Showbiz Kids

Showbiz Kids (2020) is Alex Winter's documentary, and you can watch it online on iFILM. It sits down with people who became famous as children and asks what that early stardom actually cost them.

Former child actors open up on camera — Wil Wheaton, Mara Wilson, Evan Rachel Wood, Todd Bridges, Milla Jovovich, Jada Pinkett Smith. Some recall shooting days that replaced school and studios that ran their lives; others describe the emptiness that hits once the roles dry up and ordinary adulthood feels like a country they were never taught to live in. The film also trails two kids currently chasing a break, and the contrast lands uneasily.

Winter knows the subject from the inside: he was on Broadway at ten and later became Bill from Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure. His HBO film skips the rose-tinted nostalgia and talks plainly about pressure, money and the loneliness of a grown-up former prodigy. Among the voices is the late Cameron Boyce, which gives the whole thing an extra ache. Stream Showbiz Kids online on iFILM.