“I didn’t feel safe talking about it for 25 years,” Winter said, adding that the incidents left him with post-traumatic stress disorder. That was back in the late 1970s and, as was the norm, he kept quiet. During a show’s run, Winter, then around 12, suffered sexual abuse at the hands of an adult. It was an amazing memory.”īut, he revealed, it was also a nightmarish time. “All of the Broadway giants would be backstage every night. “It was a fantasy come to life,” Winter, who does not appear in his documentary (“I would have overtaken the film”), told The Post. MARA WILSON: The “Matilda” star, 32, left Hollywood because of online bullying. Preston, Esq., opposite Keanu Reeves in “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” he started out on stage, co-starring at a young age in “The King and I,” “Peter Pan” and other shows on and off Broadway. “I pissed my pants the first time I was in the spotlight.”Īlex Winter, now 55, who directed “Showbiz Kids,” can relate to the ups and downs his subjects discuss on camera.īest known for his portrayal of Bill S. “Acting scared the hell out of me, outright,” said Henry Thomas, who’s lovingly remembered for his “E.T.” portrayal of Elliot. The discomfort of it all can be palpable. “If I didn’t want to do this, the vibe would have been ‘what a waste.’ I didn’t feel that I could stop because I was good. “It would be disappointing to people if I didn’t want to do this because I was talented,” said Wood, 32. Failing to follow through on her career was barely an option.
©Columbia Tristar/Courtesy EverĮvan Rachel Wood, who starred in the sexually provocative “13” when she “was 14, on the verge of becoming a woman,” talks in the doc about growing up in a small-town acting family. “I don’t know a 7-year-old who says they want to go to work.” TODD BRIDGES: The “Diff’rent Strokes” actor (above, left, with Gary Coleman) says people who worked for him stole his money and were sexually aggressive. Wil Wheaton, who became famous for his role in the hit 1986 film “Stand By Me,” reveals in the doc that he was pushed to center stage by his mother who had her own dreams of fame. More than one performer in the documentary talks about the pressures of living up to their parents’ ambitions of stardom. That might be easy to say once you are an adult, but, as a kid in the limelight, the rigors of the business can be tough - especially if you were not there completely by choice. “Acting is a fictional life, and you have to discover real life. WIL WHEATON: Now 47, Wheaton (above, right, with River Phoenix in “Stand By Me”) began acting because it was his mother’s dream.
Now 55, he went through tough times - including a crack addiction and an arrest for felony assault - before cleaning up and re-launching his career with recurring roles on shows such as “Everybody Hates Chris,” which was created by Chris Rock.
“If you are going to be in showbiz as a child, make sure you have a secondary business as an adult,” said Bridges.
The odds of Bridges succeeding were daunting - according to the doc, each year some 20,000 children audition for Hollywood acting jobs and 95 percent fail to land a single one - but the likelihood of thriving after growing up on the small-screen was even dicier. But he also had to deal with the consequences of money-stealing team members, a sexually aggressive publicist and systemic racism: “I had a gun pulled on my head when I was 12 - an officer told me that my bike was stolen.”Īfter learning to drive, he added, “I was pulled over every day, for four years, by the same officers. ©Universal/courtesy Everett / Eįollowing commercial work that included the first Parkay margarine commercial, Bridges landed the “Strokes” gig. HENRY THOMAS: While the 48-year-old has acted steadily over the past four decades, he has never reached the stardom he had as a child in “E.T.” He says he was scared and “pissed his pants” at an early audition. But like most former child actors profiled in the new documentary “Showbiz Kids,” premiering Tuesday on HBO, he also got more than he bargained for - and not in a good way. He got what he desired at age 13, starring as big brother Willis Jackson on the class-conscious sitcom “Diff’rent Strokes.” which ran from 1978 to 1986. For Todd Bridges, it all started with “Sanford and Son.” Recalling the acerbic comedy about a junk dealer and his offspring, the San Francisco native told The Post: “I wanted to be like Redd Foxx.