Latest / Pop Culture Junkie® / Growing Up in the Spotlight
Transcript
- 0:00[Music]
- 0:26Welcome to the Pop Culture Junkie podcast. I am Nicole here with my fellow Junkies.
- 0:31-Shauna. -Olivia.
- 0:33All right, well, Olivia, I'm glad you are back for another week. I'm happy, Shauna, and I haven't drove you out quite yet, but...
- 0:39-Yeah, just wait. -You're basically professional now.
- 0:43How do you like podcasting?
- 0:44Well, first off, I missed you guys. There were so many moments this week where I was like, "Oh, man, I should text them. We should talk about this."
- 0:52So, I'm just beyond excited. It's only been like a week or two, but, you know, I was really missing you.
- 0:59[Laughter]
- 1:01Anytime you see stuff pop up, shoot that mask text our way.
- 1:07[Laughter]
- 1:09I need to be filled in. I'm sure there's so much stuff. All three of us, like, don't know.
- 1:13And if we just hold it on until we record, then it's just for an explode. Or forget something.
- 1:18I'll forget everything, basically. Try to tell the topic, but it won't come out the way it should.
- 1:24I remember I was freaking out about something days ago, but now I don't care anymore.
- 1:27[Laughter]
- 1:29Yeah, right. I have a little notes where, like, just in general, if you look at my notes, "Apps" section, it's like a string of, like, ADHD notes, where they don't really make sense to anyone.
- 1:42If you were to look at my notes, "Apps" section, and be like, "I'm gonna commit this woman of a crime." Like, no one could really figure it out, except me.
- 1:49But I just have, like, a random thing, where it's like, "Talk about X." And, you know, hopefully we remember to look at it, but you never really know.
- 1:57You look at it just months later, and you're like, "What the hell was I thinking?" Like, "What does any of this mean?"
- 2:04Sometimes it'll just be like, "Been sprout." Like, "What?"
- 2:09All of the plans when I'm like, my sister-in-law, like, cousin and I, we're all at the Easter picnic, and we're like, drinking and stuff.
- 2:16And we're like, "We should hang out soon." And we just put in our calendar, like, "Girl time." And it didn't end up happening.
- 2:24And then, like, weeks later, I looked at my phone, and I'm like, "Tolinder alert for "Girl time." And I just kept her like, "What the hell?"
- 2:31And I'm like, "Which girls? There's too many of them."
- 2:34Like, "Do I text everyone?" And I don't feel like all your groups of friends, like, "All right, watch out, do it!"
- 2:43"I feel like somebody wanted to." Everyone says, "No."
- 2:49"Oh, okay." The phone, who does?
- 2:52I love it. Awesome.
- 2:56All right, well, let's just get right into it. What we do every week.
- 3:00Try to take over the world. Yeah, yeah. What have you both been watching or keeping up with?
- 3:06Let's entry you within the news the past week that you want to talk about.
- 3:10I was traveling. I was in Miami all week. So I wasn't watching, like, a ton of stuff, like, not really, like, sitting down.
- 3:18But one thing I did watch, well, two things. The first was the Hillsong documentary about Carl Lenz, kind of the scandal.
- 3:27It was just in Bieber's pastor. Yeah, and Chris Pratt, right?
- 3:32Yeah, Chris Pratt as well. Hayley Bieber, Kendall Jenner, goes there, really kind of this celebrity church that a lot of individuals go to in LA.
- 3:43And they started one in New York. It's an Australian-based church.
- 3:48And they brought it over to the United States. And really, it's the downfall of them.
- 3:53He was so popular and it comes out that he actually cheats on his wife.
- 3:58And the church kind of like offers him up and like throws him under the bus. But what happened after that was people started to look into Hillsong as a church as a whole.
- 4:09And they do LGBTQ conversion camps. Yeah.
- 4:13And what was actually really crazy is Brian Houston allegedly his father was molesting these children.
- 4:21And it became exposed. And right now it is actually being investigated by the Australia government.
- 4:27There's an ongoing case. And it's really, really crazy. It's kind of this first domino that falls. They don't get into it too much.
- 4:35Discovery Plus has a good one as well around it. But it's really, really crazy.
- 4:40Is it a TV show or a movie?
- 4:42It's a Hulu documentary right now. So it's two parts. It was done by FX actually.
- 4:48So they've been crushing it when it comes to documentaries like anything they do lately is just really good from drama series to a documentary.
- 4:58But really, really recommended. It's very good. And it'll send it down a rabbit hole.
- 5:04Dude, that sounds fascinating. And I saw a preview for a documentary about like the Dugger family and their church or like the religion they describe to as well.
- 5:16And I really want to check that one out about the gosh, I don't remember what it's called, but like the quiver full movement where everybody has 10 million kids.
- 5:26That's hilarious because I actually went to this YouTube rabbit hole like last night of the Dugger's and like all of their teaching. But there is so much there.
- 5:37Before we started recording, we were just talking about memoirist ginger Dugger has an interesting memoir and talks a lot about it.
- 5:44All that stuff is just so fascinating to me. It just reminds me of like cults, you know, and I just I love any documentaries or intrigue and cults.
- 5:53I mean, it's terrible what's happening to people and obviously it's disgusting. You know, I don't kind of sucks making entertainment out of people's tragedy, but it's just so fascinating how people get started with that kind of stuff and get sucked into it.
- 6:07Yeah.
- 6:08Yeah. I think the more that you can hear other stories right, I think there's a big stigma of like, oh, like dumb people doing a call, but it's not that right?
- 6:20Like they've had like neuroscientists. They've had really successful people like in the case of a nexium or something like that. Join them.
- 6:28And it's the more that we learn like why people get sucked into that the more you can prevent it. But yeah, I think it's really interesting.
- 6:37I think any human being can fall into that.
- 6:40Oh, yeah, especially if you're born and raised into it like the Westboro Baptist church, a lot of those kids were born into that and they thought that's how you're supposed to treat people and they don't realize it until they grow up and they start thinking for themselves and then they can leave.
- 6:56And so it's not their fault that they were born into a cult essentially. So yeah, you know, if these documentaries can help other people avoid cults or joining or just anything, then amen, sister.
- 7:09Yeah, the other one that I've been watching, which just kind of like hit the internet, it goes with the thing we've all been talking about is the Randall Emmett scandal documentary.
- 7:22It's really, really interesting. They talk a lot about like his abusive power.
- 7:27So he is a producer, produce like Rambo and is famous for dating Lala Kent. She's on Vanderpump rules. She's got a really popular storyline. She had a kid with him and it came out that he was defrauding investors sexual misconduct in the workplace.
- 7:49He was abusing people. Yeah, he's just in all around alleged bad guy, but it was a really good documentary. I think one thing that is kind of missing from Vanderpump rules the season is what happened with him.
- 8:04Obviously, the Ariana sand of all scandal has taken over everything, but I do think it's a really interesting part of it.
- 8:14I've never seen an episode of the show ever. Every time I know who Ariana and sand of all are against my will.
- 8:21Just from me doing my job. Yes, you are.
- 8:27What about you Nicole? What have you been watching?
- 8:30I've been traveling. I went to Chicago very unexpectedly beat for something and then after it came back, I had a day in Arizona and then went to Disneyland.
- 8:39I have a much in this show. It's called Road Wars and it is on A&E, I believe.
- 8:46It's basically just dash cam videos that people catch and they kind of combine it into one big show and it's just road rage incidents.
- 8:53Oh, I know. It's honestly kind of funny.
- 8:56You would watch that, but it's such a Nicole show.
- 8:59It is, but it's funny. It's also kind of scary too because it's like I'm kind of a crazy driver. I'm aggressive sometimes.
- 9:06It makes me kind of in my mind be like, okay, you have to calm down sometimes when you're driving.
- 9:12You don't want to be involved in a situation like this that you're seeing on TV right now.
- 9:16But I'm not one of those drivers that will throw hands up in the air towards the driver.
- 9:19I'll just say bad words in my car and be like, that way I'm not going to get aggressive because I'm literally a small girl and I can't defend myself because I'm like, I'm not going to get into that.
- 9:31It's a really good show. It's really funny. I think the dash cam videos are quite funny. Sometimes it's different incidents.
- 9:37Sometimes it's good deeds that people do that are caught on dash cams, but mostly it's just road rage incidents.
- 9:43I see people physically get out of their cars and like fight people with bats and stuff like that.
- 9:47That's insane. I couldn't ever imagine doing that.
- 9:49I remember I went to driving defense school for a ticket years ago and they told this story about this guy who got in this road rage incident and like,
- 9:59you know, pull over, pull over and they both pull over and one of them got a,
- 10:03oh God, what's it called when you shoot it, but an arrow comes out.
- 10:09A bone arrow? No, not like a, like you shoot like a trigger. A crossbow. A crossbow.
- 10:15You got a fucking crossbow out of his trunk. It's shot a guy with a crossbow.
- 10:19So that is, that's the only thing I remember from traffic defense school was don't get in road rage.
- 10:26Don't flip this person off because they might kill you with a crossbow. They might do it.
- 10:31Nowadays, you never know what someone has on the car.
- 10:34One time I was in high school and someone like pissed me off and I flipped them the bird and they chased me.
- 10:41And like down the road for like 20 minutes and it was hopeless.
- 10:45So I've never do that anymore. So like flip them the bird.
- 10:50I do like the eany, eany, like with your with your fingers, you know.
- 10:54What's evening? What are you guys doing?
- 10:57Those who got to get it. Shona and the rest don't know.
- 11:01I'm trying to hurt patients.
- 11:03Yes, just tiny little patients, tiny little patients.
- 11:07That reminds me though, have you guys ever seen the movie unhinged with Russell Crow?
- 11:12No, I haven't.
- 11:14No, but isn't that literally like a movie about road rage?
- 11:16I remember seeing the street boards.
- 11:18Yes, it's pretty, it's pretty frightening.
- 11:22I would.
- 11:24Russell Crow is like the last person I would want to cut off in traffic, too.
- 11:27He's terrifying.
- 11:28He seems like.
- 11:31It's just an angry man.
- 11:32I don't know.
- 11:33I wouldn't want to meet him.
- 11:34Be like, oh, do you want to get dinner with Russell Crow?
- 11:36I'd be like, no, I'm all right.
- 11:38Like I'm pretty sure he threw a phone.
- 11:40It's someone's head at one point like.
- 11:42Okay, Naomi Campbell goes.
- 11:44Oh, I just want to say, I did feel you want me to do that.
- 11:47If Naomi Campbell wants to throw a phone in my head, she can absolutely do it.
- 11:52It's like Mean Girls, she punched me in the face one.
- 11:56It was awesome.
- 11:57It's like your whole past.
- 11:59Who's the whole past?
- 12:00I could throw a phone at you and not.
- 12:01Right.
- 12:02Any supermodel could throw a phone in me.
- 12:04That's fine.
- 12:05Go ahead.
- 12:06I love it.
- 12:07What have you been watching, Shana?
- 12:09So much.
- 12:10So I have to narrow it down.
- 12:12I did see the Guardians of the Galaxy 3 movie.
- 12:17Oh my god, it was so good.
- 12:19You cried, right?
- 12:21I cried three times.
- 12:23Oh my god.
- 12:24I cried within the first four minutes of this movie.
- 12:27And I won't spoil anything.
- 12:29Dude, immediately, I mean from the videos we see, we get to see Raffet Raccoon.
- 12:33He's like a little baby Raccoon.
- 12:36And you know, one can insinuate.
- 12:39He went from being a tiny baby Raccoon to being modified.
- 12:43And so that's the story of what happened to him.
- 12:46So, oh my god.
- 12:47And he has other little animals that he's in captivity with.
- 12:51And anytime they're on screen, I was just a blubbering baby.
- 12:54It was awful.
- 12:55But the movie itself was really great.
- 12:57It's a great send-off to the Guardians.
- 12:59I mean, I think we're going to see some of them and other properties going forward in other Marvel movies.
- 13:05But you know, they're not going to be the Guardians like they have been for these three movies.
- 13:09But it was so good.
- 13:10I mean, I'm such a big Marvel fan that I really struggle to find fault at a lot of their stuff.
- 13:16But even I can admit that some of their movies over the last year have been a little lesser quality than...
- 13:24I mean, after we saw Endgame, it was just, oh my god.
- 13:28That was so stupendous.
- 13:29Like, how do you even do anything after that?
- 13:33But definitely going to pop Guardians of the Galaxy 3.
- 13:37Okay, so the other movies that I've been watching lately, I started with Olivia actually.
- 13:42And we watched Screen 2.
- 13:45And I realized I haven't seen all of the screen movies.
- 13:49So my husband and I have been watching.
- 13:51Which is just...
- 13:52Just predictable.
- 13:53No, I can't believe I have it.
- 13:55And I know you love them too, Nicole.
- 13:57It's like, it's time that I finally do this.
- 14:00I have to do this.
- 14:01And so I watched every single screen movie in order.
- 14:06And I have thoughts.
- 14:08I have thoughts.
- 14:09Okay.
- 14:10Okay.
- 14:11So I'm going to say, one is the best.
- 14:16Mm-hmm.
- 14:17And then I think five.
- 14:22And then three, six, two, four.
- 14:29Whoa, two is super low.
- 14:32Wow.
- 14:33I think so.
- 14:34I think that was it.
- 14:35Why am I like a three and four mixed up?
- 14:39Which one is the best?
- 14:41The movie producer guy.
- 14:43What?
- 14:44Like, we're at the movie.
- 14:47It's a movie about the movie.
- 14:49I mean, no.
- 14:50Every screen movie is about a movie with it a movie.
- 14:53No, I feel like the movie is the one with the editing.
- 14:56The movie.
- 14:57Yeah, one of them they're making a movie and ghost face is like screen three.
- 15:02Yeah, that was my least favorite one, I think.
- 15:05Okay.
- 15:06Okay.
- 15:07Well, then you mess that up.
- 15:08I messed it up.
- 15:09So you're, your favorite was like your least favorite.
- 15:15My favorite was one and then five.
- 15:18Okay.
- 15:19I can't, I don't agree with those two.
- 15:22My favorite is actually scream two, which is the one that you and I watched.
- 15:27I thought it was okay.
- 15:29I feel the most like lived in, but not overdone at that point.
- 15:33Yeah.
- 15:34Yeah.
- 15:35What about you Nicole?
- 15:36What's your favorite?
- 15:37Um, I'm gonna Google screen for.
- 15:40I don't know if I can see.
- 15:41I know now I'm getting them all out of order in my head.
- 15:44Screen four is the hate and panatir one.
- 15:47Oh, we know I like that one.
- 15:49Okay.
- 15:50I'm gonna go back.
- 15:51I take it back.
- 15:52I got one.
- 15:53Google, the top.
- 15:54I watch them all in such close accession that they're all just melding together.
- 16:00Oh my God.
- 16:01I haven't seen the newest one yet, which I'm like really annoyed because I keep like waiting
- 16:05for my friend and they're obviously taking too long.
- 16:09I know I'm just not allowed to them.
- 16:10I'm just gonna lie to them.
- 16:11I'm gonna be like, oh my God, I haven't seen them.
- 16:13I'm just gonna stare.
- 16:14I can't play with ghost faces.
- 16:16No, one of my favorite things.
- 16:18I think Scream is the most iconic.
- 16:21It's the most parody as well.
- 16:23But no, I love Scream.
- 16:25It's the most parody.
- 16:26It's the most iconic.
- 16:27But I love him mainly because he is the clumsiest of the killers.
- 16:33Yeah, absolutely.
- 16:34No agility physical.
- 16:37In the first couple.
- 16:38Yes, ghost faces clumsy, but also just ghost face get fucking superpowers.
- 16:43The minute this mask goes on because all of a sudden, like tiny,
- 16:47like tiny women will end up being ghost face.
- 16:50But while they're fighting, they have the strength of like a full grown man.
- 16:55And, you know, they'll be there on the ground one second and then you turn around and then they're fucking gone.
- 17:00So I guess they can just teleport as well.
- 17:04And then the minute they're so silly goofy mood.
- 17:07So silly goofy mood.
- 17:09Just goofing.
- 17:10Just snoo-boo-boo-boo-boo.
- 17:12The minute ghost face is revealed.
- 17:16All of a sudden that person is not good at fighting anymore, not good at combat.
- 17:21And is not intimidating in the slightest anymore.
- 17:25I don't know.
- 17:26The adrenaline rush.
- 17:28Maybe.
- 17:29Yeah, it's just the adrenaline rush of having the mask on.
- 17:32And then, okay, my last note on the Scream movies, which I did very much enjoy as a whole, including the new one,
- 17:38is people will get shot and stabbed over and over where you're like, that person is hell-a-dead.
- 17:48They did.
- 17:49And then at the end of the movie, they're like taken out in a stretcher and they're like, "I can't believe I survived."
- 17:55And like, I can't believe you survived either, bro.
- 17:58You were stabbed like 19 times.
- 18:01Shouldn't you at least be unconscious at the very least?
- 18:04I don't know.
- 18:05You were seriously dead.
- 18:08Yeah.
- 18:09You were like really dead.
- 18:11At the end of the fifth movie, though, you're like, "Okay, it was Dewy's time because he's just been burned to like an every movie."
- 18:18And you're like, "Alright, so at some point, if my hangovers catch up to me, your stabbings have to catch up to you."
- 18:26Yeah.
- 18:27Like the older it gets, the harder it is to drink, the harder it is to get stabbed.
- 18:31I think it's just common sense.
- 18:33I am 34.
- 18:35I'm getting stabbed once.
- 18:36I'm going out.
- 18:37Like, I'm done.
- 18:38I don't care if it's in the knee.
- 18:40I'm laying down.
- 18:41I'm like, "Jesus, take me away.
- 18:42I'm out."
- 18:43Oh my god.
- 18:44You get one little limp and you give up.
- 18:48You can't.
- 18:49Oh, God, I'm ghostly.
- 18:51Take me.
- 18:52Dewy could never.
- 18:54Dewy could never.
- 18:55Dewy will fight.
- 18:56He will fight.
- 18:58He's a terrible cop.
- 18:59They're all terrible cops.
- 19:01They're awful at police work.
- 19:03They're awful at police work.
- 19:05They're awful at police except Dewy.
- 19:07[Music]
- 19:11Alright, so I know I mentioned that I was in Disney this past weekend.
- 19:17And while I was there, I don't know what came upon me, but I just started thinking about Disney Channel
- 19:24and thinking about all these celebrities that just were not treated well while they were at Disney Channel.
- 19:30And how they grew up and had multiple different mental health issues or other issues within their lives
- 19:38that were basically caused because they became into the spotlight so early on in their life.
- 19:44And there is a word for it.
- 19:47It is called Child Star Syndrome or Child Actress Syndrome.
- 19:52I believe it goes both ways.
- 19:53And just kind of give a little description of what that actually is.
- 19:56It is used to describe the troubled adult lives of child stars.
- 20:01These adults tend to have anxiety, lack of empathy, narcissistic personality disorder, substance abuse, and depression.
- 20:09And I kind of want to just jump right in and say the first person I thought of immediately when I thought about this topic was Demi Lato.
- 20:18She has had such such such a rough life and we've seen it firsthand through social media.
- 20:25Through news outlets that I just want to put her on a spot to make things worse for her.
- 20:31Rather than trying to reach out to her and give her the help that she needed in that time.
- 20:36She is doing pretty well now, I think, with how she seems to be living her life.
- 20:41She seems like she is trying to get sober whether she stays sober or kind of has relapsed.
- 20:46Yeah, I mean any addiction like that is going to be a lifelong struggle for sure.
- 20:50So I mean that's a disease she's going to struggle with for the rest of her life and it's just a matter of trying to do the best that you can day to day and the support systems you have in place.
- 21:00But God, I can't even imagine growing up in the spotlight like that and essentially going through puberty and like the most vulnerable times of your life in front of an audience sounds horrifying to me.
- 21:14Like I think back to what an awkward preteen I was and just some of the cringe things that I would do and say and oh my God if any of that was on video or I mean just reliveable on YouTube over and over again.
- 21:32I don't know if I could do it.
- 21:34Yeah, yeah.
- 21:36Yeah, Demi Lovato's her YouTube documentary. She has a few different documentaries that she's done. It's beautiful. It's honestly like one of the more like real documentaries that I've seen.
- 21:50Like the way that she opens up is really, really beautiful about her story and it's it's pretty crazy what she went through.
- 21:58I mean she had the strokes she couldn't see when she first woke up after this relapse. The only thing that really does concern me about her is after this relapse she got involved with scooter brown and scooter brown works with Justin Bieber.
- 22:16Ariana Grande. Now Demi Lovato. I feel like I'm missing someone else, but all people have had very public struggles and substance abuse issues.
- 22:27And a lot of their problems have happened under him. So I am kind of afraid for her then and when she was with scooter she really did start like that California sober thing which it was like a year into her recovery.
- 22:43And so that's really not good in that time. So I am worried about her, but she does seem to be doing better.
- 22:50Yeah, it's tough and I mean at least she's with us. You know you think of so many child stars who aren't even here anymore obviously you know we recently lost Aaron Carter.
- 23:03But even before that I mean you think of Britney Murphy, Corey Hame, you know all sorts of child actors who have died.
- 23:11You either drug issues, mental health problems, things like that and just weren't surrounded by people who supported them and a public who didn't support them and kind of relished in the downfall.
- 23:23Yeah, I think a lot about Hayden Pena to your I don't know if you guys saw six six months ago maybe she did an interview with people and I actually pulled the quote for it.
- 23:37And so Pena to her says when she was 15 someone on her team began offering her happy pills before she walked red carpets.
- 23:46They were to make me peppy during interviews. I had no idea that this was not an appropriate thing or what door that was for me.
- 23:55Yeah, and she has very publicly struggled with addiction in her in her adult life.
- 24:02And one of the comparisons that I've always seen with her and just a lot of these child stars is like that Judy Garland.
- 24:10She was being given speed and then given downers at night to be able to sleep and it really messed up her health.
- 24:17And I just look at the 2000s child star we sell so many kids crash and burn and it's like well, yeah we were giving them frickin speed and you know and Fedda means at the age of 11 years old.
- 24:31And it's crazy. Yeah, I mean Amanda binds to like.
- 24:36Yeah, just such a public downfall that people seem to just love to gossip about.
- 24:43Well, a lot of people like forget Lindsey lowhand and that as well and very public downfall with her in Amanda bind.
- 24:50That is true.
- 24:51Yeah, I mean Lindsey.
- 24:53She seems like you know recently she's got the low hand a song that she's coming back and she seems to be healthy and doing well.
- 25:00But gosh, I can't even imagine the struggle she went through from such a young age like just being mega famous out of nowhere.
- 25:09Same with McColley Colken.
- 25:11I had the biggest crush on him in the 90s.
- 25:15I thought he was so cute and he was so mega ridiculously famous and turns out his parents were like extorting him and stealing money from him.
- 25:27So well. Yeah, and I mean he was spending time with Michael Jackson and he definitely kind of yeah, he I think he's come out and claimed you know like it was nothing happened to him personally.
- 25:42Yeah, yeah, yeah, that basically shouldn't have happened, but I don't know he was just definitely in the spotlight in the news from a very young age.
- 25:50He kind of flew under the radar for a while. I've seen him in a few projects here and I know he's married to Brenda Song now and they seem to be doing good.
- 25:58He doesn't have any of the money left over from home alone or a richy rich or any of his dad stole it all from him.
- 26:06He got like a man stated at like 15.
- 26:09It's really really crazy.
- 26:11When I think of a lot of these child stars, I don't know if you guys have ever listened to Christy Carlson Romano's podcast.
- 26:19Yes.
- 26:20Yeah, interview is a lot of the 2000s Disney stars, a lot of the ones that we grew up with and just their experience, but I think of like Selena Gomez.
- 26:31Her public struggles with like mental health and maybe some substances Vanessa Hudge and Shia LeBuff, Demi LeBato, the Sprouse twins, like all very public Belathorn and Taapend for Brittany and Christina and all of those many, many years before as well.
- 26:50So it's such a pattern unfortunately.
- 26:53Another one that pops in my head. She's not Disney, but she's Nickelodeon.
- 26:56I know we kind of talked about this beforehand too is Jeanette McCurdy. Yeah, that's right.
- 27:02Oh my goodness. The struggles that she went through and that she publicly talks about in her book.
- 27:06I feel like it was definitely Dan Schneider who did it, but it was also her mom.
- 27:12Yeah, the creator that she mentions is.
- 27:15And he's got such a weird like foot fetish thing if you just Google Dan Schneider foot fetish it is disturbing what he was doing these actors do.
- 27:29Yeah, have a foot fetish. That's fine, but you're an adult and don't put it into your children's television shows and make like the underage people act.
- 27:38That makes a lot of sense though. That's so creepy. The Nickelodeon logo. Yeah, so fun. It was a foot. It's crazy.
- 27:47Oh my gosh. It's so fun.
- 27:52No. Oh my gosh.
- 27:56Consenting of age foot. Yeah.
- 28:02Oh man. I have my opinion on this, but I'm sure there's people out there who think, oh, what was them? Oh, they're ridiculously rich and have been their whole lives.
- 28:13Like, what kind of problems could they really have? I mean to those people like I would just say.
- 28:21These kids didn't get into this themselves. They had parents who put them into it. And even if you tell your parents, oh, I want to act. I want to be a movie star. I want to be a rock star, whatever. I want to play music.
- 28:33They can't drive themselves to auditions and also they can't make the choices of what roles to take them.
- 28:40There has to be some kind of parental influence in power there and keeping them safe.
- 28:47So I don't care that they're ridiculously rich. That's not worth their mental physical health and safety.
- 28:53Yeah, I have a hot take. I don't think children should be allowed to like child act.
- 29:00Like if you look at we have 30 year olds playing teenagers, why do we need like little kids actually playing little kids?
- 29:10Doesn't make a lot of friends to me. I think there's a lot that can be done and way more safeguards that can be put into place.
- 29:19Parents aren't going to do it.
- 29:21So who do you think should play like a kid in a movie? Like a very small person?
- 29:28A small person? CGI? A CGI? Make a look younger?
- 29:33Interesting. I guess I could see that. I'm just thinking of the CGI baby and Twilight though.
- 29:42Remina or what? Runez May. Yeah. So bad.
- 29:47No, I see where you're coming from though. I think there are definitely workarounds that could be done to at least shorten a child's time on set and not make them the star of the entire series.
- 30:01But then it's just I don't know. Then it's like children's television. Do we want adults all being the actors and stars of children's television? I don't know.
- 30:12Yeah, that's true.
- 30:13Yeah. But I mean we don't let teenagers see their cells in it. That's true.
- 30:19You know, it always creeps me out too if you're watching even these screen movies where I watch bodies, bodies, bodies recently.
- 30:27And I think there's supposed to be in college, but at a certain point in a lot of these movies, like people start making out and taking off their clothes and like in Riverdale and stuff too.
- 30:37And my husband and I will be like, okay, we know the actors are in their 20s. They're probably pushing 30, but they're playing 16.
- 30:47And they're having like a raunchy sexy right now.
- 30:51And like I just don't know where the line is of appropriateness there. I'm like, am I allowed to be I feel creepy and gross watching it? I don't know.
- 31:00Like this we're supposed to be suspending our imagination watching people act. You're supposed to be thinking while you're watching euphoria.
- 31:07Oh, these are all teenagers. Okay, but they're all like bangin'.
- 31:11Yeah, I don't know. It's weird.
- 31:17Yeah. People are saying that these kids are so rich, blah blah blah, how can their life be so bad? I kind of think, do you really think that these kids are rich?
- 31:26I guarantee you most of their parents are taking in that money for themselves and not either opening up a savings account for their kid or putting it aside for their kid or getting their kid.
- 31:34I don't know if you can get a bank account at that young of an age, but whatever.
- 31:38Some kind of trust or something. Yeah, I tend to these kids themselves aren't rich. It's going to be their parents that are inhaling all that money.
- 31:46It's really cool. It's like we just said.
- 31:48Yeah. And another person/pair that came into my head as we were talking about child actors is the Olsen twins.
- 31:55Oh, yeah. Yes.
- 31:57Like they were on full house. They had their own shows when they were growing up, Marikain Ashley, whatever they did, went to grandma's house, I don't know.
- 32:06But they just went out of the spotlight and they not trying to sound mean or anything like that. But you have Elizabeth Olsen who looks incredible.
- 32:18She's gorgeous, beautiful, as a great actress. And then you kind of see the Olsen twins and they just look like they're run down and drained.
- 32:26And it's sad to see because they were such cute child stars. And now they're kind of just there, I guess.
- 32:32Yeah, and I respect them for they both realized they didn't want to be actress. And so they went their way like the fashion industry.
- 32:41So I think that takes a lot of courage to be like, oh, this is what I was supposed to do my whole life. And this is what everyone expects me to do. And I don't want to do it.
- 32:49But yeah, they're totally under the radar now. And you know, good for them if they're getting that ounce of privacy that I'm sure so many child stars are just clamoring for.
- 33:01Yeah. Yeah, I just every time I think about the Olsen twins leaving, I just think about that countdown to when they turned 18 and how disgusting that was.
- 33:14Yeah. And forgotten gone too soon, Mary Kate was essentially with Heath Ledger when he passed away, right?
- 33:24Like there's there's a lot of stuff going on there, even, you know, with with him, where they just lived a really hard life.
- 33:32Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
- 33:34God, the countdown to 18 is just so gross and like, really Bobby Brown went through similar stuff where like, this is a child that you guys and yeah, people are just counting down until they feel they're allowed to lust after her.
- 33:50And just the sexualization of these child stars is so ridiculous too. And obviously stuff with Britney has come to the limelight with that.
- 33:59Just the way that she was interviewed and sexualized is such a young age. But you know, the Burke Shields documentary coming out and like, I don't know, the way that these young girls, especially are supposed to portray sexual creatures that have young age Natalie Portman is spoken out about it too.
- 34:18But it's just, I don't know, who's looking out for these kids?
- 34:23You know, there is the the Cougan law, but really it doesn't do enough. I think it says they have to say about 20% put it in a trust, but a lot of that, you know, doesn't doesn't meet the millions of dollars that they're making.
- 34:40You know, it really does come down when I was thinking about this to what makes a child's son or like make it out alive and what makes them really trouble that comes down to the parents and them looking out for them, like really popular Disney children, like a good example is Zendaya and Bella Thorne, right?
- 35:00And Daya has two amazing parents who are very hands on, very involved, very involved in her career. She has exploded and gone this really great path and is very respected, despite, you know, being a black woman and one of the first like really successful black Disney stars, right?
- 35:20At least for her as a leading woman and then you look at like a Bella Thorne who was unfortunately like being abused at home and all the things that she's gone through and it really comes down to those parents like we talked about Christy Carlson Romano, great parents, shall above horrible parents.
- 35:41And it just keeps going.
- 35:43Exactly like Hillary Duff came out pretty well and has a thriving career now and Hillary Duff's parents seem very supportive and she's got her sister there too who's in the industry and people like to put her up on the pedestal of like the child star who made it out on the other side, but I agree it's a lot of her parents.
- 36:01Now obviously you put personal responsibility in there to some degree if you these people are doing with their time, but you're raised in that environment, of course, and you're around drugs and just people exploiting you, that's what you're going to know, that's why you're raised.
- 36:16Yeah.
- 36:17Unfortunately, the system looks for those kids that can be exploited because a way around the coup in law is if they get emancipated there an adult that can work like an adult.
- 36:30And so a lot of the time they'll manipulate these kids into it and get them to to act this way and a lot of people hate on these nepotism children because like they have it all and they seem so successful.
- 36:42They probably are like the best suited in the industry is to like actually survive that they parents who get it and like are already successful and all those things.
- 36:54That's a really good point.
- 36:55I didn't think about that with nepotism movies.
- 36:58Like their parents are like, okay, this is what you do. This is what you don't do. I got you.
- 37:02This is like how we're going to navigate this together because I've been there.
- 37:06Yeah, except for lesbian and that side, but I think that is a big reason that a lot of these people will invest in them because it's like, okay, your parents have prepared you and done these things to set you up.
- 37:21I do want to have a conversation in a later episode about just nepotism babies in general and ones that we think have actually earned their keep and others that are like, what?
- 37:32I saw this really funny YouTube video and it was like what nepotism babies are we saving in our car in the apocalypse?
- 37:42And I think we should do something like that. I think it would be really, really fun.
- 37:47We have a survivor. We have a survivor status of the nepotism babies. We put them through a ring of challenges.
- 37:57We break them on a likelihood of survival techniques. That's how they get in the car.
- 38:03Oh my god. That totally just reminded me of another TikTok that was.
- 38:07Now we're going to get a tangent. I don't care. It was like things that are likely to kill Gwyneth Paltrow.
- 38:15They were like raiding different items and they're like slamming hot cheetos.
- 38:20Yes, absolutely. She eats one. She is dead.
- 38:27One shot at tequila. Done.
- 38:33Oh my god. She's dead.
- 38:36One pickle back to us over the edge.
- 38:41She only needs her bone broth.
- 38:46Oh my god.
- 38:51I'm a waiter with a cold.
- 38:56I feel like we can go on forever about this topic because there's so many child stars that have gone through this.
- 39:03Unfortunately, and have had no help.
- 39:07I think this is a good place to end it.
- 39:09I just want to put it out there. If you need help, don't be free to ask.
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- 39:21We only help sometimes. It's totally okay to ask for help.
- 39:24You need help because someone will always be there for you when you were put on the surf for a reason.
- 39:29We love you here at Pop Culture Junkie.
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- 39:54That's it. That's the only social media.
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- 39:58What are you sharing?
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