What makes a child succeed in a show business career? For every Dakota Fanning, Haley Joel Osment, and Jonathan Lipnicki, there is a talented youngster longing to be a star. The formula for success is elusive.
But there are certain undeniable factors that contribute. Some are natural attributes that children and parents have little or no control over: looks, talent, desire and tenacity, luck. Others are more controllable, such as parental attitudes and training.
Training is a particularly sticky issue. Some believe it will ruin the child's natural spontaneity if started too young. Others--parents and children alike--think it's not needed beyond what the parent can offer.
Frankie Muniz, of Malcolm in the Middle, has been quoted as saying, "Acting classes, I guess, are good, and I would like to maybe sometime take one. But I would feel like I was learning someone else's technique. I like mine." In fact, Frankie, who started acting at age 9 in his native North Carolina and did stage work there and elsewhere, has developed his talent on his own, said his agent, Wendy Green of Abrams Artists Agency.
But that doesn't work for all kids. "If it's a deep and emotional role," said Green, "it's better in general for kids to get training." She doesn't think 5 or 6 is too young if the role is tough. A lot of her younger clients don't get coached, but by the time they're teens, they grow more self-conscious, and that's when they really need help. "Coaching lets the true self come out," said Green. "It doesn't change you." She added that she especially likes it when her clients get private coaching for specific auditions; it makes them confident, and they love it. But it can backfire. One of Green's clients, testing for a pilot, keeps getting worse the more he gets coached; he looks increasingly "rehearsed."
Agents say they can easily tell the difference between a trained and untrained child. A sure sign: An untrained or poorly trained child doesn't listen, plays a quality rather than a person, is not in the moment. TV and film directors know that well-trained kids save time and therefore money on the set.
Emotional Transition
New York-based actress Hayden Panettiere, age 12, is an example of a natural talent who so far has not needed more than her mother's help. Hayden recently played Calista Flockhart's 10-year-old daughter on Ally McBeal and also the young Hilary Swank in The Affair of the Necklace. Her mother, Lesley Vogel, a former New York actor, started Hayden modeling at 8 months. At 4, Hayden got a recurring role on One Life to Live and has worked steadily since then.
Vogel began coaching Hayden when she got the first soap gig. "We'd discuss a scene in terms of her objective," said Vogel. "She heard that word very early. Then we'd talk about the different tactics one can use to achieve what one wants, and about relationships, the most important factor in daytime TV. How do you feel about this person you're talking to? I wanted her to develop good acting habits so eventually she'd be able to make her own choices."
As early as age 5, Vogel watched Hayden play a scene in which she had to make an emotional transition. Vogel could see the little girl's mind working as an actor, going from one emotional state to another, and the thought process going along with it. She realized then that her daughter had talent and understood the journey of the actor.
By about 9 or 10, Hayden had her own opinions about the characters she was playing. She always had a lot of passion, said Vogel, so now they worked on access to emotions. When she needed to have tears, Vogel would sit behind the set and talk to her about something that might resurrect a certain emotion, or improvise with her, so she'd be emotionally prepared. In other words, from a very early age Hayden was learning adult lessons about acting.
Vogel's thinking as a coach happens to be right in line with the philosophy of American Conservatory Theater's Young Conservatory, which is to talk to kids just like you would to adults. "Words don't need to be 'kiddified'," affirmed Craig Slaight, longtime Young Conservatory director. "Part of the [teaching job] is to empower them, take them seriously, and establish an environment where they feel heard."
Still, lessons for youngsters are necessarily different than for older kids. Judy Berlin of Kids on Camera TV & Film Acting School in San Francisco noted that younger children (she teaches kids as young as 4) simply don't have the life experience to draw from to play a wide variety of characters. She encourages them to read fiction, novels, plays, biographies.
A.C.T. instructor David Maier said young children are actors already; they live in their imagination. By the time they are 11 or so, they are not so comfortable being in fantasyland and need to learn actual techniques. "The girls at that age are much more conscious of their physical image and don't want to take as many risks for fear of embarrassment," he said. "Boys are not that far along yet; they're willing to be goofy." He teaches the young adolescents about beats, making choices, putting a character together.
In Hayden's case, young as she was, it's no doubt that she profited from her mother's acting background and coaching skills. In one of Hayden's soaps, Guiding Light, she shot and killed her mother's abuser, was kidnapped, battled leukemia, and more. Naturalness and spontaneity would probably not have sufficed in a role like that. Hayden will be well prepared for the most complex of adult roles.
Hayden's Los Angeles agent, Mitchell Gossett of Cunningham, Escott & Dipene, thinks that in general those of his clients who come from New York, like Hayden, are better trained than Los Angeles children--something about the theatrical ambiance of the Big Apple (although Hayden, unlike many children, has not done stage work).
Still, Gossett believes that in the 8-to-10 age range, good instincts is what it's all about, no matter where you come from--plus nurturing parents and a willingness to work hard. A good parent doesn't have to be one with an acting background, like Vogel, said Gossett--simply one who is smart, creative, and willing to make a deep commitment to the child.
Gossett favors coaching for his clients who don't have actor-parents, to prepare them for auditions, but he says that individual coaching is no substitute for classes.
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