A talent manager and specialist in child performers explains the teamwork needed to maximize a young star’s Hollywood success.
By T.J. Stein
Have you ever been at home watching television, when all of a sudden a sponsor’s commercial spot appears, featuring an adorable little child? Watching it, you wonder: “Could this cute kid be mine?” If you are interested in getting your son or daughter into a commercial, it can happen, and, surprisingly, it’s easy.
Hopefully, you will not get turned off to show business before you find out it is not as difficult to get started as it may seem. In Hollywood, the market for children (infants, kids, teenagers, and young adults) is a large and lucrative one. If money earned by a child acting in a national commercial is invested wisely by the parents, it can go a long way toward funding that child’s college education.
Children are delightful and charming, and because of that they are successful at selling a variety of products, from cereal to dolls, while capturing the hearts of millions of viewers. Once established, child performers can become powerful entities in Hollywood on hit television shows and in major feature films [Ed. Note: See the Winter 2004 issue’s Spotlight on Talent, page 32, for a good example].
Child actors often pull large box office numbers, and this could mean millions of dollars for the major studios. There is no guarantee your child’s name will garner top billing on a movie marquee, or that a major studio executive will try to sign your child to a three-picture deal, but all it takes is a dream and desire from your child to make such success a possible reality...
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Have you ever been at home watching television, when all of a sudden a sponsor’s commercial spot appears, featuring an adorable little child? Watching it, you wonder: “Could this cute kid be mine?” If you are interested in getting your son or daughter into a commercial, it can happen, and, surprisingly, it’s easy.
