I was recently lucky enough to watch the musical adaptation of Roald Dahl’s Matilda. What immediately struck me was the immense talent clearly present in the actor performing as the eponymous protagonist. She was given long monologues, melodically complex songs, and even a passage in Russian at the end (having studied Russian, I can tell you it was legit) and she never faltered in her energy or enthusiasm she really carried the show. Her only real flaw was a shaky attempt at an English accent, but this I realised to be a rather minor quibbling point – hers was vastly superior to Anne Hathaway’s pitiful Yorkshire accent in One Day. Yet the most impressive fact was that she did all of this and was, of course, a child actor.
Child actors are known throughout the industry for burning out – Macaulay Culkin (career deceased), Lindsey Lohan (reputation deceased) and River Phoenix (actually deceased) being several of the more dramatic instances. It brings up an interesting question of whether the pressures of acting and fame can damage young performers, and so whether in turn it is even ethical to employ such child actors. And if child acting were banned, would I then be required to watch a twenty- something woman pretend to be a seven year old Matilda? A surreal experience for sure. In truth however, I would argue that these are but the few well- publicised examples which then tarnish the reality that most child actors come out from the experience relatively unscathed. In all honesty, I think the only real risk in using child actors is that they will be, to put it bluntly, dreadful – just look at Rupert Grint…
