# Worst example of child acting in a movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 4, 2008, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-example-of-child-acting-in-a-movie/447953 "2008-05-04T02:02:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2008, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-example-of-child-acting-in-a-movie/447953/1 "2008-05-04T02:02:35Z")
Its common to rave about great examples of child acting, but its time to take those uppity pompous child actors down a peg! 😉 My nomination- I just had the mispleasure of sitting throught the Eddie Murphy yawner The Haunted Mansion, and the kid playing Murphy’s son actually accomplished the impossible by giving a worse perfromance than Murphy- the same facial expression when something funny or scary was going on, clearly not knowing what his reaction should be at any given time, etc. I mean , how hard is it to find a ten year old actor kid who knows how to look scared at a freaking spider? I noticed a couple of occasions where he was on screen but they purposely blocked his reaction shot at the goings on, as it was probably inapporpriate for the scene. I was going to nominate the wooden performance by HJO in the Sixth Sense, but figured it was just me as it was Oscar nominated and all, but I still thought it was laughably bad. ---
**Author:** ![Eric\_Halfabee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Eric\_Halfabee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eric_Halfabee)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2008, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-example-of-child-acting-in-a-movie/447953/2 "2008-05-04T02:05:53Z")
Jake Lloyd in Star Wars Ep I was one of the worst child performances of all time. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2008, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-example-of-child-acting-in-a-movie/447953/3 "2008-05-04T02:53:44Z")
Macaulay Culkin was pretty awful in _Home Alone_ and Dakota Fanning creeps me out in just about everything, but yeah, it’s pretty hard to get worse than Jake Lloyd. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2008, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-example-of-child-acting-in-a-movie/447953/4 "2008-05-04T03:13:12Z")
There’s actually a [definitive answer](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0410764/) to this question. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2008, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-example-of-child-acting-in-a-movie/447953/5 "2008-05-04T03:29:24Z")
I actually thought Haley Joel Osment was great in both _The Sixth Sense_ and _A.I._ ::shrugs:: The big-cheeked kid who was in the TV version of _The Shining_ was pretty bad. He later showed up in a Disneyworld commerical. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2008, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-example-of-child-acting-in-a-movie/447953/6 "2008-05-04T03:34:56Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] Macaulay Culkin was pretty awful in _Home Alone_ and Dakota Fanning creeps me out in just about everything, but yeah, it’s pretty hard to get worse than Jake Lloyd. [/QUOTE] Dakota Fanning was especially annoying in War of the Worlds, specifically with whatever panic attack/phobia thing she was supposed to have, but that was really more a stupid aspect of the script. For an obscure one, River Phoneix’s younger brother in Running on Empty- bad acting and really odd looking. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2008, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-example-of-child-acting-in-a-movie/447953/7 "2008-05-04T03:40:11Z")
They were going to film a scene with Sulu meeting a kid, his many-greats-grandfather, on the street in _Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home_, but the child actor (dunno his name) was having a very bad day. Try as they might, they just couldn’t shoot the scene. Pressed for time, they dropped it entirely. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2008, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-example-of-child-acting-in-a-movie/447953/8 "2008-05-04T03:42:00Z")
And yeah, since Jake Lloyd only managed two non-Star Wars movie credits after such a high profile role pretty much says it all. ---
**Author:** ![Menocchio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Menocchio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Menocchio)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2008, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-example-of-child-acting-in-a-movie/447953/9 "2008-05-04T03:58:32Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] And yeah, since Jake Lloyd only managed two non-Star Wars movie credits after such a high profile role pretty much says it all. [/QUOTE] Well, that doesn’t say much. He was a kid. He may have decided he didn’t like acting. The guy who played Charlie in the old Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is now a farm vet. Wasn’t because he couldn’t hack it, it was because he decided he liked cows more than movies. ---
**Author:** ![MadTheSwine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MadTheSwine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadTheSwine)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2008, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-example-of-child-acting-in-a-movie/447953/10 "2008-05-04T04:02:05Z")
An older picture,I have no idea what it was,but there was a gun shot. Right before the shot was fired,a kid in crowd(with his back turned to the shooter) covers his ears in anticipation of the shot. ---
**Author:** ![Intravenus\_De\_Milo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Intravenus\_De\_Milo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intravenus_De_Milo)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2008, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-example-of-child-acting-in-a-movie/447953/11 "2008-05-04T04:03:11Z")
One child actor that I’ve never really been able to dig is Freddie Highmore. I’ve seen three movies with him as one of the child leads ( **Finding Neverland** , **Charlie and the Chocolate Factory** , and **The Spiderwick Chronicles** ), and in each one he plays essentially the same character: disenchanted, aloof, slightly pissed off little kid. I mean, maybe this is more of a fault of the screenwriters, but it depresses me a little to see a young kid act so emo at such an age, and it’s the same kid every time. In **TSC** he also does double-duty as a twin brother who’s an uber-pacifist, a character which kind of got on my nerves after a while. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2008, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-example-of-child-acting-in-a-movie/447953/12 "2008-05-04T04:10:05Z")
[QUOTE=Menocchio] Well, that doesn’t say much. He was a kid. He may have decided he didn’t like acting. The guy who played Charlie in the old Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is now a farm vet. Wasn’t because he couldn’t hack it, it was because he decided he liked cows more than movies. [/QUOTE] Funny you mentioned him as I was coming in here to name him as an example of the genre (far from the worst child actor, but his “acting” does get distracting as the movie goes on). ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2008, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-example-of-child-acting-in-a-movie/447953/13 "2008-05-04T04:18:21Z")
[QUOTE=MadTheSwine] An older picture,I have no idea what it was,but there was a gun shot. Right before the shot was fired,a kid in crowd(with his back turned to the shooter) covers his ears in anticipation of the shot. [/QUOTE] I think that’s **North By Northwest** , the Hitchcock film. Joe ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2008, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-example-of-child-acting-in-a-movie/447953/14 "2008-05-04T04:20:45Z")
[QUOTE=MadTheSwine] An older picture,I have no idea what it was,but there was a gun shot. Right before the shot was fired,a kid in crowd(with his back turned to the shooter) covers his ears in anticipation of the shot. [/QUOTE] **North By Northwest**. > [@](#): > > \*\*Revealing mistakes: \*\*During the scene in the diner at Mount Rushmore, a young extra boy in the background anticipates the surprise gun shot, fired by Eve. The diners are supposed to be unaware this is going to happen but the young extra boy covers his ears way before she draws the gun. The young extra boy must have known there would be a loud bang from the blank-filled pistol from previous takes and therefore covered his ears on the “printed” take. EDIT: And… Beaten to the punch. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2008, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-example-of-child-acting-in-a-movie/447953/15 "2008-05-04T04:25:33Z")
This doesn’t exactly count as she was at least a teenager, but… Sophia Coppola in _Godfather III_. Completely dreadful. She got the role because she was Francis Coppola’s child. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![MadTheSwine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MadTheSwine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MadTheSwine)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2008, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-example-of-child-acting-in-a-movie/447953/16 "2008-05-04T04:32:36Z")
[QUOTE=wheresgeorge04] I think that’s **North By Northwest** , the Hitchcock film. Joe [/QUOTE] Hehe…Hey Winston…do you like Hitchcock films? ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2008, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-example-of-child-acting-in-a-movie/447953/17 "2008-05-04T04:49:36Z")
Brandon DeWilde in [_Shane_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046303/). “I love you, Shane!” “I hate you, Shane!” “Shane, come back!” Yish. ---
**Author:** ![Hamadryad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6de8d8/32.png) [@Hamadryad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamadryad)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2008, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-example-of-child-acting-in-a-movie/447953/18 "2008-05-04T04:56:21Z")
Okay, we got this off-brand movie capitalizing on LOTR called “Max Magician and the Legend of the Rings.” Um, [here it is](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0360784/). Their casting director has to have been on hallucinogens. Ahhhnuld as “The Terminator” had more range. It’s cringingly awful. Even my kids think so. ---
**Author:** ![Nurobath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/a88e57/32.png) [@Nurobath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nurobath)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2008, 8:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-example-of-child-acting-in-a-movie/447953/19 "2008-05-04T08:23:41Z")
> [@Eric Halfabee](#): > > Jake Lloyd in Star Wars Ep I was one of the worst child performances of all time. I knew this would be the first response when I read the OP. I have to say that I don’t really think it’s a fair choice. He was pretty bad yes (although I thought Hayden Christensen was pretty horrible in the other two), but he was also directed by the worst director of humans in the business. Generally a child actor is going to need a bit more direction than an older actor and Lucas can’t even handle the adults. He may actually be a bad actor (I haven’t seen his other work so I don’t know) but I think the blame for that one goes on Lucas. As a side note, Lucas seems to be the perfect director if you want to know which actors need a lot of direction and which ones are able to do a good job with little to none. Oh yeah, I nominate Edward Furlong in T2. I can barely watch that movie because of him. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2008, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-example-of-child-acting-in-a-movie/447953/20 "2008-05-04T10:16:21Z")
I recall not thinking much of Vanessa Lee Chester as Malcolm’s daughter in _Jurassic Park 2_, but she might have actually just been doing a _good_ job playing an unlikable character. Or maybe it’s because all of my memories of that movie were steeped in a putrid ichor of hate. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-example-of-child-acting-in-a-movie/447953.md?page=2)