Every person, whether we like it or not, will always be faced with the question “Who am I?”. Our childhood and teen years help us answer this question, since it is the time when most of us normal people are introduced to the environment we will probably live in until we have diplomas or first cars. This is also the time when we try to discover ourselves: what we are, who we are, and why we are through introspection.
Some, however, are not gifted with that convenient little “me” time in their adolescence. Perhaps they were lacking guidance from adults (or had too much of it), had a hectic schedule, or found themselves suddenly casted in The Parent Trap. In any case, these people with scarce “me” time could grow old with a bit of a shaky idea on who they really are, which potentially results into trouble as they grow up and struggle to find themselves.
Psychologist and psychoanalyst Erik Erikson, best known for his developmental theory in psychology, claims that it is in the transition from childhood to adulthood where the identity of a person is most fundamentally determined. What will happen if a person, in that primary state of adolescence, is heavily exposed under the limelight, with fame and fortune almost guaranteed, their family the production crew and the director; what then will happen to his or her search for identity?
Confusion may ensue. Some succeed, while others fail. For this month, The Menagerie presents you a vignette of some cases of prominent childhood stars, and how they coped with the challenges of early stardom, as they grew into their later careers after the initial aplomb of the TV and movie set.
Raven Symone
It’s 1989, and a three-year-old girl entered the Ghost Dad auditions full of pure confidence and talent. Despite her clear moxie, she was declared too old for the role, so she was not casted there and then. The Bill Cosby, however, saw the fine talent and passion in this girl, so he decided to cast Raven Symone in The Cosby Show, for the role of little Olivia.
Time warp!
Add a decade to her Cosby years and we’ll see the Raven we Generation Y kids probably best remember her as: in That’s So Raven, Symone playing Raven Baxter. Fun fact: Symone was auditioning for a supporting role in the show supposedly called Absolutely Psychic, but the show’s producers changed the whole plot and name of the series, deciding to have Symone take a leading role instead (yes, she is that good). The spotlight just simply had to showcase the bubbly and funny Symone, and so voila,: this led to the birth of That’s So Raven.
Ever since this childhood stint, she had starred in dozens of movies, lent her voice to multiple characters and soundtracks for Disney and Nickelodeon, and recorded studio albums which the public had positively received and lauded.
Now, we still see the older Symone acting, dancing, and belting out the tunes from New York Broadway show Sister Act. Buzz about drastic weight loss, occasional partying, and – more recently – controversial sexual orientation have been surfacing from all the usual suspects, much like any other celebrity.
Anything to do with her childhood acting? Maybe not. But definitely it did place her on a pedestal difficult for many to reach, with so prodigious a talent at such a young age. That little girl from The Cosby Show needn’t have worried that much about her future, if ever she did.
Neil Patrick Harris
We all know this guy, I mean, come on, he’s legendary.
Harris was born to a simple family from New Mexico. At an early age, he was introduced to the magic of theater and music, giving him an idea on which path to take as he gets older and chooses a career from a crossroads. No crossroads here.
In 1989, the role of Doogie Howser in Doogie Howser, M.D., was given to him, and is widely considered as one of his most memorable roles ever. Doogie, which ran for 3 years, totally launched his career and made him a teen heartthrob for most of the 90’s. Ever since, he has had various projects from television to movies to theater, juggling his way through even bigger opportunities and moments of fame.
Now, we see Harris gracing the world of television as How I Met Your Mother’s alpha male womanizer, Barney Stinson, a character that only Neil Patrick can pull off. He also lends his voice to numerous television cartoons, video games, and movies.
Harris is a classic case of a child star growing up under the spotlight, without ever letting it blind him, nor wreak havoc into his personal life. Harris is an openly gay man, and has no problem admitting this. Indeed, Neil is married to partner David Burtka, and they are blessed with twins Gideon Scott and Harper Grace.
“I am happy to dispel any rumors or misconceptions, and am quite proud to say that I am a very content gay man living my life to the fullest,” Harris tells the media. He also contributes and participates actively in numerous socio-civic advocacies, and has become an inspiration in the LGBT community.
Baron Geisler
Baron Frederick von Geisler was just 12 years old when he was thrown into the wild jungle of Filipino show business. He was your typical child star with a charming smile and German-American DNA for Western good looks, traits prize in Philippine media. But Geisler’s talent was highly promising, probably even the best of the best from that Ang TV bunch he belonged to, such that it would not be difficult to see the child’s future of gracing the stages of prestigious film awards, medal or trophy in hand.
Who would forget Tabing Ilog? The show assembled the country’s pubescent heartthrobs (John Lloyd Cruz, Jodi Sta. Maria, Patrick Garcia, and of course, Baron Geisler, among others). It could be said that Tabing Ilog was the Filipino Dawson’s Creek, and is one of the appearances that showed Baron’s true acting talent and character. Geisler played Alfonzo Ledesma, also known as Fonzy, the rebel and pasaway of the group – an archetype that he has been best known to fill in and portray throughout the rest of his career.
While he flourished as a “bad boy” in show business, his off-screen life became more and more dysfunctional. Excessive alcoholism and substance abuse eventually got a hold of the star’s life. Multiple alleged sexual harassment cases, violent behavior, depression, bipolar disorder; all of these controversial raps have been and still are being faced by the actor.
It’s normal to have a hard time changing darker habits of the past, but one cannot say that Geisler has not been trying. He has been to multiple rehabilitation programs, a move supported by his already very supportive family. Despite all this, he is continually offered movie and television projects, still playing roles as either the antagonist or the rebellious character, the role he portrays with distinct acting excellence. This is apparent in his recent success in the hit Manila Kingpin: The Asiong Salong Story as Erning Toothpick.
Frankie Muniz
From the telltale baby blue eyes, Frankie Muniz has been a household name since the early 2000s. He has been in the acting business since he was 15 years old, with his premiere role as the intelligent Malcolm in Malcolm in the Middle. Appearing in other famed shows such as Lizzie McGuire, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and MADtv, in addition to roles on the silver screen like Big Fat Liar and the Agent Cody Banks movies, Muniz has been in the industry long enough to know that some things don’t last forever.
In a personal statement released in 2006, Muniz said that he was never scared of the prospect of growing up until the end of his first show, Malcolm in the Middle. Following the show’s success, Muniz was a name that was here to stay; surely someone on top of the game had nothing to fear about leaving the industry. In the industry since his early teenage years, the question posed by the statement is whether a shining child, a golden boy like Muniz, goes into show business, would there be no getting out of it?
Currently, Muniz is engaged to Elycia Marie, owner of the clothing line Arcadia Vintage, and is part of a band named Kingsfoil in Pennsylvania, while working on his acting career alongside his other commitments. Besides his success in the show business industry, Muniz is also an award-winning racecar driver and enthusiast. Muniz is an example of a childhood star who has learned to be confined by the domineering world of show business, but has maintained a healthy sense of balance in exploring other pursuits and developing other talents, even succeeding in them more than he might have in the acting industry.
Aiza Seguerra
Cariza Yamson Seguerra, more commonly known as Aiza Seguerra, has been in Philippine show business since she was three years old, after participating in Little Miss Philippines in 1987, and then becoming a regular in GMA’s noontime daily, Eat Bulaga.
Seguerra has been in the industry before she even knew how to spell it. She has appeared in numerous television shows and movies, including her regular portrayal as Vic Sotto’s daughter in the Enteng Kabisote franchise. Despite her acting career, she still took it upon herself to enroll at the University of Santo Tomas, where she earned a degree from its College of Fine Arts and Design.
As part of success, Seguerra has had her share of controversy. The former Little Miss Philippines is a Little-Miss-No-Longer; Seguerra came out to the public in 2007, revealing the truth about her sexual orientation and previous relationship with Chen Sarte.
Successfully kick-starting her music career in 2001 with the classic Pagdating ng Panahon, Seguerra has shown that an upbringing from within the media, alongside the crazy show business industry, is no deterrent for living a life she wants to pursue.
According to Prabhakar and Basu, authors of Mass Media and Contemporary Social Issues, the youth base their ideas and notions about society on what they see on the television, Internet, movies and print ads. Aiza Seguerra, being part of that industry, along with many other child stars who grew up in the same manner, was then tasked to grow up through the different versions of themselves that they have to show on screen, on the stage, and to the watching world. In a way, her strong integrity has helped her succeed in this, and find her niche as a mature, independent adult, unbound to her fame and free to go wherever she wishes.
Daniel Radcliffe
Put a pair of round spectacles on him and you would know him as the Boy-Who-Lived, as Daniel Jacob Radcliffe has been in the industry practically since birth, being born to parents who are literary and casting agents. Radcliffe debuted in David Copperfield and The Tailor of Panorama before jumping into the Harry Potter franchise at an early age of 10 years old.
According to interviews, Daniel grew up comparatively well on the set of the Harry Potter films with his adopted stage peers and family. Away from the Hollywood claptrap and paparazzi, the English child star’s adolescence had some semblance of normalcy due to the treatment of his upbringing, as he has had minimal harassment from sensational media, and had been treated normally by his schoolmates during the intervals of regular schooling between movie shoots, much like co-stars Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Tom Felton, and the rest.
Brushes with the media reveal Radcliffe to succumbing to the vices of regular young men his age – smoking, alcohol, and the thrills of women – while still maintaining his career professionally as an actor for cinema and stage. He frequently plays roles that venture away from the boy wizard he is synonymous to and most known for. Such roles include those in plays such as Equus and How to Succeed in Business Without Even Trying. Growing up in the world of media can sometimes be a great part for the discovery of identity during childhood; Radcliffe seems to have been the child star tailor-fit for the life the world has set him in, virtually scot-free and still happy.
People who grow up in the media sphere serving the show business industry are put on a pedestal and are subsequently observed, like animals in a zoo. Are child stars all too different from everybody else? The cases above may show that some of the more prominent child stars of this generation are still just normal people, children who grow up and struggle to search for their identity just like everyone else with an extra challenge. They struggle to try and make a living, and living a life worth trying for, under the burden and blessing of the limelight.
