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Lived Through This
Confessions of an Obsolete Child Actor
Being cast in ‘School of Rock’ was a defining moment in my life — for better or worse
A few months ago, I was in hair and makeup for a feature with one of my castmates, a 12-year-old girl. She was on set with her mom and little brother. He was playing games on a phone while the mother and daughter ran lines together. When the mom stopped her kid mid-sentence to give her a line reading, I was instantly transported back to my youth. I felt bad for my castmate. I felt bad for my sisters, who spent years waiting in the car with my mom while I was in guitar lessons or at auditions. I felt bad for all the other kids in all the waiting rooms of all the auditions. Did any of us really want to be there?
Of course, I was there by choice that day — if you don’t count all the choices that led me to pursue acting in the first place. Back in 2003, I was cast as Katie in the film School of Rock. Katie was 10 years old, played bass guitar, and had about five lines that mostly consisted of one word each. I got to meet some of my idols, attend the MTV Movie Awards (hosted by America’s then-sweetheart Lindsay Lohan), and travel the world — all before I got my first period. Then, after my brief break from obscurity, I fell into the classic child actor pattern…
