Child actors, ATADDRIFTY, shy Dan, etc.

[taradiane]

--- In HPFGU-Movie at y..., Nicky <azingam at y...> wrote:
> Elijah Wood has been extremely outspoken in regards to child-acting.
> Called it false and dangerous, or something like that. Maybe he 
regrets
> having missed out on all that normalcy. We all know that Michael
> Jackson and McCauley Kulkin *sp* had terrible childhoods, so Elijah 
had
> it pretty easy in comparison.

Actually, if you read a lot of Elijah's interviews (if anyone's 
interested, email me offlist and I'll send you some), he's not bitter 
about it at all.  He's very appreciative of the opportunities it (his 
early career) afforded him.  Like Dan, he also mentions how much 
better his education was as a result of the one-on-one tutoring (it 
was either Dan or Rupert who mentioned that he'd had the higher 
scores with his tutor than he did at school).  Also, one of the 
things that Chris Columbus said during the NBC/Dateline special was 
that you have to cast the parents as well.  I was glad to hear that.  
With Dan's parents being familiar with the business, I'm hoping they 
have at least a modicum of caution with the dangers of Hollywood.  
I'm hoping that Dan will go the way of Roddy McDowell, another 
wonderful British actor who started off as a child actor and 
continued his career through to the end of his life, relatively 
scandal free ;-)  Is it me, or does it seem that the American child 
actors fare far worse than the English ones?

And count me in for membership in ATADDRIFTY.  Love that kid - LOVE 
HIM!!  RE: is it Dan or Dan-as-Harry?  For me, it's Dan.  I've wanted 
to mother him ever since I saw David Copperfield on A&E a while 
back.  I didn't get into Harry Potter until I found out Dan had 
gotten the lead role (which was my main reason for going online to 
seek out more information on this whole Potter phenom - now I can't 
imagine ever NOT knowing what quidditch was).  I hate to quote Chris 
Columbus, but he really is a remarkable kid.  

As for Dan being shy, I'd be worried if he wasn't.  Nervous, whatever 
you want to call it, it's healthy for him to be at this point.  I 
can't tolerate a cocky kid.  Makes me want to vomit.  Never did like 
Macaulay Culkin for that reason.  He was just arrogant - at age 10 
even!  Now Elijah, he was a confident kid, but I never found him 
arrogant in any way.  I hope Daniel does gain some of that 
confidence, and I think that will come with time.  I hope he has a 
long and wonderful career ahead of him.