It is unfortunate that the poor judgment shown by a small group of young actors has tarnished the reputation of every child who has ever appeared before a camera.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
At times, I feel sorry for kids who have succumbed in some kind of way to being a child actor.
I hate the stereotype of the pitfalls of the child actor. There are so many amazing examples - Natalie Portman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jodie Foster, Drew Barrymore - of people who have made it through.
A lot of child actors keep acting for the wrong reasons.
After all these years in the business, I really feel that actors are used. People treat actors worse than they treat children. It's always, 'Do me a favor,' it's always, 'Help me out,' it's always, 'You carry the load,' and then they don't want to admit what you've done.
Not a lot of people make that transition from child actor to bigger, better roles.
With acting, you see some of the kids are literally just off the street, untrained, and they are great. And others are off the street, untrained, and kind of horrible.
Actors are the best and the worst of people. They're like kids. When they're good, they're very very good. When they're bad they're very very naughty.
Just as actors are afraid of child audiences because they're so honest, I would be scared stiff of going before the big folks.
The best actors, I think, have a childlike quality. They have a sort of an ability to lose themselves. There's still some silliness.
I think when someone becomes an actor, people say, Aw, you could see it in him when he was little. But I think you can see that quality in every little kid.