User:Jackkirk18/Child actor

Child Acting in a Franchise
When thinking about Stardom people don’t think about why someone is considered a star. In the world, we have two different types of famous in the world. You have stars and you have celebrities. When thinking about celebrities they would be considered someone who makes an appearance in films but usually isn’t looked at as a master at what they do. When looking at stars you think about them as a master of what they do. With this paper, I want to analyze what makes a child a star, specifically in the film series Harry Potter with actors Daniel Radcliffe as Harry Potter, Rupert Grint as Ron Weasly, and actress Emma Watson as Hermione Granger. The three made their first appearance in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone which came out in 2001 and from there they appeared in every Harry Potter film to the last film in 2011, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. The plan for the Casting Director was to fill the roles for the characters who were the age of 13 in the first book to be that exact age in the film and allow them to grow up through the films.

This brings me into my next point of Daniel Radcliffe and his struggles with alcohol abuse because of Harry Potter. He said, “There is an awareness that I really struggled with particularly in my late teens when I was going out to places for the first time where you would feel, again it could have largely been in my head but, you would feel watched when you went into a bar, when you went into a pub.” (ITV 3). This is a great example of the consequences of child stardom. You’ll see that the stardom for him wasn’t the best experience. When he explains it as always feeling watched in public that can take a toll on someone who’s still young. The instant resort is to go to alcohol for them because they don’t think about it as much. For someone at a young age it’s important that they understand the traits for what it’s like to be a star in the world. It comes with a lot of attention from the public that nobody can really prepare for. That’s a difference between adult stardom and child stardom.

Another issue that was brought up is because of the threes roles in Harry Potter can people see them as anyone else other than Harry, Hermione, and Ron? If you think about it, when a child becomes an icon to such a big film series it makes it difficult for them to break out into other more serious roles. For example, Daniel Radicliffe had a lead nude role in a London play called “Equus” where he received major backlash from Harry Potter fans for revealing himself. This was a way for him to break loose from the Harry Potter scene. That’s another problem with child stardom, the stars from the film struggle with taking on my serious roles because they are afraid people will see them different for it. People have to understand that in order them to pursue their career in acting, they have to develop their career and build a resume for other roles.

As for Rupert Grint’s experience after the Harry Potter films ended he explained it as “I struggled to remember life before it. I think I lost myself a bit along the way.” (Phillips 5). In the article, they explain it as Ron losing his true self because he was so dedicated to the film for so long. Out of the three main actors and actress is they said Ron struggled the most with getting out of the Harry Potter world and didn’t get as much success as the other two after the series was over. Rupert described it like he was “Stepping out of an institution” (Phillips 6). What he means by this is that he was doing the same thing for so long he created a connection with his character Ron Weasly from the film. He found it more difficult adjusting to life after the Harry Potter films ended.

Growing up on the Harry Potter set as a young kid has it up and its downs but come to think of it most of the kids on the set of the first film were still in grade school. When kids have to focus on both school and a lead role in a series as big as Harry Potter it’s hard to see how they put their education first. Its already time consuming enough for them to act all day, when you add school to the mix its adds more stress to a young mind. That’s why for Emma Watson she took a break from acting to attend Brown University in 2009 to pursue and education and get away from stardom.

ideas
for the article I want to talk about the good and bad for being a child actor or actress

talk about child stars today

disney

harry potter

stress on a child with fame