to work so hard to, like, find it.
♪ ♪
I grew up in California mostly.
I was born in Russia.
My father was a doctor,
and my mother was a movie star
in the former Soviet Union.
My parents ended up finding a job
being a cook and a housekeeper
at this big mansion up off Mulholland.
All these movie stars
and big directors were staying there all the time.
My mom was pretty much expecting
that she would walk into the room with food,
and they'd be like, "Put the tray down!
You should be sitting with us!"
You know, and that didn't happen.
My mom pretty early on
realized that, in a sense, like,
I was her ticket out.
You know, being an actress,
she kind of tried to teach me what she knew.
♪ ♪
I started going to dance class
and taking guitar lessons and piano lessons
and acting classes
and tried to find me an agent
really quickly, and, you know,
started slowly going on auditions.
But, you know,
I just wasn't a good actress.
You know, a lot of people just talk about how
you know, just intimidating the business could be for them
at a young age,
and I just feel like I'm very grateful
that I had the adversity that I had
before I got to Hollywood
because I was prepared
for all the slick stuff
people were trying to pull, you know.
I've had so many people at a young age
try to play me as if I were gullible.
I was just like, I'm not the one.
I'd survived the streets of Baltimore,
so as far as I was concerned,
this was kind of a Disneyland.
(big band music playing)
♪ Tell me that you love me...♪
Diana: There was a belief in Hollywood
that children were rubber.
They were flexible.
♪ To hear, a little something... ♪
We were flexible, but not-- not willingly.
♪ Always will be true 'cause you know ♪
♪ That I do, dear ♪
Diana: was hard work. I found that I was adaptable.
I had the talent.
That was my genius.
People said, "She's a genius." You know, well.
The only genius was I stayed on my feet.
And my family kept eating, you know?
♪ ♪
♪ Don't care what other people say ♪
♪ It's you I think of every day ♪
♪ Makes me smile when you're away ♪
♪ From home... ♪
Shirley Temple: You start at age three.
Seems very normal. I thought everybody worked.
I didn't realize in the Depression
that a lot of people weren't,
but I just felt it was a normal kind of thing.
-(humming) -(laughing)
Man: What's going on around here?
-Oh... -Dean Martin: Kid, come here.
Come on, I'll give you a free ride. You do it again.
Show this boy. Go ahead.
Christopher Walken: My mother was, uh,
-was smitten with show business. -(bell rings)
-Terrific, kid, that's terrific... -(laughter)
In the '50s, after the war, television got started.
They'd just bring kids in and stick them around like, you know, plants.
Narrator: And now, back to "Kids Are People Too"!
Host: It must be kinda weird for you to watch TV in the afternoon
where they're-- they're showing "Happy Days,"
and they're also still showing "The Andy Griffith Show."
-In some spots, back to back. -(laughs) Really?
-Who are you? -Opie. Opie Taylor.
Host: Does it bring back those memories
-of being that young? -Ron: Oh yeah.
Tremendous memories because
you know, the real fun of a situation like that
are the relationships that you develop
-with the people. -Host: Yeah.
Ron: And the things that were going on in between.
The first thing Drew Barrymore ever says to me is,
"How many movies have you been in?"
He's really real.
Henry: And I say, "Uh, just one."
She goes, "Oh, you poor thing.
I've been in four."
-Interviewer: How old was she? -Six.
(laughter)
Man: Now, young man, I understand
that you have an alien somewhere in this house.
Is that true?
I really, I have all the authority to take him,
and, I gotta tell ya, I'm gonna take him.
-You can't take him. -Man: Well...
I'm afraid I have to, son.
You can't take him away! He's mine!
Man: But it's not my choice.
The President asked me to come here and get him.
I don't care what the President says!
He's my best friend,
and you can't take him away!
-Steven Spielberg: Okay, kid, you got the job. -(laughter)
("E.T." theme playing)
Henry: "E.T." came along...
E.T.: E.T....
home... phone.
Henry: It was intimidating on set...
♪ ♪
because there were all these kids there.
Suddenly, you're not, like, the kid coming in, hitting your mark,
and saying your line.
You're watching other kids do it,
and you're watching how they work, and you say, "Oh...
Oh, why didn't I do it like that?"
Or "Was that how I'm supposed to do it?"
He gets a little tear in his eye. Just pretend there's a tear.
Then you'll wipe the tear away from E.T.'s face,
and we'll play it that way. Okay?
Real softly, gently. No rush.
Henry: I felt like I had just robbed a bank or something,
and I was gonna get caught.
When I was, I think 10,
I was cast in a film called "The Buddy System"
that was a pretty big studio picture.
Narrator: Emily was a struggling mother,
raising a kid who already knew too much.
Wil: Roger Ebert hated it, and hated me.
Um, which I took super personally
'cause I didn't know how not to.
Gene Siskel: As soon as you hear the little kid's first few
obscenity-filled wisecracks when he walks in, you think,
"Let me out of this theater."
Gene, I think I liked it even less than you did.
-No, you didn't. -(laughs)
Wil: A thing that I think people forget,
at least in my experience people forget,
you're not just talking about an actor.
You're talking about a child.
You're talking about a kid who is giving up their childhood
to be in this thing that you're reviewing.
No individual could be this stupid.
This is a very bad film.
Think that just about covers "The Buddy System."
-Our next movie is... -Wil: But,
the next thing after that was "Stand By Me,"
and that kinda changed everything.
("Stand By Me" by Ben E. King playing)
♪ When the night has come... ♪
Wil: When I was cast,
and all of us met for the very first time,
Rob brought us up to Oregon two weeks before production
and put us in a little drama school.
(indistinct chatter)
And took the four of us through some technique.
What we were learning to do was get out of our own way,
stop thinking about things, and just be kids.
-Sleeper hold! Sleeper hold! -Stop it! I'm serious!
No one gets out of a sleeper hold! (laughs)
Wil: And one of the reasons
"Stand By Me" is such a successful film
and one of the reasons it connects with people
so honestly
is that Rob cast four kids
who very much were
the kids we played.
(birds chirping)
Chris Columbus: The thing about Mara Wilson is she was completely new.
She had not done any theater.
She had not done any film work.
She'd done a couple of commercials.
She was like taking a real person
and putting her in front of a camera.
Daddy!
Mara: I got called for an open call for "Mrs. Doubtfire."
-Your name is Mara. -Mm-hmm.
-What a beautiful name. Do you know what my name is? -What?
Euphegenia.
-Do you know what that means? -What?
-I don't. (laughs) -(giggles)
Everything kind of, you know, snowballed from there, I guess.
I got cast in that, and then I got cast on "Melrose Place,"
and then I got cast in "Miracle On 34th Street."
That's a good one.
Mara: And eventually "Matilda."
♪ Tell you a story ♪
♪ Happened a long time ago ♪
Mara: It all happened very, very quickly.
This happened from, like, five to seven, this all happened,
and I kinda didn't know how I felt about it all,
but I was having fun,
so I wanted to keep going.
Don't be phony. Be truthful.
Be real. Don't be like, "Ah!" Be real.
Act like this is real life.
Mara: As funny as it is, I could act,
but I couldn't lie.
There was this separation of
this is what play is, this is what lying is,
and this is what acting is.
("Jessie" theme song playing)
♪ Hey, Jessie! Hey, Jessie! ♪
Cameron: I booked "Jessie" when I was 11.
-Who wants a brownie treat? -Ooh! I do! Luke does!
(laughter)
Cameron: Four years,
we did a hundred-and-something episodes of the show.
You guys are gonna see
your favorite cast members from "Jessie"!
(cheering, applause)
(fans screaming)
Cameron: Being on set when I was a kid
because that's sort of naturally who I am,
I wasn't one of those kids who was, like,
you know, causing trouble for anybody.
I wanted to do it right, and I wanted to do it well,
and I wanted people to be impressed with me.
-Director: Action! -Hey, give it back!
-(grunting) -Director: And hit!
-Or keep her. -Cameron: No one was scared of me.
That's the key, right?
If a child actor comes on the set and they're 13 years old,
and the crew's scared of them?
And they're like, "Oh, that's the star of the..."
No, fuck that shit.
These people were like, "Listen.
"Don't do that. Do do that.
"Respect these people and ask questions and be nice,
and that's what you do."
And because of that, I think
I was so much better off.
So, I was just sort of lucky to be
in that little bubble of, like, you know,
"Everything's good, everything's fine."
But, yeah, a lot of other people didn't have that luxury.
-Did you learn your lines? -Oh yeah.
Did you know what action
or how emotionally you're supposed to feel when you give those lines?
Well...
-Well, no. Good. -She's gonna work with you on that, so.
-Hi, how are you? -Hi. Good.
Hi, sweetheart. Come on in.
-Hi. I'm Marnie. -Hi.
-Nice to meet you. Come on in. -Nice to meet you. Thank you.
-So, if you wouldn't mind coming back in an hour. -Okay!
-That would be great. Thank you. -Sure. Thank you.
"Anything everywhere. I just, I don't know.
Maybe I don't belong here."
Okay. Let's stop for a second
because I'm hearing the words too much.
Do you know what I mean by that?
-No... -Like, I can hear the writer's words,
and I don't wanna be able to hear the writer's words.
I wanna be able to hear you.
(yawning) Okay.
Do you like doing this stuff?
-Mm-hmm. -Do you?
-Mm-hmm. -Then why are you yawning so much?
-(squawks) -Did you not sleep very well last night?
-Not really. -No?
-Is this interesting to you? -Mm.
Sort of, or are you...
-Mm... -Okay. Well, that's honest.
I like your honesty.
We're gonna explore this, okay?
But if you don't fall in love with acting,
then you need to
talk to Mom and say, "This is not my cup of tea.
This is not something I love doing."
Melanie: You know, I've offered plenty of times,
"Do you wanna stop? We'll be done. Let's--"
"No, no, no!" And then, it's like, I mean, he...
is passionate about what he does.
I've given him the choice.
I always am clear with him,
if anything, he didn't like anything,
or there was something he would be upset about,
he always has the choice to stop.
Marnie: You're a kid.
You don't have to work, right?
Do you have to pay your mortgage?
Do you have to pay your rent?
No. That's a good thing.
You get to be a kid.
-I have to pay my taxes... -That's right!
-And understand taxes... -That's right! All this stuff
you have to do when you're older that you don't have to do now.
How cool is that?
-Yeah! -If you want to do this,
then we have to put in a lot of the work.
Drama-- drama may be not...
it may be not my thing. Comedy is my thing,
but I'll still have to try.
Try and try. You'll make it.
Melanie: Try and try.
-Okay. -Mm.
As long as you're happy, I'm happy. Whatever...
You good? Okay.
♪ ♪
Mara: Sometimes, I'll feel like there were kind of gaps in my childhood.
Like, I never really learned how to ride a bike.
Or I remember going back to school and being like,
"What is this kickball game that everybody's playing?
I don't understand it."
I didn't really do well in school
because I wasn't used to setting my own schedule
because you don't have to develop a work ethic
when everybody around you is telling you what to do
at what time all the time.
When you have people escorting you to hair and makeup
and to, you know, to the set back and forth,
telling you they're ready for you...
Right this way, please.
-Mara: Yeah, you see here we go this way. -Man: To the set.
It's gonna be hard for you to set your own schedule
to do your homework and to be doing these things.
Kinda miss only having a four-hour work day.
You go to school for four hours a day,
and then you work for the other four.
So, we kinda miss that. (laughs)
Interviewer: How do the kids in school treat you, Henry?
They-- most of them treat me alright.
They treat me normal, um.
But some, you know, they--
they tease me about "E.T.,"
-and, you know, some other movies. -Interviewer: Mm-hmm.
Henry: The school thing was the biggest...
the biggest mix-up for me,
and that was the hardest thing about
working as a kid.
I mean, they called me Hollywood or E.T., you know,
but I had been designated as being that guy,
so I was always gonna be that guy.
I just didn't realize it at 13.
I thought I could not be that guy anymore, and--
but just have friends and go to school
and do normal things.
(playing piano)
Cameron: I had to finish my sixth grade year on set.
And seventh grade was the first year
that I went into homeschooling.
And so that was sort of the beginning of
instead of 35 kids in my class,
I have three.
And they're all different ages than me. (laughs)
Like, it's just not, like...
it's just not a normal experience.
Tricia: When Demi first started, I made it a point
that she had to go to school
and, like, get a proper education.
Demi: As of right now, this is something I wanna do
for, like, ever, um.
Yes, I'm gonna go to college, but, um...
Yeah, she can take a little break. Four-year break.
-(laughs) -Yeah, but, uh, yeah.
I really think that this is something that's gonna last, so...
Interviewer: What are you gonna do this summer
-if you're free? -Summer camp.
I wanna go to sleepaway camp because I've never been.
I was gonna go the year I booked "School of Rock,"
but then that didn't happen
because I was in "School of Rock."
I really, really wanna go to sleepaway camp.
-This might be her first free summer in a while. Yeah. -Yeah.
If I don't book anything,
this might be, like, my first summer
where I'm not doing anything.
You know, it was tough. Like, some of the-- I--
I was in an adult acting class when I was nine.
And so, that started at like
7:00 or something,
and didn't end until 11:00 some days.
And then I needed a new acting headshot,
and the photographer, at the end of the shoot,
just had them kind of put more makeup on me, and...
(camera flash)
like people freaked out over the pictures
'cause I looked really grown up.
And I always thought I looked like a monster
when they were finished with me
because it was, like, the late '80s.
You know, it was like all that crazy makeup,
and photographers loved me.
I was like this little Lolita.
It was all just so risqué and so bizarre working with a kid.
I mean, you'd never get away with it today.
♪ ♪
Evan: Photo shoots and stuff were like really...
Maybe it's more of a girl thing, I don't know,
but, like, that stuff was much more traumatizing
than filming for me.
I didn't wanna be in dresses. I didn't wanna be in heels.
I didn't-- I was a tomboy,
and that stuff was really forced onto me,
and it's forced onto a lot of girls,
and we're starting to reject it now.
You're seeing it more. But, like,
I also know that so many people have been pressured
into staying into the closet
and conforming to certain gender norms
that are really prevalent in the film industry.
Interviewer 1: How old were you when you were picked for this picture
-by Mr. Kubrick? -Sue Lyon: I was 14.
-Interviewer 1: Did you know what the story was about? -Sue: Yes, I did.
My mother had read the book, and we discussed the story,
and she knew of their previous work.
She knew that Mr. Harris and Mr. Kubrick do
very artful pictures,
and that they are not a quickie film company.
She had quite a bit of faith in them.
How old are you?
Interviewer 2: Jodie Foster loves her life.
Even though she has worked since she was three,
she doesn't feel she has missed anything.
On the contrary...
I missed all the bad things, really.
I missed all the pimples and insecurities, and,
"Oh, what am I gonna do? He doesn't like me?"
You know, I missed-- I missed all the bad things about growing up, really.
♪ ♪
Interviewer 3: Do you see yourself as a...
a 12-year-old girl, an actress,
a model,
an adult, a kid?
-What do you see-- -I see myself as a 12-year-old kid.
But that just has maybe more privileges
and has experienced more than another 12-year-old kid.
(sighs)
♪ ♪
Leon...
think I'm kind of falling in love with you.
(gags)
It's the first time for me, you know?
Todd Thaler: I just knew that that movie was nothing
without the casting of Mathilda being perfect.
I don't think the director, Luc Besson,
fully understood that at first,
how big a challenge it was gonna be to find parents
that would let their 11-year-old daughter play this part.
Man: Hi, Mathilda.
Hi, piggy.
-Man: How you doin'? -I've seen better days,
but I've seen worse also.
Speak up, I can't hear you.
It's a belly button ring!
How else can I say it? I don't speak no other languages!
Oh, and you wanna know what that is?
That is a tongue ring.
Evan: It's that dichotomy with art, of,
well, teenagers do have a sexuality,
and there's a part of me that believes
we should explore that in a way
that makes them feel less crazy
and more in tune with themselves,
and also sometimes, if it's done right,
it can be a really beautiful exploration
of innocence and coming-of-age.
You need them to be sexual,
but you also need them to not be sexual.
Um, you need to push the boundaries
while not pushing any boundaries.
And you're navigating this super adult world,
which is just kind of being dangled in front of your face
while being told to stay a kid.
It's like, that's-- that option is gone already.
Kids talk about sex all the time, but...
truthfully, I still think it's kinda gross.
I also, like, knew about my sexuality when I was about 12.
Um, I'm bisexual.
Uh, and that was really interesting to navigate as well.
When I started doing better in the industry, yeah,
and I was sort of prepubescent,
and you're put in these situations,
a lot of them are your first experiences,
and they're, like, on camera.
Milla: You're put into an environment with a lot of adults.
You end up becoming very friendly
with a lot of adults, and, you know,
your mom can't always be there.
And, of course, especially in your teenage years
where you're also pushing your boundaries.
"Am I a girl? Am I a woman yet?
"I wanna be a woman, but, like,
you know, my mom won't let me" kind of thing.
I mean, I got myself into some messes
with-- with guys for sure, older guys.
I mean, when I think now, like, what were they doing with me?
I'm like, jeez, what, you know,
schmucks and what creeps, you know, but at the time,
I just thought, you know, because I'm so special
and I'm so mature and this and that.
And I guess I was, you know!
I was like this magical little creature at the time.
You know, it just saddens me
that people would wanna take advantage of that.
♪ ♪
(cars honking)
(street chatter)
(crowd chatter)
-Woman: You're so lucky! -Boy: Thanks.
Woman: Thank you for signing!
-Thank you! -Thank you so much!
Okay, thanks.
Henry: After "E.T." and two weeks in the theater,
it was kind of a sensation for a few months.
Reporter: "E.T." is a phenomenon,
the biggest thing ever to hit the cinema.
That seemed like forever as a kid.
I was in San Antonio, Texas,
and people were like, "Oh my God!
It's the kid from 'E.T.'!"
And I wasn't set up for that at 10 or 11.
(crowd screaming)
Mara: The best way I can describe it is for a long time,
to me, being recognized felt like
the way it does when you're in a restaurant
and they sing to you on your birthday.
Just that, like, "Oh God. This is nice,
but I don't feel comfortable with this,"
and "Oh, in front of everybody and everybody's gonna know.
It's nice, but, oh, okay."
That's-- that's kind of how I felt about being recognized.
Hi, I'm Wil Wheaton, and...
Wil: My experience switched.
I stopped being a kid who was an actor,
and I became a child star.
And that fundamentally changed my life.
♪ ♪
I was all of a sudden getting letters
from people from all over the country.
Those of you who write hate letters, please spell correctly.
I was recognized when I went places for my work.
All of a sudden, these expectations for me.
People wanted me to talk about stuff
that I knew nothing about.
(crowd cheering)
Man: Wil Wheaton! You're our guy. Come on.
Wil: I turned into, like, a teen magazine
teeny bopper idol kid.
I hated all of that stuff.
I didn't like it at all.
It was way outside of my comfort zone.
It was not what I wanted to do.
Am I famous? I don't think-- Am I famous?
It created this reality for me
where I kind of had to play the role
of the young celebrity.
The adults in my life
who should've been protecting me from that were like,
"This is the dream!"
And, like, kept pushing me in front of them
and pushing me into these places where--
where I didn't feel safe, and I felt really afraid.
(street chatter)
Cameron: You shouldn't have to deal with, you know,
all the responsibilities and all of the eyeballs
when you're that young.
Everybody has an idea of what they want you to be,
and, at that age, you don't even know what the hell you wanna be.
(acoustic guitar playing)
It's fucked up to think about, you know,
your entire adolescent life
is documented for the entire world to see.
That's crazy to think about.
That's when you go through your awkward phase.
That's when you go through, "What am I?
I don't know what I want in this world,"
and everyone's watching you.
Everyone has something to say.
Everyone has an opinion about what you should be doing,
what you shouldn't be doing.
People would just not tell the truth.
Just say whatever they wanna say,
and they're believed by, you know, whoever their followers are.
Wil: When you get a like on social media,
you get a little hit in your brain,
and it becomes this self-perpetuating,
self-reinforcing thing.
(indistinct)
But, what are we doing?
Will Smith: You're blogging for, like, the YouTube channel.
It's like the Smith family vacation.
But it's not a vacation 'cause we're working.
Jada: Just dealing with the pressures
of social media alone.
If I had to cultivate my career as a young person
under the spotlight in the way
as young people have to cultivate their career today,
I don't know...
I-- don't-- I don't know
who or what I would've become, honestly.
♪ ♪
(shutters snapping)
Wil: We're doing the best that we can do on the set,
but we also have to do it in public,
and we have to live in public,
and we have to get attention from people in public,
and then, one day, it's gone.
And you don't know what to do anymore.
And that's how you end up on a shitty reality show
because you're like, "Please, just somebody pay attention to me,
'cause that's the only way I know how to exist."
Ooh! Can I get my face painted?
How about we wait till the line's a little shorter?
We'll come back.
Cameron: We are professionals.
Manny? Manny!
Cameron: We are, probably, a little moe mature than the average kid.
Uh, socially, we probably have more skills.
But, we still don't know jack shit about the world.
I understand that you see me in a certain way.
People put you on a pedestal.
People think you're really smart and, you know,
"Oh my God. You're so clever and witty and," blah blah blah, whatever.
But that's just because you're a child actor.
They don't actually know you.
You might recognize Mara, by the way, from--
Barbara, can we swap over here?
Just swap Mom. No, come in!
-Scooch. Just scooch right over. -Scooch over.
But, uh, you may recognize Mara
-from "Mrs. Doubtfire," and... -Yes!
Mara: It felt very out of control to have everybody know my name,
and I didn't feel like I could trust anybody.
And that's still a problem that I have now sometimes is
because I-I don't know when people want me
because they think I have connections,
or they-- they, you know, like me
because of an image that they have of me as a child.
Evan, how did it feel to get nominated
for a Young Star Award?
It's wonderful. I was nominated last year,
and I had such a fun time,
so I'm really looking forward to going again. Yeah.
Evan: The better I did, the more I felt like
who I was wasn't acceptable.
And I don't think that anybody did that on purpose,
but suddenly, I felt like
I didn't belong to myself anymore.
I was a commodity that needed to be monitored
and groomed and I had to look a certain way
and present myself a certain way.
Photographer: And then bring your hand up-- There you go. Excellent.
(shutters snapping)
My voice just kept getting quieter and quieter.
After a while, you don't really know, like,
do you wanna be my friend 'cause you wanna be my friend,
or do you wanna be my friend because I'm on TV?
And, you know, that's-- you gotta figure that out for yourself,
and at 13, how do you...
you don't have the social skills yet
to sniff out a social climber
or a person who's trying to use you.
And I got used.
All of a sudden, all of my cousins
who've either ignored me or tormented me,
are treating me like I'm a big deal.
And I knew that it wasn't because of me.
I knew that it was because of the movie.
And I remember kind of resenting that and feeling like, you know,
I imagine like it would've been better to be like,
"Yay, they finally care that I exist,"
but I remember feeling like...
like, this is all bullshit!
Like, this isn't about me. This is because I'm famous.
And that was the beginning
of not being able to trust anybody.
(upbeat music playing)
Henry: Professionally, it made me, like, the It Kid
that every casting director wanted to get
a Henry Thomas-type for the next role.
Help, police, murder.
I remember I was getting scripts with straight offers,
and we had to listen to an agent.
-It was just a strange time. -Action.
Henry: And I also felt like
I really didn't know what I was doing still,
but now everybody was acting like
I did know everything about what I was doing.
-Man: 54 Henry, take two. -Woman: We're rolling!
Man: Marker.
Henry: It's a funny dance, I think, when you're a kid
because...
it hits you all at once, and emotions,
for me as a kid, were so overwhelming and palpable.
That sense of-- of pressure,
of "you have to perform now."
Director: Go.
Hey, Ricey! What's the matter? Can't shoot straight?
-Oh, wait. -Director: "Can't you shoot straight." Cut.
-Go. -Hey, Ricey! What's the matter? Can't you str--
(upbeat piano playing)
Diana: Child stars never earned any money at all.
It was just considered taking candy from a baby.
So at 10, I retired, having made for my family,
between films and vaudeville,
two million that I'm sure of,
and another million that I'm not quite certain of.
Jackie Coogan was a victim of being exploited.
His family had exploited him terrifically.
He endures everything.
I had...
innumerable outside interests, uh,
endorsements of, uh, of product
and food and clothing.
So that I was earning about
a million dollars a year, all told.
Diana: Coogan had success as a child star,
and he ran a full course.
But he was destitute. He died broke.
♪ ♪
I had money, but not the money I should've had.
My dad didn't tell us something he should've told us.
That these people were ripping off his clients.
My dad didn't tell us for three years,
and they got most of my stuff, too, so...
And, you know, the unfortunate part,
when they come to get you, they come in a little...
They don't come by themselves.
They come in a little minivan full of people,
and everyone's doing something different,
working a different angle.
And it's all to get your money out of your pocket.
That's what it's all about.
Henry: The money that I earn from movies
goes into a savings account,
but I get my allowance.
But what people don't realize, no matter how little
or how much money that the child makes,
that it is the child's money. It's not our money.
Henry: I think I felt an enormous pressure
on myself, like, to...
sort of stay at home and-- and make that peaceful
and have a degree of normalcy and...
(shutter snap)
But, there was an ongoing existential
"now what" with the family.
My mom was there with me all the time.
My dad was still working and...
she basically came with me for the next
four years, five years
on all of my films,
until I was 17.
I think she, uh,
she resented me for that
for years afterwards, but...
you know, when you're a kid, you don't really think about
what everybody else has to do to accommodate your--
your burgeoning film career.
Henry Thomas Sr.: We try to keep him, you know,
halfway normal.
He just wants to be regular.
She was coming at it from a place of...
ignorance, of...
"I don't know this world, and it's scary to me,
"and I feel like people are trying to rip us off,
and, possibly, hurt us." So,
that was her front and that was her attitude, and...
I don't think it necessarily, like,
did me a lot of favors, career-wise,
because I think she was labeled
as difficult to work with, and,
consequently, I was labeled as difficult to work with.
Wait, what?
-Yay! Yeah. -A callback.
(text chimes)
-But, when is it? -Next week.
You have to prepare the sides
with a Southern accent and...
"if the music director asks
please be prepared to riff on the songs."
-(chuckles) -Okay.
Tricia: Everything revolves around her right now,
so, like, I don't work
because I follow her around all day
and bring her to auditions, and she needs to be on set.
You know, I have to be there,
so we've all kind of sacrificed a lot
so she could do what she loves.
So, I hope she knows that, but. (laughs)
Morning, Dad.
(both laugh)
Cameron: You know, people have to sacrifice for you,
which I didn't understand as a kid, but then,
sort of looking back on it now, I go, wow,
you know, my dad quit his job.
My son is irritated with me 'cause I'm documenting this.
-Why? (laughs) -But I'm documenting this
-because I can! -Great.
Cameron: My mom was letting me skip,
you know, my last period in school
so I could go to some stupid audition that I didn't book.
And when it really hit home for me
was when my sister
would come home from school,
and talk about how her classmates
would just naturally associate her with me,
and that's what she was.
I hated that, and that killed me.
I didn't want her to feel like she was in my shadow,
or that she was lesser than.
So, there are definitely things that, like, you think back on,
and you're like that changed the entire fabric of, you know,
my family and the way that
we work as a unit.
I think with, especially with my mother,
she clung to me
during that time
'cause she wanted to be very protective.
I can't help but think
that I'm sure people in my family felt like
she started disappearing with me
when my career started taking off.
I think it just happens,
and I think we all felt it.
And I think I felt a lot of guilt for it
that I never really...
vocalized or knew how to process.
And then, very quickly, felt like...
whatever struggles I was going through, or whatever...
I couldn't talk about because I was where...
I felt like a lot of people in my family wanted to be,
and so I think I...
I silenced my voice pretty quick,
and just felt like, well, I can't-- I don't--
I can't complain about anything anymore.
Reporter: Mara clearly has a grip on playing a dramatic role,
but nothing in her training could've prepared her
for what happened in the midde of our "E.T." interview
when she lost a tooth.
-Yes. Oh no. -(man, indistinct)
(Mara, indistinct)
Mara: My mother died during
the post-production process of "Matilda."
I felt kind of lost and unmoored without her,
and just kinda kept acting in movies
because it felt like a constant in my life.
The entertainment industry is gonna make a decision about me.
Am I a serious actor
who's going to follow a track
that leads to serious work and serious roles?
Am I an accident
that got lucky in one movie?
-(insects chirping) -(thunder)
My parents put me in a shitty horror movie...
Narrator: But here, nothing is what it seems.
(rumbling)
Wil: Because they threw a bunch of money at us
and dangled a trip to Rome for the family.
Narrator: Wil Wheaton of "Stand By Me"
-must stand alone... -(screaming)
against "The Curse."
Wil: At the time, my mother was being my manager.
In my life circumstance,
her being my manager was all about her needs
and not about what was best for me.
I went and worked in a phenomenally abusive environment
and had a terrible experience,
and I think it really hurt my film career.
Our next movie is "Return to the Blue Lagoon."
It is easily one of the most ridiculous movies
I have ever seen in a long career
of many ridiculous movies.
I felt so horrible, um, after reading
you know, bad review after bad review after bad review,
and it screws you up.
I mean, you're just becoming a teenager,
and this is, like, your first understanding
of where your place is in the world,
how people view you,
and that really put a bad taste in my mouth for acting,
and that really convinced me that
this wasn't what I was meant to do.
Like, my mother was an amazing actress, but...
I needed to find myself.
-(bell ringing) -Very quiet, please. We're rolling.
-Henry: You're in this environment of... -Speed.
-Henry : ...a circus. -Action.
Henry: Where everybody's part of the circus,
and everybody understands,
and everybody's there to accommodate you
because you're all in the same world.
You're working together to do something.
And then you leave that, and you go back to,
in my case, rural Texas,
where mostly no one has been on a film set, and...
you start to get this feeling like,
"Oh, well I don't belong here.
"I belong there in the circus world.
"So, everything that fails here,
"I'm just gonna take this back to the circus,
"and the circus people,
they'll be cool to me."
Let's hug. Let's all hug and pretend like we like each other.
(indistinct chatter)
Evan: My mom really felt like she was
doing the right thing most of the time.
Um...
but I think where everyone failed,
moms, managers, lawyers, everybody, um,
no one ever asked me how I was doing.
Um, my emotional state
was equated with how well I was doing...
you know, in my career.
And so, the better I did in my career,
the more they just assumed I was fine.
(laughs) No one really checked in,
especially as things began to ramp up,
and the fame came in.
No one asked, "How are you?"
You know? (laughs) Just a simple question.
-(reporters chattering) -(shutters snapping)
Jada: The amount of pressure
that young entertainers have to have it all together
and to not be allowed
to actually be young.
-(reporters shouting) - The kind of detriment that I see
that it has on the psychology
-(shutter snap) -of young adults.
It's a lot of pressure.
-(reporters shouting) -(shutters snapping)
One thing that Jaden and Willow don't necessarily,
they don't have to figure it all out.
So, there's some pitfalls that we can see and go,
"No, no, not that."
-We really are proud of Willow. -Yes.
Money, fame,
glamour,
I have seen people lose sight of that.
Even Will and I have slipped into that.
You know, we had to catch ourselves, and Willow's like,
"I'm not doing 'Whip My Hair' anymore!" It's like, okay, we get it!
♪ I whip my hair back and forth ♪
Willow Smith: After that whole "Whip My Hair" thing,
I was just, like, plunged into this, like, black hole.
-Mm-hmm. -And I was, like, cutting myself--
What?
I've seen a lot of beautiful young people and children...
(sighs)
You know, I've seen them...
Yeah, I've seen them...
just be destroyed.
♪ ♪
Mara: My parents were always telling me,
you have to be happy and smiley when we're meeting people.
You have to be glad to meet people
and you have to be nice to your fans,
and it could be hard for me sometimes.
I struggled with it because sometimes
I just wanted to hang out with my friends.
I didn't really want to
you know, be signing autographs and doing all these things.
I felt kind of uncomfortable with it.
I had some kind of impostor syndrome.
But, I started picking up on things,
and it happened from a young age.
I noticed, like, much older men
being interested in me and knowing my name,
which felt wrong to me.
I remember Googling my own name,
which was a terrible thing,
and I saw people, like, talking about
Photoshopped child porn for me.
It was hard for me sometimes to talk to my parents and my family about this,
because I felt like
I was a burden on them. I felt ashamed.
My parents tried to protect me from these dangers,
but I could sense them.
I could feel them, and I knew that there were times when
they just weren't going to be able to protect me.
Maybe it would be best if you didn't even mention
you know, that you came back here
and I gave you all this ice cream before dinner.
Why don't we just make it our little secret, huh?
-You know something, Mr. Horton? You're sneaky. -(laughter)
Todd: The thing about that issue
when you're young is you're not able to talk about it.
That's the biggest problem. The person wants to keep it a secret,
but then you feel ashamed of yourself, so then you keep it a secret.
Well, I was 12 years old, and my publicist, he...
basically, got-- talked me into
doing things that I didn't really wanna do.
I was-- hadn't had sex before,
and he kinda convinced me that this was the right thing to do,
and kinda told me, like, "Don't tell your parents,"
you know, and he bought me a bicycle.
He always kept doing things for me
that I didn't quite really understand.
-So he kinda seduced you? -It started at 11--
Yeah, he seduced me, and it started at 11 years old to 12.
You know, when I first came out and told my mom about it,
my mom knew I was telling the truth.
She could look in my eyes and knew I was telling the truth.
My dad took his side,
and that was the bad thing.
My dad-- It kinda crushed--
When my dad took his side, that crushed me.
It ruined me, actually,
because then I was on a self-destruction course
to destroy myself just to hurt him.
It's something that a lot of parents need to see
and understand that these people are right there,
ready to trick you, you know,
and not trick you out of your money.
Trick you away from your kid, and that's a bad thing.
In my experience, I know a lot of, um,
kids that grew up in the industry,
and what surprised me when I got older
was finding out that pretty much
all of the young men
were abused in some way, sexually.
-(reporters chattering) -(shutters snapping)
I was at the Golden Globes.
-(applause) -I watched a pedophile win.
I knew. Not a lot of people know,
but I know that he's molested boys in the industry.
And I watched him get up and accept an award,
and I walked out and just started sobbing.
And a bunch of people ran after me, and they said,
"What? What? What's wrong?" And I just was like,
"I don't know if I can do this anymore.
"I can't keep watching this happen.
I don't know how to handle this. This has to stop."
Reporter 1: After years of claiming sexual abuse,
'80s star Corey Feldman is finally being heard
by the LAPD.
I can tell you that the number one problem in Hollywood was,
and is and always will be, pedophilia.
Reporter 2: This morning, Kevin Spacey in a drama of his own.
The "House of Cards" star under fire following allegations
of sexual misconduct.
Reporter 3: At least six men accused Bryan Singer
of sexual misconduct spanning two decades.
Evan: Any industry that has that muh power and is that competitive,
because after a while, it starts to become
"Well, who can take the most abuse?"
Because somebody's waiting in line to take your place,
so you just start to allow yourself
to be abused in some form or another.
Um, every actor is guilty of that.
-They're lying if they say they're not. -Interviewer: For sure.
(laughs) Because it's just part of the deal at this point,
and, unfortunately, until things change,
there's always gonna be somebody willing to
-take abuse. -Interviewer: And stay quiet.
And stay quiet. Yep. Yep. Yep.
-It happened to me, too. -Me, too.
It happened to me, too.
Jada: People are coming out, women are coming out
and talking about things that they've experienced
so that young women,
and young boys, who are coming up in the game
can have more awareness that it's not just a saying.
It's actually (laughs)-- It is actually a reality.
-(traffic noise) -(birds chirping)
Melanie: I put a GizmoWatch on him
when I go-- so he can call me.
I mean, if anything happens, I was like, you call me.
I mean, you hit one button, I'm in that door. (laughs) I don't care!
Okay, I can do my...
Melanie: I'm-- I'm realistic of what really goes on,
or can go on. I didn't think that back--
I mean, about children back then.
Now, you know, the-- always the MeToo thing.
That-- I had some instances like that
that I had to say "absolutely not."
-(reporters chattering) -(shutters snapping)
Jada: I'm grateful that
Willow may not have to
come up against that as well because it's so--
people are like...
people are talking. (laughs)
You know?
(puffing)
-(steam hissing) -(crossing bell ringing)
(brakes creaking)
"Shining Time"? What does that mean?
(barking)
Do you want me to get off here?
(steam hissing)
Mara: I had been burned out on acting for a while,
but...
Hollywood wasn't really interested in me anymore either
because I was pubescent and deeply insecure,
and I was not a cute teenager.
I'd been a cute kid,
and I hadn't even realized that I'd been a cute kid.
In fact, I didn't like being told that I was a cute kid
because I thought it was condescending.
I would self-sabotage on auditions all the time.
Just didn't wanna go to them. I felt so desperately insecure.
I would look at all the other girls around me,
which was something that I'd never done before.
♪ ♪
Henry: I had never felt particularly great at auditions.
But now, I was...
16,
and I was going into rooms
where they were expecting
like, an 11-year-old boy to walk through sometimes.
And I remember being at several, uh...
meetings and sitting in the green room, waiting,
um, and seeing, like,
a producer walk out,
and kind of try to casually, like...
take a look, and go back, and then I'd see
another producer come out, take a look,
go back, and then be five minutes of silence.
And then a receptionist would come and say,
"I'm sorry.
"You know, they're not gonna see you today.
We're-- we rescheduled it." Blah blah blah.
And I-I realized quickly, I was like, "Oh.
"They-- they're not looking for teenage me.
They're looking for, like, 'E.T.' me."
Diana: It's almost as though
you had ceased to be alive.
I had the feeling that I was a senior citizen at 15.
And it not only happened to m.
It happened to so many of the children.
They were adorable, they were wanted,
they were loved one day.
And almost the very next day,
just when they were becoming human beings,
in a sense, full adult human beings,
they were told, "You're finished."
-Congratulations. "Jessie" is nominated. -Yes.
That is amazing, and you guys just wrapped up.
-So, how was that, like, on set? How was that? -Yeah.
It was sad. It was really sad.
It was really hard saying goodbye, but at the same time,
we're all moving on to bigger and better things, hopefully.
So, it should be good for all of us,
and, uh, it was really sad though because I--
we basically grew up on that stage.
Cameron: I think I started to sort of question everything.
When people would go, "Are you gonna go to college?"
I was like, oh shit. (laughs)
Um, no? I don't know. I've--
Like, should I? Right? I'm, like, confused, and people are...
'Cause that's-- But that's society's plan, right?
My life was do two jobs at once.
-I'm doing school and I'm working. -Choreographer: Down, up!
Cameron: And now, you know, do I do college? I don't know.
Like, why-- why would I? 'Cause I've made money,
but also that-- that would be good for me,
and I don't know anything about money, and holy shit.
Then it's just, like, a spiral of
you know, okay, what-- Stop. What it is...
What-- what is it that I need to do
to prepare myself for the real world
because I wasn't living in it.
(laughs) This is not real.
(shutter snapping)
Milla: I really got turned off to the business.
I mean, when I was 16,
"A," I moved out of my house.
Listen, I was emancipated.
My mom emancipated me
so I could work adult hours.
You can't say anything about what I do.
I have my own money. I'm gonna move out.
I went and got married.
I, like, full on...
just kind of went crazy.
And I understand right now you're kind of in a tough time.
You actually don't have a place to stay right now, is that true?
-No... -So you have no place to live.
Where's all your stuff right now?
It's at JFK. (laughs) In storage.
-Really? It's in storage at JFK? -Yeah. I've got about...
-15 boxes. -What's in the boxes?
Um, well, candlesticks,
-books, uh, picture frames, you know, stuff. -Right.
-So you just pick-- -A lot of Carltons.
-(grunts) No. -A lot of cigarettes...
Milla: I did feel like
I had kind of a bad start in this industry,
and I knew that I wanted to be an artist.
Um, I knew I had a voice and I had something to say.
After I turned 18,
and there were no signs of anything slowing down,
and I had done the film "Thirteen" when I was 14,
right on the verge of becoming a woman,
and I was-- all eyes were on me,
and at that point, there was a tremendous amount of pressure
of what I needed to be
in order to be successful.
And a lot of it went against
who I really was, and who I felt I really was.
Right, stay there.
Just, uh...
Evan: When I hit my early 20s, I just realized,
"Oh, I have no life skills."
I know how to be a really successful actor
and do really great work, and that's about it.
And it all kinda came crashing down on me at once,
and I short-circuited.
And I also was left with the question of,
"Is this even really who I am and what I wanna do?"
And what happens if I walk away?
Narrator: Born after the original series went off the air,
Wil Wheaton, the youngest member of the cast
of "Star Trek: The Next Generation,"
considers himself, without a doubt,
to be a fan.
The people from "Star Trek" reach out to my agent,
and she sent me on the audition,
and I booked the job.
Sir, I know this may finish me as an acting ensign,
-but-- -Shut up, Wesley!
Everything that I have said would've been listened to
if it came from an adult officer.
Wil: Generally, young men were furious
that there was another young man
on their science fiction television show.
A hundred million words have been written about that.
I don't need to go over it again.
It was like being told this thing that you spend all day,
every day, working on instead of being kid,
it doesn't matter, and we hate you for it.
And then, I turned 18.
I was an adult. I could make my own decisions.
And I had this revelation.
"Oh, I don't have to do this if I don't want to."
I don't have to do this thing
that means more to my mom than it does to me.
I can go live my life.
I can be my own person,
-and I just kinda walked away. -There.
What do you think of that, huh?
I think your mom is gonna kill you.
My mom? She hasn't been in here
-since I was six. -(scoffs)
I understand why young people who aren't ready for it,
and I really don't know of a young kid who is ready for it,
get resentful and get self-destructive,
and-- and, like, start engaging in dangerous behavior
because they feel so out of control.
-I'm looking for a job. -Hey, man, everybody's coming in here
asking me for a job. What am I supposed to do?
Todd: The transition for most kids when you transition from that
is you have to transition into adulthood
and hope that you continue to work,
but, for me,
I could've made that transition very well,
but I made it more difficult on me than it should've been.
When did it start to-to go sour for you?
Well, it's when I lost my self-esteem
and I lost my dignity
inside of myself, and I lost my, virtually,
you know, I lost myself.
So, how'd you respond to that?
I re-- I responded to it very negatively, evidently.
I ended up getting myself in a little bit of trouble.
-You wanna detail it? -Well, in trouble by using drugs
and doing things that I shouldn't have been doing.
Juror: We the jury, in the above entitled action,
find the defendant, Todd Anthony Bridges, not guilty
of simple assault in violation of penal code section 240...
(continues indistinctly)
Wasn't there a time where you actually went to his house, Betty?
-Yes. -And there you were. You went to his house.
-Oprah: You were all dressed in black... -He nailed me out.
-And you were all dressed in black, -Betty: Mm-hmm.
And you said, "I'm wearing black because..."
I know you're gonna die.
And I nail-- And he nailed me out of his house.
He wouldn't let me in.
He actually took furniture and nailed me out of the house.
Todd: For me, I always thought everything was supposed to be fair.
Like, everything's just supposed to be-- well, it has to be fair,
but it just wasn't.
And that's things you learn growing up as a child.
That you learn things just aren't fair, you know.
(laughs) It's not going to be.
From TV star to drug addict,
it's Dana Plato's last chance.
Just one month ago,
former "Diff'rent Strokes" star Dana Plato told us
she was getting her life back together.
Now, she's been hauled back into court
with a judge threatening,
"One more mistake, and it's behind bars for good"
Todd: Poor Dana. You know, to get people to believe that,
"Oh, you just threw your life away." It's like, "Oh yeah,
"I chose to throw my life away. Let me just throw my life--
I'm gonna throw everything I worked for away today."
No one chooses that. It's something that happens,
and then, you know, it's a tough journey,
and Dana had a hard journey.
Howard Stern: What can I tell you, Dana?
-You're controversial, evidently. - (Dana laughs)
Robin Quivers: Are you sorry that you were a child actress?
Dana: No, see, you know, that-- that term really bothers me.
I think a child actress is someone who only has it when they're little and cute.
You know? I'm better now than I ever have been.
-Howard: Acting-wise? Yes. -Dana: And I get better-- Yeah.
I get better all the time. The fire's still in there.
-Howard: It is? So, you enjoy it? -Dana: Yes. I'm an actress.
I consider myself an actor,
-not a child star. -Howard: Right.
-Dana: That really bothers me a lot -Howard: Why?
Dana: Because I never was young and cute, you know?
(laughs) I got cute as I got older, maybe, you know,
but no really, I think it's something that it burns withi.
You know, we all had our share of things we went through,
but I think for Gary, it was a lot tougher
because he was also ill while he was working.
Sometimes when he was working, we didn't think he should be working at the time,
but, you know, can't say what the parents
are gonna do and that's up to them.
If you did, you wouldn't have done this!
Todd: I couldn't imagine being--
like, he had just had a kidney transplant at one time,
and then he was back on the set, like, a day later.
And, um, that's why for a while,
he really resented the show.
It was because he was made to work when he was sick.
Terry Moran: The death of a child star, Gary Coleman,
who, as a boy, provided so much amusement,
so many laughs on the hit show "Diff'rent Strokes"
died today.
Todd: My phone rang and I picked it up
and found out he had passed away.
You know, the interesting part is realizing that
the person they thought would not be here
is actually the last person standing, which is kinda weird.
It's 7:33 now. An autopsy later today
will determine the exact cause of death
of one of Hollywood's rising stars, River Phoenix.
Today's "New York Daily News" quotes a paramedic who said
that the actor collapsed with all of the signs
of a cocaine reaction.
Anchor: It happened outside the Viper Room,
a popular West Hollywood night spot.
(siren wailing)
Went out the door and, um,
the paramedics were...
uh, working on him.
This young man, and I didn't, uh,
I didn't know at the time that it was River.
The, uh...
media wouldn't let not only River rest,
but they wouldn't let his family rest.
-(quiet chatter) -(siren wailing in distance)
River and I were real close.
He was a year and a half older than me,
but he was like an older brother who I looked up to.
I'll see ya.
Not if I see you first.
Wil: I looked up to him as a person,
I looked up to him as an actor,
and I just treasured him as a friend.
And then, around the time that I was...
15 or 16,
he was kind of experimenting with drugs.
And River and I began to sort of drift apart from each othe.
Which really made me sad, but I remember thinking like,
you know, when he's done with this, we'll be friends again.
♪ ♪
By the time River died,
I hadn't talked to him for, gosh, a couple of years,
and I couldn't believe it had happened.
And I was, and remain, so angry
at the predatory people around him
who didn't try to help him.
And I know addicts are responsible for their own behavior,
and I know that, that it is, you know,
it's important to, like, hold people responsible
for the choices that they make.
But we also need help in our lives,
and we need people to look out for us,
and I don't think there was anybody looking out for him.
♪ This talk is cheap ♪
Milla: I think that's one of the sort of pitfalls
of being a kid in the entertainment business.
It's so hard to, like, go from being a kid actor
to being, like, an adult artist.
♪ I don't know how to trust you ♪
I stopped modeling. I stopped acting.
I went to Europe. I recorded a record.
At the time, I really thought it was music
that I was gonna be able to leave my mark on the world with.
The big turning point for me, on so many levels,
but especially as an actress,
because I had kind of written it all off,
was, um, getting "The Fifth Element."
♪ ♪
I was 19.
You know, to access a character like Leeloo
that's kind of-- there was no reference point.
She was kind of brand new
and came out of nowhere.
So it was, like, very tricky.
Like, who is she and how to find her.
Hi.
Milla: Of course, when I-- when I did "The Fifth Element,"
it suddenly gave me this feeling of control that
I had a talent and that I--
I knew how to...
access it, in a way.
And not all the time. I mean, sometimes more than others,
and, you know, that's where you go through your journey
of kind of understanding, like, what scripts speak to you
when you just feel like, ooh, I can do something with this.
Like, it feels natural. You know,
or on the other hand, wow, this feels so crazy.
Like, I want-- it's a challenge.
Like now, you know, you get excited
by things that you've never done before.
-Director: Cut! -(laughter, applause)
But, you know, at the time,
you know, it was difficult becoming a teenager
and having that confidence.
Like, I had no confidence as a teenager.
You know, it was definitely like a "fake it till you make it."
Luc Besson said to me,
"You know, look at it this way.
"Like, your mother is like an expert table-maker.
"She makes the most amazing tables ever,
"but you...
You make great chairs."
(laughter)
And I was like, yeah.
I like that. It's true, you know?
And it was interesting to be able to help me
kind of appreciate my mother,
but also separate and appreciate myself, too.
-(applause) -Now with Mara Wilson.
You undoubtedly know her from "Mrs. Doubtfire,"
"Matilda," many other movies.
She's now revealing though the ups and downs of childhood stardom
in her new book, "Where Am I Now?"
Mara: It wasn't really until I was in my 20s
and I was doing other things that I could finally
make peace with it.
And, eventually,
I ended up writing a book about my life.
And I knew, I'd always known that I wanted to do that.
I understand you're thinking about becoming
-a screenwriter. A scriptwriter. -Scriptwriter.
You wrote a piece that was picked up in "The Huffington Post."
-Mm-hmm. -And it really was about childhood fame,
-and in it... -Mara: There's a lot that I still want to do,
and I'm not limiting myself, I think, into it,
but for many reasons, I probably won't be, you know, a screen actor,
you know, a big star like that, ever again.
And I'm okay with that. I mean, I have this...
I have a very devoted fan group, and that's nice.
I haven't done a Disney project in over a year now.
The people who watch me are still,
a lot of the times, really young.
I still wanna be a good example, and I still wanna--
But at the same time, right now, I'm doing a show about porn.
And, like, I love that shit. Like, I'm--
That's what I'm supposed to be doing.
I'm an actor, and I wanna do cool stuff.
So, it's a weird balance, like,
when you are...
trying to break out of something,
but I also feel the responsibility of being
an example for these kids, and I take that seriously, you know?
How do I marry what I'm actually doing
and what I actually wanna be doing
with what people wanna see from me
and what people expect of me, um,
and those two things are not the same.
-(set chatter) -Man: Show me minimum focus.
Directors: Action!
Evan: I'm just gonna go ahead and say
I was bred to do this.
It was about good work, and it was about working with good people,
but it was also about saying something
about something that you believed in, or moving people.
And it's one of the reasons why I did films like "Thirteen,"
and why my parents allowed me to do films like that
because they understood the value of
showing something that was real
that a lot of people don't wanna look at.
And that's absolutely carried over into my activism.
I now recognize our first witness. We'll go in this order.
Ms. Wood, if you would, thank you.
I'm here today to use my position as an artist, survivor,
mother, and advocate to bring a human voice to the population
of 25 million survivors in the US
who are currently experiencing inequality under the law,
and who desperately need basic civil rights.
We need to pass the Sexual Assault Survivor Bill of Rights in all 50 states.
We've done this in nine so far,
and it's our job to make sure that survivors in the remaining 41
are treated with the same humanity and dignity.
And this is called progress and it starts here. Thank you.
I gave up my childhood for this industry,
and it wasn't my choice. Right?
I mean, it is what it is. I really like my life.
I have a really good life.
"Your friend, Wil Wheaton."
It's my last one. I want you to have it.
-Look, everyone! Wil Wheaton is my friend! -(laughter)
Wil: I have an amazing family,
and I am a successful writer,
and-- and, like, I'm good at being an actor.
It's not my first choice.
It's not, like, what gets me out of bed,
but when someone's like, "We need an actor for this,"
I'm like, "I can do that." Right? (laughs)
I just developed that skill, you know?
But when I tried to talk to my parents about it,
and tried to...
express how I felt,
and-- and express my sense of loss
and express my sense of...
not having...
not having these things that I wanted and needed,
they weren't able to hear it.
(birds chirping)
Melanie: As a mother, it almost makes me feel like
did I not do something right?
Or why didn't I think to do that,
as far as Marc's career is concerned.
She always does everything right.
(laughs) Thanks.
To you, I hope so.
But it, it does make you think.
Could I have gone that extra mile as a mom
to maybe get him seen by somebody.
But we still, we're gonna do pilot season again next year,
and depending on how that goes,
we possibly could do episodic season in the fall.
It's really more about persistence
than it is about being lucky, you know.
Everybody else thinks it's lucky
until you've actually been there, and then it's just,
you know, one really good day
after a lot of days of hard work.
Mmm.
(street chatter)
Hello, Erin?
-Erin (on phone): Yeah? -Is there any homework?
Interviewer: So you said you wanted to go to summer camp.
-Did you get to go? -Yeah, no.
-No. -Were you disappointed?
A little bit. A little bit 'cause most of my friends
are going to sleepaway camp for the whole summer.
But, I've been auditioning over the summer.
I really just really, really, really wanna
become a well-known actress and really get my, you know.
When I was little, I used to always want
my name on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
I used to be like, "I want my name to be on one of the stars,"
so that's something I really wanna do.
I wanna become, like, a legacy and inspire other people
to do what they love.
That's my deepest dream,
to do something for someone else.
You face Roscoe! I'll face...
-I'll face this guy. -(children chattering)
Three, two, one! (exclaims)
(toys rattling)
-And rip! -Gary Coleman: If someone had told me
that, uh, my life
would've been like this early enough where I coulda got out,
I woulda got out. I'd say, uh, no.
Have a normal life,
-and have friends. -(chattering)
It's a half kid because I still think about that.
That's something that I fantasize about.
♪ ♪
I find it very... scary,
and I would not want my kids
to pursue a career as a-- as a child.
'Cause I just find that it's so disruptive, you know?
-Milla: Yes, my love. -My toe hurts.
Milla: Your toe hurts. What part of your toe hurts?
My daughter, my eldest,
who's now 11, when she was four years old,
she said, "Mommy, I wanna be on TV."
My instincts are going, "You think you want this,
"but if I allow you to do this,
you're not gonna like it."
I don't know. I guess it really is one of those things where, like,
she wants to be an actress, and I wanna help her do what she loves to do
because she's really got a natural ability for it.
But, you're young. You don't need to, like,
do a bunch of movies right now.
Like, what you need right now is to
become strong. Like...
You need to be like a ship with full sails,
with a crew that knows how to navigate.
Like, I want you to be so strong.
Todd: My son was in the business originally,
and not anymore.
But I was like, time to get him out, like, "You need to get out."
You know, because it's great to a child.
You build a nice bank account for when you get older,
but you don't wanna stay in this business.
I got him in a business that's reliable and great
and, you know, make a lot of money
and his name won't even be talked about,
which is great.
I feel like a role model 'cause I'm a mom, um,
so that's really changed me...
Interviewer: You managed to keep your son completely off of the internet.
-Yeah. -Like, totally absent.
It's been a very conscious decision, um.
I think because of the way I was raised,
I just don't wanna do anything that he doesn't have a say in yet.
If he doesn't wanna be a public figure,
if he doesn't want his image out there,
I didn't wanna put it out there for him.
Also, there's just a lot of creeps.
(laughs) So...
(acoustic guitar playing)
(trampoline bouncing)
♪ ♪
Henry: Now, as an adult and as a parent,
you look at all of the ways that
it takes a kid out of their world.
And it's nice to be a kid,
and it's nice to have a childhood that's a childhood,
completely unto itself.
(guitar continues)
(wind blowing)
Man: Yeah!
("At a Distance" by Jeff Tweedy playing)
♪ On the horizon ♪
♪ Behind the trees ♪
♪ Something's missing ♪
♪ There's something I can't see ♪
♪ And something's missing in me ♪
♪ Over the ocean ♪
♪ To some degree ♪
♪ I'm the same as I ♪
♪ Used to be ♪
♪ At a distance, I'm still me ♪
♪ Before I switch off ♪
♪ Before I go ♪
♪ Before you drift off ♪
♪ Into the unknown ♪
♪ Uncharted waters ♪
♪ Forgotten dreams ♪
♪ Missing moments ♪
♪ Where they all come back to me ♪
♪ On the horizon ♪
♪ Underneath my shoes ♪
♪ Still I'm bewildered ♪
♪ By the world I'm walking through ♪
♪ Something's missing ♪
♪ ♪