Top 10 Child Star Facts That Will Ruin Your Childhood
#10: Macaulay Culkin’s Awful Father
With the release of “Home Alone” in 1990, a 10-year-old Macaulay Culkin instantly became one of the biggest stars in the world. The next year he appeared in “My Girl” and the year after that “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York”. But, as his fame grew so too did, what he says, was his father’s jealousy of his success. Culkin has described his father as cruel and violent, and he eventually took his parents to court to have them removed as managers of his trust fund. Unfortunately, cases of guardians mistreating their star youngins aren’t all that uncommon. The year before Culkin would star in “Home Alone”, former child star Gary Coleman had been successful in a lawsuit against his parents after claiming they’d been stealing from him.
#9: Raven-Symoné Was Body-Shamed
Body-shaming anyone is wrong, but doing it to a 7-year-old is just morally incomprehensible. That’s what Raven-Symoné had to deal with as a little kid on the set of “The Cosby Show”. The actress, who played the adorable Olivia Kendall, remembers being at the craft service table on set and multiple people telling her that she couldn’t eat certain foods because she was gaining weight. And the comments didn’t stop there. They would worsen as she got older and as her music career took off too. She told People magazine back in 2017 that others would literally say “[they didn’t] know how she [could] dance being that big”. Luckily, Raven-Symoné mentioned she encounters less of this today – thankfully!
#8: Lalaine's Addiction
If Miranda was your fave in “Lizzie McGuire,” you’ll probably remember that she wasn’t in the show’s last 6 episodes or the subsequent movie. She had taken her leave by then to focus on music and tour with Radio Disney. However, while Lalaine looked to have a promising career ahead of her, the music didn’t end up bringing much success and the mid-2000s saw her go through a period she’s referred to as her “dark years.” A period which, among other things, saw her plead guilty to possession of methamphetamine in 2007. The good news is that the charges forced her into rehab, which got her back on the right track.
#7: “The Phantom Menace” Was Tough for Jake Lloyd
Top 10 Celeb Facts That Will Ruin Your Childhood
Being cast as young Anakin Skywalker in 1999’s “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace” should have been the greatest moment in young Jake Lloyd’s career. It… wasn’t, to say the least. Following the release of the film, 9-year-old Jake became the online punching bag for hoards of angry and disappointed fans who harassed the young actor – and other kids at his school were just as horrible. In the end, it was too much for Lloyd to take and, at the young age of 12, he retired from acting.
#6: Ariel Winter’s Abusive Stage Mom
Ariel Winter began acting when she was just four years old and, at the age of 11 she was cast in what might be her best known role: Alex Dunphy in ABC’s “Modern Family”. While the role would make her a star, it turns out her acting career was never her choice. According to Winter, her mother used her to accomplish her own unfulfilled dreams, and this led to both emotional and physical abuse. This included controlling her food intake as well as dressing her pre-teen daughter in highly suggestive clothing. Winter told The Hollywood Reporter that “people thought [she] was 24 when [she] was 12” because of such choices. In 2015, Winter officially announced that she was emancipated from her parents.
#5: Alyson Stoner
Before she was 15, Alyson Stoner had appeared in “Cheaper by the Dozen” and its sequel, as well as “Step Up”. She also had a handful of episodes of “The Suite Life of Zack & Cody” under her belt. However, before she turned 15 she had also experienced the dark side of what Hollywood does to its child stars. In 2021, Stoner wrote an op-ed for People magazine entitled “The Toddler to Trainwreck Industrial Complex” where she talks about how she was overworked beyond the legal limit for a minor, leading to malnourishment and an eating disorder. She was also been forced to work in dangerous on set conditions and endured sexual harassment.
#4: Jennette McCurdy Was Glad Her Mom Died
The Untold Story of Jennette McCurdy
Jennette McCurdy got her acting career under way on “Mad TV” at just 8 years of age. By the time she was 15, she had appeared in numerous movies and TV series, and would start her run as Sam Puckett on the hit Nickelodeon show “iCarly”. While on screen, McCurdy looked to be leading a charmed life. Off screen, things couldn’t have been more different. According to McCurdy her mother was emotionally and sexually abusive to her. She forced her into acting, taught an 11-year-old McCurdy about calorie restriction, and performed intimate bodily exams on her daughter until she was almost 17 years old. McCurdy’s memoir, released in 2022, was titled “I'm Glad My Mom Died”, which was also the name of her 2020 one-woman show.
#3: Jackie Coogan's Money-Grubbing Parents
In 1939, the state of California enacted the Child Actor’s Bill that, among other things, made the employers of child actors set aside 15% of their salary in a trust. The bill is probably better known as the “Coogan Law” and the trust is often referred to as a “Coogan account” named after the child actor who inspired the law: Jackie Coogan. After starring opposite Charlie Chaplin in “The Kid”, Coogan became a huge star, earning upwards of $4 million in movies and commercials. However, at 21, he came to learn that his mother and stepfather had run through almost his entire fortune. He sued them in 1938, a suit which eventually led to the passing of the California bill the following year.
#2: Shirley Temple Had a "Casting Couch" Experience
Top 10 Crazy Facts About Child Stars
Between the ages of 3 and 10, Shirley Temple made 29 films, and during the last four of those years, she was the biggest box-office draw in the world. While we’d all like to remember her for her joyful personality and those adorable curls, her time as a child star wasn’t as innocent as it should have been. The “casting couch” has a horrific place in the history of Hollywood and, unfortunately, Temple experienced it first hand when a producer at MGM exposed himself to her during their first meeting. She was only 12 years old at the time.
#1: Judy Garland's Awful Experiences Making “The Wizard of Oz”
“The Wizard of Oz” has a special place in the hearts of fans around the world. While the film made Judy Garland a star, her experiences on set probably had her wishing she could click her heels together and escape on numerous occasions. Garland was 16 when she was cast as Dorothy, but the studio needed her to look younger. Extreme, reprehensible measures were taken, including binding her chest and supplying her with Benzedrine tablets to keep her from gaining weight. There are also reports suggesting Garland had to deal with inappropriate comments about her body and other forms of sexual harassment.
