Demi Lovato’s Child Star documentary began streaming on Hulu on Wednesday as it revealed many bombshells about the dark side of young fame for the likes of Drew Barrymore, JoJo Siwa, Macaulay Culkin, among others.
The film examines how some of the most well-known former child stars, such as Lovato, deconstruct the highs and lows of growing up in the spotlight and how their ascension to fame, riches, and power affects their futures.
The 32-year-old multihyphenate – who appeared at the premiere last week – made her directorial debut with the film alongside Nicola Marsh.
With the film the star aims to use the documentary in order to advocate for more protections to be put in place for children navigating the entertainment industry.
The film was an enlightening look at the struggles entertainers dealt with as they became famous at a young age with some of the downsides including money issues, substance abuse problems, and overall difficulty in transitioning a career into adulthood.
Demi Lovato
The star first started acting in children’s television series Barney & Friends from 2002 to 2004 before starring in Disney Channel projects
Demi is seen in Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam (2010)
Demi not only directed the film but is also the interviewer as she appeared on-screen to interview each subject featured in the documentary.
The star first started acting in children’s television series Barney & Friends from 2002 to 2004 before starring in Disney Channel projects which included Camp Rock (2008) and Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam (2010).
On choosing to focus on their music career after starring on the Disney Channel:
‘When I’m performing in a show and I see an empty seat, it really f—- with me. Even on stage, I will see an empty seat and I am like, “I’m not good enough.” It is this belief that was instilled in me as a young performer that I looked at my success as my self worth. I had a real hard time differentiating between the two. I dealt with a lot of need for external validation because I was equating my success to my self worth.’
On the downsides that came with her early fame including when she began auditioning for roles as a child in Texas:
‘The bullying started. The popular girls started writing in the bathrooms, “Demi is a whore.” All these nasty things. They had signed a suicide petition saying I should kill myself. It was passed around and people signed it. It was so extremely hurtful and that was a part of my motivation to follow my dreams because I knew it would get me out.’
On starring in their own Disney Channel series Sonny With A Chance (2009 to 2011) after working on Barney & Friends and the Camp Rock series of films:
‘It was part of my disassociation that I don’t remember so much of my show. But I do remember how difficult I was to work with because I was in so much pain and I was hurting.’
On the pressure of being labeled a role model:
‘I had to be so conscious of everything that I did as a Disney kid. You obviously couldn’t cuss or swear in public. You couldn’t be seen with red solo cups because it could insinuate that there is alcohol.’
On completing in-patient treatment in 2011 after punching back-up dancer Alex Welch while also struggling with bulimia, self harm and substance abuse issues:
‘I had punched my backup dancer while on tour in South America. I got kicked off the tour basically. And I’m on my way home, and we have a layover in Dallas, and I’m like, ‘When do we land in L.A.?’ It turns out that they had set up for me to go to treatment in a suburb in Chicago. It wasn’t like a situation where it was like I came to the conclusion that I needed help. It was like, ‘I’m getting punished, this is the end of my career, what did I just do?’ And I felt so hopeless.’
On missing her family at the height of her fame:
‘I feel like I didn’t see you [sister Madison De La Garza] for a few years of my life, and I feel like I didn’t see anybody very much except for the people I was working with. We didn’t see much of each other cuz we both had our own schedules. I would love to make up for lost time even though it’s been so long.’
On suffering an overdose in 2018 which resulted in health complications including multiple strokes, a heart attack, and brain damage before entering an in-patient rehab facility:
‘Finding drugs was easy, that was the only way I knew how to escape. But I was dealing with something much bigger than I could see. I get a lot of anxiety when I think about how close I came to not being here at all. I just tapped out.’
Drew Barrymore
Drew Barrymore seen in the documentary as she discussed coming from a Hollywood family and her substance abuse issues
Drew is seen in Steven Spielberg’s iconic film E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial in 1982
Drew’s, now 49, breakout role was in Steven Spielberg’s iconic film E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial in 1982 but she does come from a famous acting family.
On starting a Hollywood career before she was even a year old and being put in rehab at 13-years-old and spending 18 months in an institution:
‘[I started working at 11-months old.] It was a Puppy Chow commercial and I have never stopped working since then except for when I was institutionalized by my mother.’
On being born into the famous Barrymore family including dad John Drew Barrymore and his fourth wife and her mother Jaid:
‘[My dad] was so cool — he was lethally, deadly cool. Toxically cool. [My mother] knew she needed to get away from him. He was dangerous and on a lot of drugs. Then she is just this single mom raising a baby in 1975 with no money.’
‘I wonder why did my mom think it was a good idea for me to go into this. Was it because she wanted to be an actress herself? Was it because my dad and his family were actors?’
On her complicated relationship with her father as they reconciled before his death in 2004 as she cites director Steven Spielberg as more of a father figure:
‘I did not have a father and he was the person who made me feel like all of a sudden I wanted to be my best for. There was no authority in my life so I loved any boundary he set for me. It didn’t hit me until I was an adult that, ‘Oh, that is how parents are supposed to make you feel.’
On getting high with her mother’s friend when she was only 10-years-old:
‘She would give weed to me and her son. I can’t believe how much I respect life knowing that I disrespected it so many times. I have done s— no one knows I did. That is so crazy that somehow nobody found out about it.’
JoJo Siwa
JoJo Siwa got candid about signing a contract with Nickelodeon at an early age and claimed that the network had treated her differently after coming out as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community in January 2021
The star is seen at the Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards in 2015 in L.A.
The 21-year-old JoJo – born Joelle Joanie Siwa – began her career on reality television show Dance Moms from 2015 to 2016 with her mother Jessalyn Siwa before signing to Nickelodeon in 2017 which led to numerous shows and films.
On signing a contract with Nickelodeon:
‘Basically I signed an umbrella deal for everything so they owned all my rights to everything. Except social media. We were very smart to be able to keep that separate. But if I had like a brand deal, I had to get it approved by Nickelodeon. But they owned everything.’
On coming out as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community in January 2021 and the negative effect it had on her career:
‘I didn’t realize I guess that no child star — who is still a child star — had ever come out before. The president of the network called me and was like, “What are we going to tell the kids? What are we going to tell kids and parents?” And he was like, “Well you need to have a call with every retailer and tell them you are not going crazy.” So I did and I had a call with every retailer.’
On how Nickelodeon treated her differently after she came out as she claims she has been ‘blackballed’:
‘Everything after I had come out had changed. The way they communicated with me, worked with me and how they developed my work.’
Note: Nickelodeon responded in an email statement which read: ‘We are unaware of the incident JoJo is referencing and she was certainly not blackballed by Nickelodeon. We have valued and supported JoJo throughout our incredibly successful partnership, which included a JoJo-themed Pride collection at a major national retailer among our many collaborations together. We continue to cheer her on and wish her nothing but the best.’
Kenan Thompson
Kenan candidly talked about his ‘rags to riches and then back to rags’ story
Kenan, now 46, began his career as an original cast member on Nickelodeon’s sketch comedy series All That in 1994 from there he spun-off into a sitcom with Kel Mitchell titled All That (pictured)
Kenan, now 46, began his career as an original cast member on Nickelodeon’s sketch comedy series All That in 1994 from there he spun-off into a sitcom with Kel Mitchell titled All That.
On starting his career as a child in the early 1990s:
‘That first commercial when they paid me, it was $800. I was 12 so that may as well have been a million dollar.’
On his career floundering after a major run on Nickelodeon before becoming SNL’s longest-running castmember of all-time’ in a ‘rags to riches and then back to rags’ story:
‘In Florida they didn’t have the same labor laws. My mom met this dude either through church or the community who claimed to be good at getting you out of your tax problems. He was basically a con artist and ran away with my biggest earnings up to that point. By the time it was discovered, it was at the end of that Nickelodeon tenure. It was devastating because I discovered it in front of others. I was going to buy a house in Atlanta — my first home — and he didn’t show up with the f***ing check.’
Christina Ricci:
Christina Ricci opened about her ‘very chaotic’ childhood as being on set became an escape for her
Christina, now 44, made her acting debut at the age of nine in Mermaids before really hitting it big with her breakout role as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family (1991; pictured) and sequel Adams Family Values (1993)
Christina, now 44, made her acting debut at the age of nine in Mermaids before really hitting it big with her breakout role as Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family (1991) and sequel Adams Family Values (1993).
On how becoming a child made home life difficult:
‘I was really unhappy in my home life and at school. I was really bored and I was getting into really crazy trouble at 7. As soon as I started going on auditions every day after school with my mother, all of that stopped. But what I really loved is getting to go with my mom on the bus to New York. My mother was kept in a place in my home where she was not present. As soon as she and I got out of the house, she had a personality. We became very close .’
On her ‘very chaotic’ childhood:
‘My father was a failed cult leader and so he had all that really crazy narcissism that goes along with someone wanting to run a cult. He was very physically violent. There was never any peace in my house.’
On how being on set became an escape for her:
‘I knew nothing totally insane was going to happen. No one was going to get really mad and pretend to drive the car into a wall. For me there was a refuge of emotional safety.’
On her meteoric rise paving the way for her to ‘immediately’ get into drugs and alcohol:
‘I don’t remember feeling like there was any other way to be happy. If you felt like you had absolutely no control over your like, that is one of the few things you actually had control over.’
Raven-Symoné
Raven-Symoné talked about the struggle of fame at such an early age
Raven, now 38, began her career as Olivia Kendall on The Cosby Show from 1989 to 1992
Raven, now 38, began her career as Olivia Kendall on The Cosby Show from 1989 to 1992 before landing her own Disney Channel series That’s So Raven from 2003 to 2007.
On being in front of the camera as a toddler:
‘I knew it was work immediately. My parents made sure that I understood this was a job. I get paid for it and you show up professionally. [You know what money is] when you are told how much you are getting paid for the job that you do. So I knew at 3 how much I was making and I understood it was a job. If you lose it, you don’t make that money.’
On being considered the ‘breadwinner’ at an early age:
‘We call it a family business. Everybody has a job within the family business. Nobody likes to say one person is the breadwinner or not. Read through those lines. Sometimes the parent’s dreams might bleed into the child’s. And you get so enmeshed. Parents forget that young kids are performing for their parents’ love and affection. It is a lot of money and money does crazy s***.’
On starring at a very young age on The Cosby Show:
‘It is disappearing every single day. Nothing is a pure memory for me right now.’
On remembering that Lovato was not friendly to her when they worked together on Sonny With A Chance but realizing the young star was struggling:
‘People are going to milk all of the light out of you because you are young and you have the energy. But you do not, you are still a human.’
Alyson Stoner
Alyson talked about the ebbs and flows of their relationship with Demi as they both battled eating disorders around the same time
Alyson is seen performing during the Camp Rock Live tour during a date in Mountain View, California back in September 2010
Alyson, now 31, began their career as co-host of Disney Channel’s Mike’s Super Short Show in 2001 and starring as one of the 12 children – named Sarah in Cheaper By The Dozen (2003) and Cheaper By The Dozen 2 (2005).
They also starred alongside Demi in Camp Rock (2008) and Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam (2010).
On having an eating disorder on the set of Camp Rock:
‘[That] was a really dark time for me with my eating disorder. [It is the] only sense of safety and control that you have.’
On their friendship with Demi:
‘Just like I was trained to be at your beck and call and whatever you want from me, I will provide.’
On drifting apart with Demi after the two Camp Rock films:
‘It felt so hard to access you in that way. We lost that thread of trust, closeness and it didn’t seem like you wanted to be reached either at that point. he last few years of working together felt really challenging. The treatment did feel drastically different. I do remember a sense of walking on eggshells and so there was definitely a lot of fear of a blowup.’
On being taken advantage of regarding their money:
‘I uncovered that people in my surrounding network had been taking money without me knowing for years.’
Madison De La Garza
Madison, now 22, is Demi Lovato’s half-sister and began her career starring as Juanita Solis on Desperate Housewives from 2008 to 2012.
On her sister Demi and mother Dianna De La Garza privately battling eating disorders:
‘It makes me sad that this was something we were all battling with individually whilst standing next to each other. Especially because it was originally the focus of my role on Desperate Housewives and then became the focus of my life.’
‘I somehow believed that I was struggling with this completely and entirely on my own. Which was just not the cast at all.’