former child stars.
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As the magic fades, what happens to child stars when they grow up?
When the first Harry Potter film opened four years ago, Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint were all propelled to super-stardom. Yesterday, the third instalment opened in London, with the youngsters almost young adults. Two actors explain how difficult it is to live up to early success
31 May 2004
Actor who quit for life in academia
Adrian Hall: 'Be the same as everyone else'
By Terri Judd
Adrian Hall has one piece of advice for any youngster seeking a career in acting - don't. Be a vet or an accountant instead, he says.
He was eight years old when he starred as Jeremy, the son of Dick Van d**e's Caracticus Potts, in the film of Ian Fleming's book Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. He found himself in the world of Hollywood, a whirl of press interviews and camera flash bulbs. He met the Queen at the film's premiere and was showered with toys.
Today, aged 45, he lives in West Sussex. His job? To teach budding stage managers. He tours the country lecturing aspiring actors. "I spend the two hours telling them not to do this," he says. "If 99 per cent of the audience listen, I believe I have been successful. And the one per cent who don't are probably the right people to do it, because of their determination.
"The profession is like betting on a three-legged horse. Who would take those odds? It is ridiculous, crazy."
His Chitty Chitty co-star, Heather Ripley, who, aged eight, played Mr Hall's twin sister Jemima in the 1968 film, paid a high price for her brush with stardom. She returned home to Scotland, her natural accent erased by elocution lessons, to teasing from school mates. For many years she blamed the film for the collapse of her parents' marriage. It was, she says, "the worst thing that ever happened to me". In later years, she lived the life of an eco-warrior and a single mother. Yesterday she said that stardom was a "terrible thing to inflict on a child".
She added: "It created an almost permanent sense of complete isolation. I was separated from my friends and family at an age when I think they are more important to you than anything. I still have a feeling of separateness hard to describe. I have huge difficulties in close relationships because of that."
Mr Hall credits his easy transition back into normal life to the grounded world in which he grew up. The son of an engineer and a nurse, he had been sent to stage school as a cure for his shyness. His family lived close to Pinewood studios during the filming. "It was easy for me," he says. "I was not away from my friends or my family. Every evening I would go home and go out on my bike. Heather had problems because she was away from home for 14 months. I was her only friend. You can't do that to a child. They start to believe that that is the real world."
Thanks to "outstanding" tutors at Pinewood, the young Mr Hall returned to school a year ahead of his age group. Although he endured some teasing, he was secure enough to cope with it.
In the ensuing years, he enjoyed a moderately successful West End career and married Barbara Ward, an actress. But their jobs never brought enough success or stability, particularly when they had their sons, Daniel, 26, and Nicholas, 23.
Mr Hall says: "When one of us wasn't working the other one was. But one year both of us didn't work and I decided it was time to take an ordinary job."
Fifteen years ago, he took a job teaching drama. Today, he is head of the production school of the Guildford School of Acting Conservatoire. Mr Hall says: "The job I am doing is the best job in the world. I would not be doing this job if it wasn't for the film. It all dominoed from there."
But Ms Ripley is keen to go back to acting. Now living in Scotland and with two grown-up children, she is about to start rehearsals for a film in Dundee.
When the West End stage version of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang opened, the former child stars were given a taste of what life might have been like.
Mr Hall says: "We drew up outside the London Palladium and the road was packed so we got out of the car. Instantly, 30 or 40 people from the press started shouting "Adrian, Heather". I had a great time that night but I was back at work the next day, back in my office, where people just think of me as the boss. You have got to accept that it is not real life."
He worries about how the young Harry Potter actors cope with the adulation being showered on them. Whereas Mr Hall and Ms Ripley were paid a couple of thousand pounds for the film, Daniel Radcliffe, who plays Harry Potter, is said to earn a seven-figure sum.
Ms Ripley says: "My advice to the Harry Potter stars would be make sure you have the best possible lawyer and financial advisor you can find that you are sure you can trust. Expect to be exploited, and make sure you get decent qualifications at school."
Mr Hall says: "I hope they have people looking after them that are equipped to do this. My advice would be take three months off every year and do something real so you understand what it is to have to work, to have to find money and to have to deal with people who are not all telling you how wonderful you are."
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Actress who built successful career
Jenny Agutter: 'Don't take it seriously'
By Danielle Demetriou
The morning after the premiere of The Railway Children 34 years ago, Jenny Agutter found herself sitting on a train opposite a man reading a newspaper. Her picture adorned the front page.
Agutter recalls: "He didn't recognise me at all. I found it quite hard because I wanted to shout 'look, look, look that's me'. But I didn't, of course."
For today's child stars, whose images are beamed around the globe, to travel unrecognised on public transport may be impossible. But the perks and pitfalls of the life of a child star are unlikely to have changed much over the past three decades, according to Agutter.
The 51-year-old actress should know. Having landed her first film lead at the age of 11, she went on to win the affection of the nation with her performance as Bobbie in E Nesbitt's The Railway Children. While she has since established herself as a serious actress with more than three decades of success in stage, film and television, she is well aware that she will always be most remembered as "the girl from The Railway Children".
Agutter says: "Being a child star is not really a normal life. It's not something I would necessarily want for my son, who is 13. I would say to anybody who is really interested in being an actor: do not even approach it until they are of a mature age."
But it was at the age of just 11 that Agutter was plucked from her dance school to play the lead role in the film Ballerina. A handful of films followed in quick succession, ranging from Those Were Happy Times to Walkabout, until at the age of 16 she received the offer that would change her life. Then in 1968 she appeared as the innocent, bobble-hatted Roberta in a television production of The Railway Children, before reprising the role in a feature film two years later.
For Agutter, adapting to life as a child star was made easier by the fact that she had already travelled the world from Ceylon to Cyprus with her parents, who were in the services. The protection of her publicist Theo Cowan was also instrumental in her transition from schoolgirl to child star. She says: "I was with him from the age of 11 and the blessing for me was that this man removed any responsibility of any sort. My family were also very supportive without being very impressed. It's difficult in terms of pressure when there's a lot of money being invested in a film so it is terribly important to protect a child from this in that world." School was a different matter. When she started making films, she quickly became conscious of the negative reaction of her peers at Elmhurst Ballet School. She says: "I had a fantastic time making East of Sudan, tearing around Shepperton Studios. I wore a dark wig and said things like 'Oh look! Giraffes!' in a posh voice. But I never referred to it at school. I found that after the first film the kids treated me as if I was a bit snotty or snobby."
Agutter also became aware at an early age of the insecurity of life in the acting world. She says: "When I did my first film, it was an odd experience, as people were telling me I was going to be a big star. But, a few years later I was told my career was effectively over. It was still a game to me at that stage. I had only got the roles for fortuitous reasons, not on the basis of my acting skills. But by the time I got the role in The Railway Children, I was a bit older and I knew I wanted to act."
Agutter believes the fact that she was in her late teens made her better-equipped to deal with the nation's attention in the aftermath of The Railway Children. But it was at that point, ironically, that she found herself struggling. She explains: "There were no films being made in the UK at that time and I just found myself out of work and out of school. If you're a child actor, it's hard to get passed off as an adult actor."
The next three years were spent working on stage, culminating in performances at the National Theatre, before she moved to Hollywood. It was during her 16 years in America that she managed to escape from the shadow of her past and establish herself as an actress. Agutter, who now lives in Cornwall and Camberwell, south London, with her husband and son, says: "It was only when I came back at the age of 37 that I realised people in the UK still thought of me as the girl from The Railway Children."
But for the new generation of child stars emerging from the Harry Potter films, Agutter believes it is essential that they keep their success in perspective. She says: "It can be extremely hard for them to balance the success with real life. It's terrific if you have talent but don't forget to get on with your life. The difficulty with Harry Potter is that it has so caught the imagination of everyone. So I would say make sure you absolutely enjoy yourselves but do not take it too seriously."
31 May 2004 10:41
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