How we make child stars miserable

KERA's Think

KERA

Society & Culture, 071003, Kera, Think, Krysboyd

4.8 • 861 Ratings

🗓️ 11 November 2025

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We adore them when their cherubic faces light up the big screen, but when child actors grow up, they’re yesterday’s news. New Yorker staff writer Adam Gopnik joins host Krys Boyd to discuss the life cycle of the child star from public adoration to fleeting fame, why we won’t allow them to age, and the demands the industry makes of them at such a tender age. His article is “What Do We Want from Our Child Stars?”

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Transcript

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0:00.0	The actress Millie Bobby Brown got her big break about 10 years ago when she was cast as the character 11 on the Netflix hit Stranger Things.
0:18.0	Fans of the show have enjoyed watching the relationship play out between 11 and her adoptive
0:24.4	father, played by actor David Harbour.
0:26.3	For my hero, I chose my dad.
0:29.9	And for my visual aid, I made a DeRayama of our cabin.
0:35.7	More like diarrhea.
0:43.7	So recent tabloid headlines about complaints she has lodged about him for years, accusing him of bullying her off camera, have taken viewers by surprise.
0:48.4	From KERA in Dallas, this is think.
0:51.0	I'm Chris Boyd.
0:52.2	Look, I don't know anything about their working relationship,
0:55.0	and that is as far as I'm going to wade into the sea of rumors. The point is that it's almost a
0:59.6	trope for child actors to grow up and then reveal that their personal lives were not as
1:04.4	charmed as they seemed to be to us mere mortals watching at home as they chatted up late-night
1:09.4	hosts and walked red carpets. Some look back on
1:12.5	childhoods filled with exploitation. Others just live with the existential despair of growing accustomed
1:18.2	to public adoration early in life, only to watch it ebb away once they grow up. In any case,
1:23.7	my guest suggests, we all play a role in this misery whether or not we intend to.
1:29.1	You probably know that Adam Gopnik is a staff writer at The New Yorker. You may not know he is
1:33.8	also a former child actor in avant-garde live theater. The acclaim he enjoyed was on a
1:39.6	different scale than TV and movie megastars, but his experience lends a fascinating perspective to his article,
1:46.0	What Do We Want from Our Child Stars?
1:49.0	Adam, welcome back to think.
	...

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