He will soon be seen in License to Wed, starring Robin Williams, and Nancy Drew.
Not a bad track record for a preteen. Still, the question remains: As successful as he is, not to mention refreshingly well-mannered, is he enjoying himself? He insists he is. Further, getting into the business was his idea. "I always wanted to act very badly," he says. "Nobody pushed me into it. My mother, a singer and actress, brought me to a manager. I started doing commercials and then went on to do television and movies. And I love it."
Aside from the challenge of memorizing many lines quickly , Josh admits he's had it pretty easy. And when he's not working, he's just another kid—going to school, bowling, playing video games, and listening to his iPod. He says, "All my friends think I'm cool."
The 14-year-old Sprouse twins, Dylan and Cole, who've been in the business since they were months old, report similar experiences. They concede they have a stage mother but haven't regretted their lives in the limelight for a moment. They're in the odd position of usually playing the same role, substituting for one another in the films Big Daddy, opposite Adam Sandler; The Master of Disguise; and Eight Crazy Nights. On the small screen the two starred in Grace Under Fire as Brett Butler's youngest child, Patrick; Cole also appeared on Friends as Ross' son, Ben. Currently they can be seen on the Disney Channel's The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, playing opposing characters, Dylan as the cool Zack and Cole as the geeky Cody.
Stephanie Gatschet, 24, was recently nominated for a Daytime Emmy for her performance as good girl Tammy on Guiding Light. She, too, contends that acting was her life's ambition. "My mother tells the story of when I was 9 and announced, 'I want an agent for Christmas,'" Gatschet recalls. "I didn't get an agent, but my mother enrolled me in acting classes, and then I started going to auditions, first for theatre and then television." As a youngster, she appeared in a few Off-Broadway plays, then moved into episodic television; in her late teens, she snagged the recurring role of Tammy on Guiding Light before becoming a regular. Now, four and a half years later, she's out of a job and auditioning again. But she's taking it in stride and, she says, is "eager to see what comes next."
Performing for live audiences are 14-year-old Evan Daves and 11-year-old Kat Peters, now appearing in Tom Stoppard's heady The Coast of Utopia: Part 3—Salvage at Lincoln Center Theater. They also claim to be having a terrific time and are undoubtedly the envy of many of their contemporaries—even their schoolmates' moms and dads. Kat's previous work includes the touring company of Evita. Evan was on Broadway in Nine and Hollywood Arms; he played the 8-year-old Scrooge and understudied Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol at Madison Square Garden.
These kids are the lucky few, and it's easy to believe that their lives are the norm for child actors. Regrettably, that's not so. Their experiences are not like those of most children attempting to break into the business—even the ones who occasionally land a commercial or guest spot on a TV program. The money is alluring, but most don't make very much. The majority of showbiz kids struggle to get a role in anything—not unlike their adult counterparts.
"The most important thing is to approach the business realistically," says Darcy Piacentile, who has three daughters performing in musical theatre. Her two younger daughters—Danielle, 12, and Gabrielle, 8—were recently seen in the Irish Repertory Theatre's production of Meet Me in St. Louis in New York. "To begin with, please, please, the desire to perform has to come from the kid," she continues. "Secondly, there's an enormous amount of time and money involved. There's the endless traveling back and forth from school to auditions to various performing classes. All three of my daughters are taking singing and dancing: jazz, tap, ballet. They have monologue coaches. Voice lessons can cost anywhere from $35 to $200 an hour or more. Finding the right teachers is not easy. A lot of voice teachers push belting. But if your child's voice is hoarse after a voice lesson, that's not good. Finding a good manager is not easy, either. I would avoid anyone too eager and pushy.
"And parents have to manage their own disappointment and frustration when a child does not get a role," she adds. "And sometimes there's reason to be angry. You've traveled a long way to get to an audition, can't find a parking space, finally get there, and see 50 kids lined up for the same role. And the audition consists of barking like a dog. The kid who does the best dog bark is cast." Daniel Swee, casting director at Lincoln Center, says, "Parents need to know it's a business. Kids are being hired to work. There are work rules. They have to show up on time. It's not okay to be half an hour late. And if you have a kid in the business, it has an impact on the whole family."
That's one virtue of having three kids in the business, says Piacentile: "We're like a sports family, where all the kids are involved in sports. Only with us it's theatre."
Adds Swee, "There's a lot more involved in appearing in a long-running play than doing a guest shot on a TV show or even a film, with its limited rehearsal and shooting schedule. If a kid is going to be in a play, it's a major time commitment—not just for the kids, who will be taken out of school for rehearsals and performances, but also for the parents, who will be needed to transport the kids from place to place. If the kid has not acted on stage before, it's especially important for him to have some kind of representation. If nothing else, a manager or agent has talked to the family about what's involved. We like to work with agents and managers with whom we've developed relationships over the years."
Parents priming their kids for auditions often have misconceptions about what casting people want to see. "Kids trying to be cute is a turnoff," Swee says. "So is the overdressed child or the one who is made up to look like a little adult. Perfectly curled hair is unnatural and is a turnoff for casting directors, in film as well as theatre."
New York–based manager Elise Koseff of J. Mitchell Management, which specializes in managing young performers, agrees. She adds, "When a child doesn't leave his mother and she's pushing him through the door and he's crying, I don't want to represent that child. If I scare them, it's nothing compared to what's coming. Many parents believe that if their child is charming and outgoing at home—does great imitations—he should be performing professionally. My office or the set is not home. If, on the other hand, the kid is talking to everyone and pulling the parents through the door, that's a plus."
On the emotionally charged subject of looks, Koseff says they're not especially relevant for kids under 12, because quirky-looking youngsters are often able to find work. "Still, there continues to be less leeway for girls than boys, especially after a certain age," she says. "Ugly Betty may change that, but generally it's very hard to place a chubby girl. It's not easy to place a chubby boy either, though it once was. But the suit against McDonald's [alleging its food made kids fat] totally dried up the market for chubby boys. Teenage girls should be presentably dressed and wearing light makeup. These things may not seem important, but they are."
If Koseff decides to take on a child, she may send him or her out on commercials as a starting point and see what happens. And she strongly advocates acting classes. "A lot of people seem to think acting is easy," she notes. "When kids are in soccer, how many practices do they have to go to before they actually play? But somehow there's the belief that acting is different," she says. "Any kid who gets a role must have a private coach. Professional kids cannot be unprepared."
Having talent and getting training are just the beginning, she points out. Self-presentation is the key, and that's from the time an actor—and that includes child actors—walks into the room. "Kids should be confident and charming and have something to say, not simply yes or no," Koseff insists. "They should be able to elaborate on a point. Kids who come across as weird and cagey, who don't make eye contact, usually don't get the part even if they have the talent."
Most of the kids Koseff manages freelance with commercial agents, and a handful may sign with legitimate agents, "though theatre opportunities barely exist for older teenagers." She adds, "It's simply less expensive to hire a young-looking 20-something actor than a 16-year-old, who needs a guardian and tutor backstage."
There's not exactly an endless supply of film and TV roles either. "The percentage of kids who end up on a series is very small," she says. "They may get a few commercials and are able to put some money away for college. Most don't become adult actors. But they have learned how to walk into a room, command a room, and how to be interviewed. They learn poise and are not afraid of public speaking."
Gatschet wants to continue acting. "But even if I didn't, the experiences of working with so many different people in so many different places in so many different situations would have made it worthwhile," she says.
Ashley Marie Greiner, a 13-year-old actor, who plays the beleaguered Faith on As the World Turns, agrees: "I've learned how to be independent, how to work, how to have a job." Piacentile also believes there are very important life lessons to be learned. "There is a lot of rejection and disappointment," she says. "But if the rejections do not destroy you, they can give you confidence, teaching that if you fail once, you pick yourself up and try again. Children who act professionally learn the importance of perseverance in whatever profession they may enter later in life."
Not all of those interviewed are committed to acting careers. Josh Flitter hopes to direct, and Dylan Sprouse has his sights set on a career in zoology.
The experience of child actors is undoubtedly a mixed bag, and nowhere is that reality more evident than in Gil Cates Jr. and Julie Stevens' documentary Life After Tomorrow, a look at the lives of 40 Annie "orphans" who participated in the original Broadway show, served as replacements, or performed in one or more of the show's national tours between 1977 and '83. Stevens, an "orphan" herself, brought together the now grown women to find out what the Annie experience was like for them, how it informed the rest of their lives, and what they're doing now. For all the former child actors, it was a bittersweet chapter in their lives. Most loved the performing, the heady atmosphere, and the status they enjoyed at the time. Yet they recount backstage jealousies, not only among the girls but also among the parents. Some talk about serious family disruptions, including marital breakups. Also, most disturbing is that for most of the girls, once the curtain came down on their runs, acting work dried up—they were either too old or typecast as Annie orphans—and they were unable to move on emotionally and had difficulty making friends. The majority of Annie orphans are not actors now, the most notable exception being Sarah Jessica Parker.
An underlying theme in the lives of these girls was jealousy. It's not easy for an adult to deal with the green-eyed monster, but for kids it can be devastating. Still, the young actors Back Stage interviewed assert they are able to keep those emotions in check. Greiner says she's "supportive of everyone else." Gatschet says, "I've never felt competitive or jealous. I don't take it all that seriously. That's where actors get into trouble. They take what they do too seriously."
But what happens when members of the same family are in the business? The Piacentile family has a strategy in place. "We make a point of balancing family life with the girls' careers," Darcy Piacentile says. "From the very beginning, we've taught the girls that an accomplishment for one is an accomplishment for all. If one of the girls gets a part, we have a little ritual, announcing it at dinner. And after the announcement, we say, 'Golf clap,' which is a silent polite clap that we all do. There may be jealousy. But we work very hard at downplaying it by recognizing all kinds of accomplishments that the girls may have achieved, even if it's not necessarily related to their careers."
Jealousy has another side as well: Child performers are often jealous of their more conventional counterparts. "It has been a problem when they've been in a show and had to miss birthday parties or trick-or-treating because of rehearsals or performances," Piacentile says. "We try to accommodate that as much as possible, though we can't always do it."
Still, she says, she wouldn't change anything; if nothing else, having three daughters in the business who have to be shuttled from auditions and callbacks to rehearsals and performances has brought them closer together as a family. Of course, that's not enough of a reason to try to get one's child into the business.
Kat Peters advises other kids, "If you're going to do this, you really have to be focused and determined." To parents, she says, "You have to support your kids, keep them going emotionally." Evan Daves tells youngsters "to just keep at it and not be discouraged"; his advice to moms and dads is, "Don't be overwhelmed by any of it. Just take it one step at a time."
Dylan Sprouse says, "If you want your kid in the business, ask them if that's what they want. Don't be weird about it. There's a lot of pressure out there. Your child may fail. A lot of it has to do with chance, and it may not work out the way you or your child expects. You have to understand that ahead of time." From the mouths of babes.