Just finished watching the HBO Documentary “Showbiz Kids”, a sobering documentary about the pitfalls of Hollywood as it relates to child actors. It was directed by Alex Winter, best known as Bill from the “Bill and Ted” movies. Now he’s primarily a documentary filmmaker (and a good one from what I’ve seen). Winter weaves a story of two “showbiz kids” looking for their big break between a history that begins with Diana Serra Cary, who became one of the first child stars. Known as “Baby Peggy”, she became a huge star by the age of four, yet her acting career was basically over at the age of seven.
Among other actors and actresses that are interviewed include Henry Thomas, Milla Jovovich, Wil Wheaton and Evan Rachel Wood. They speak very movingly about their sacrificed childhoods and the discomfort they often felt in an adult world. Henry Thomas tells a sad story of going on an audition and sitting in the green room as producers would walk by and glance at him and then be told they wouldn’t be able to see him then because he says, they expected to see the eleven-year old, Henry Thomas, not the sixteen year old one. Wheaton also relays a story about his “Stand by Me” co-star River Phoenix, who he’d been close friends with, and Phoenix’s downward spiral into drugs without anyone’s intervention (including his own).
A constant theme through the film was the pressure that these kids felt, that they had trouble dealing with and no one to talk about it with. Todd Bridges spoke about his “Different Strokes” co-star Dana Plato and her drug addiction that eventually took her life at the age of thirty-four. Mara Wilson, the little girl from “Mrs. Doubtfire” and the “Miracle on 34th Street” remake talks about how uncomfortable she felt in the public eye, when everyone knew her name and who she was.
The two kids in the film that Winters follows seem to have parents that care about them, although the boy doesn’t really seem to be into it much of the time. The young girl who wants to have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, seems driven, but at the same time laments her missing summer sleepaway camp with her friends.
“Showbiz Kids” is a well-made, even-handed documentary. I think the fact the the director is an actor himself, gives extra perspective that another director might not have had.