“Is the price of fame worth your childhood?”
The haunting tagline of Demi Lovato’s directorial debut “Child Star” asks what audiences have been forced to reconsider in 2024. With the onslaught of docuseries like “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV” and “Showbiz Kids” this year, the ’90s and early 2000s are being reexamined for how kid actors were both treated on set and exploited.
Lovato, whose own career began with “Barney & Friends” at age 6, interviews fellow stars such as Drew Barrymore, Christina Ricci, Kenan Thompson, Raven-Symoné, JoJo Siwa, and Alyson Stoner for the feature.
Lovato became a Disney icon with “Sonny With a Chance” and “Camp Rock”; her later struggles with drugs and mental health issues were captured in 2021 documentary “Demi Lovato: Dancing With the Devil.”
Now, Lovato is behind the camera with “Child Star,” which she co-directs with Nicola Marsh. The film “explores the highs and lows of growing up in the spotlight through the lens of some of the world’s most famous former child stars,” per the official synopsis.
Lovato reflected on the pressure she felt providing for her family at a young age.
“At Disney, you became this instant role model, whether you liked it or not,” Lovato told The Hollywood Reporter. “And because Disney Channel was so big at the time, there was also this unspoken pressure that if you did make a mistake, you knew that there were millions of people just waiting to take your spot. I think I’d passed the threshold of what I could withstand emotionally and physically. And I didn’t realize that child stardom could be traumatic — and it isn’t traumatic for everyone, but for me, it was.”
Co-director Marsh added that Hulu allowed the documentary to include “blunt” conversations onscreen.
“They were like, ‘Yeah, go for it.’ Like, ‘Lean into it because if you try to avoid it, it looks worse,’” Marsh said. “And it’s not an exposé, but it is quite blunt, and it’s a credit to Hulu that they didn’t get cold feet — or maybe they did, but they certainly didn’t tell us.”
“Child Star” premieres September 17 on Hulu. Check out the trailer below.
