Our Favourite Child Stars: Where Are They Now?
Ben Cottingham| 23rd August 2015
All Images Via Facebook
It’s always an odd thought to look back at films of our collective childhood. The memories that return are the perfect mix of nostalgia and ‘did I really think this film was good?'. Another strange thought is about the kids in these films, because even in Hollywood kids grow up! With this in mind I want to go back to a few films, which I hope you are all familiar with!
Let’s start with everyone’s favourite, psychic school-girl, ‘Matilda’ (it’s a weird concept when you type it out). The young actress, Mara Wilson melted hearts and glued hats alike in her film debut at age 9. Matilda was released in 1996, which both makes me feel really old, and also makes Mara Wilson 28! As for her acting career as she’s grown up, Wilson has made a move to acting on the stage and taking a strong interest in writing; citing how ‘film acting is not very fun.' In the sense of doing the same thing over and over again until, in the director’s eyes, you ‘get it right”. So that’s the reason we’ve not seen Mara Wilson grace the silver screen in recent years! Her debut book, titled ‘(K) for Kid’ is set to release in 2016, and I for one will be giving that a look!
The second group of young starlets I wish to look at is the cast of 1985’s ‘The Goonies’. If ‘Matilda’ being released in 96′ made me feel old then I can’t even get my head around 85′! As I hope you all know, ‘The Goonies’ follows a rag-tag bunch of kids on a quest for secret pirate treasure, pursued by an evil Mafioso-family. Among this gang is Vietnamese-born actor Jonathan Ke Huy Quan, who we all recognise as Short-Round from Indiana Jones, has decided to step away from acting much like Mara Wilson! Instead working as a stunt-coordinator on the set of ‘X-men’ before moving to Australia to pursue a solo music career.
Before looking at the rest of the cast, I’m seeing a pattern in child stars, and it doesn’t look good. Further demonstrating a move away from acting is Jeff Cohen, who played Chunk, the fat kid. Similarly Kerri Green gave up acting to set up a film production company. But all is not lost dear reader, because the last three kids in the gang, Sean Astin, Corey Feldman and Martha Plimpton haven’t hung up their acting hats just yet! Plimpton has had huge success on Broadway as well as working on films and TV. Corey Feldman has continued to act, some castings have been questionable (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Sharknado 3, I’m looking at you!), but generally Mr Feldman is still doing well!
This leaves us with one actor, one man who can show that child-acting isn’t cursed. This man is Sean Astin. What do you mean you don’t recognise the name?! What about Shazam in the DC universe? or Dough Whitmore in ’50 First Dates’? Still no? Well how about this name? SAMWISE GAMGEE. Yes, that’s right. Sean Astin played everyone’s favourite Hobbit in the immortal ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy (Frodo is too whiny and Bilbo is a thief). And boy does he play it well. Of all the twists and turns in the LotR trilogy, it’s the line ‘just go home Sam’ which brings a tear to my eye more than any other. Now I hope dear reader, that you’re as relieved as I am, that somewhere in the world a child actor is living in hope. Hope that giant rubber feet and bread up a volcano are in their acting futures.
I know it’s been brief, but I hope that my exploration into these people’s lives has made you think about other young stars! And I implore you to go and look them up, because I’ve had a blast! So please re-watch ‘Matilda’ and ‘The Goonies’, even ‘Lord of the Rings’. But maybe best to give ‘Sharknado 3’ a miss!
