Showbiz Kids opens with a startling fact: 20,000 child actors audition for roles in Hollywood each year, and 95% of them don’t secure any work. Consider that figure for a moment: How many of those children are driven by the individual desire for a career? How many are guided by the need to please a parent? Showbiz Kids explores this by examining the lived experiences of past and present child stars and the journeys of two young hopefuls, while Honey Boy shines a light on the ambitions of parents living through their child’s fame.
There have been many TV documentaries about child stars past and present, with each exploring the pitfalls of young fame and, more often than not, where it all went wrong. In many of these documentaries, we see the cute, innocent pint-sized stars slowly transform into damaged young adults through clips, images, and interviews. But Showbiz Kids takes a different path. This is a documentary rooted in lived experience, both positive and negative, from Henry Thomas (E.T.) to Will Wheaton (Stand By Me), Mara Wilson (Mrs Doubtfire) and Milla Jovovich (Return to the Blue Lagoon), each interviewee openly discusses joy, loneliness, excitement and pressure.
Showbiz Kids truly excels in exploring the role of parents, agents, and studios in protecting our young stars. Here, director Alex Winter explores the relentless drive for success, the need for fame, and the adult environment these young stars are thrown into. Destructive forces are highlighted by Todd Bridges (Diff’rent Strokes), who speaks openly on camera about his sexual abuse at the hands of a publicist. At the same time, actor Evan Rachel Wood (Thirteen) states that ‘nearly all the young men she knew as a teenager were abused in some way.’ While Milla Jovovich recounts her experiences of being sexualised in photo shoots aged just fourteen. Each account is shocking, yet these experiences are balanced by discussions on the positive changes made in the past two decades in protecting young stars in Hollywood.
However, one discussion remains a concern: Showbiz Kids spotlights a relatively new challenge for young stars —the wild west of social media. How do you deal with fame at a young age when everything you do, say and think is in the public domain? Kids now grow up on social media, sharing their daily lives through photos, videos, and posts that let people into their lives like never before.
Showbiz Kids makes it clear that while support structures have improved in the studio system, ultimately, informed parents hold the key to protecting their kids from a scary, online and offline world of pressure, money and instant fame.
Like many of those interviewed in Showbiz Kids, Shia LaBeouf found fame at a young age, first through stand-up comedy and later as a Disney kid. However, it wasn’t until 2007, with Disturbia, that LaBeouf’s popularity made him a global teen idol.
Honey Boy opens amid the explosions and stunts of a 2005 film set. Otis (Lucas Hedges) is a leading man whose life is dictated by a bottle of any spirit he can find, his emotions a whirlwind of anger, frustration, and risk that eventually lead him to rehab. There, Otis’ internal hurt and trauma surface as he considers his fractious and challenging relationship with his father.
We are then taken back to 1995, where Otis (Noah Jupe) sits on the brink of stardom. Otis lives in a motel room with his recovering alcoholic father (Shia LaBeouf), who is at times loving but often volatile, their relationship fractured by fame. Here, young Otis desperately searches for a better future while his father lives out his failures through his son.
Honey Boy isn’t afraid to unpick themes of parental influence, wealth creation, and painful past dreams lived through a child’s eyes. Alma Har’el’s movie understands the isolation of fame in youth, as child actors are forced to forge relationships with adults rather than peers. It’s a world where the only escape door available is often the use of mind-altering substances, which only deepen the internal crisis facing the young person as they journey from cute screen child to awkward screen teen and then unwanted screen adult. This results in a powerful psychological appraisal of the effects of childhood fame and the danger of unchecked parental ambition.
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