Often, when you hear the term ‘child star’, it has very particular connotations, and often refers to someone who made it big when they were young, then spiralled out of control in later years.

There are many examples of this, such as Macaulay Culkin, the star of the Home Alone movies, who went from being the highest-paid child actor of his time, to an arrest for drug possession, following which he left the ‘biz’ to work as a roadie for touring rock bands.

Thankfully, he seems to have sorted himself out in recent years.

You won’t hear from the actors who went completely off the rails in the new HBO documentary Showbiz Kids, but you will gain some insight into what it’s like to be thrust into the public eye while still very young.

Here’s Mashable:

Showbiz Kids opens with a statistic: “Every year, over 20,000 child actors audition for roles in Hollywood. Ninety-five percent of them don’t book a single job.”

The new HBO documentary decides to focus primarily on the five percent of young actors who do get roles (and big ones, too) by pasting together archival news footage, old movie clips, and interviews from people who grew up in the spotlight.

These now-grown actors include Will Wheaton (Stand by Me, Star Trek: The Next Generation), Henry Thomas (E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial), Mara Wilson (Mrs. Doubtfire, Matilda), Milla Jovovich (Return to the Blue Lagoon), and Jada Pinkett Smith (The Nutty Professor).

Check out the trailer:

It does get dark at points, as the actors delve into the sexual harassment (and worse) that some young actors face.

Evan Rachel Wood (Thirteen) is shown asking for more protections for young stars in court while Todd Bridges (Diff’rent Strokes) shares how he was molested by a male publicist.

At the helm is director Alex Winter, who is all too familiar with subject matter.

Winter played Bill in the Bill & Ted series, and was an up-and-coming child actor during the late 1970s and early 1980s.

In 2018, he revealed that he had been sexually abused as a child star himself. This gives insight as to why he is committed to elevating the various voices of former child stars. That’s a good thing.

The doccie premiered yesterday (July 14) on HBO.

[source:mashable]