Demi Lovato steps into the director’s chair for the first time with her newest documentary “Child Star,” talking to multiple former child actors for the film. And fans will learn quite a bit from their stories.
Now streaming on Hulu, “Child Star” runs through Lovato’s own career while weaving in stories from others that she interviews. The film “explores the highs and lows of growing up in the spotlight through the lens of some of the world’s most well-known former child stars. Through celebrity interviews, vérité scenes and archival footage, this film deconstructs the stages of earlier stardom and looks at the entertainment system over the last century.”
Lovato speaks to stars including Christina Ricci, Drew Barrymore, Raven-Symoné and more, covering multiple generations of child stars.
Here are the biggest takeaways from “Child Star”:
Christina Ricci calls her father “a failed cult leader”
“The Addams Family” and “Casper” star Christina Ricci has long stayed quiet about her father publicly, previously making it clear that he was not a good man to her and her mother. But in “Child Star,” she opens up a bit on him, referring to him explicitly as “a failed cult leader.”
“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,” she tells Lovato. “He was very physically violent. There was never any peace in my house.”
Ricci’s father had several jobs over the years, including as a “primal scream therapist” at one point.
Demi Lovato quietly wanted to be a Nickelodeon kid
Demi Lovato was best known for starring in Disney Channel’s “Camp Rock” films and “Sonny With a Chance” series, among other projects, but she definitely wished she starred on Disney’s competitor network Nickelodeon a few times.
As she explained to actual Nick kid Kenan Thompson, she was “secretly bummed” she was a Disney kid, mostly because she never got slimed. But, she also appreciated that Nickelodeon allowed their stars to act like “punks,” as Thompson described it.
The “Camp Rock 2” cast felt they had to walk on “eggshells” because of Lovato
Lovato reunited with her former co-star Alyson Stoner for this documentary, ending the duo’s years-long feud for the film. In their conversation, Stoner was pretty honest with Lovato, even admitting that after Lovato’s career took off, things were different on the set of “Camp Rock 2” because of the singer.
“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,” Stoner said. “The 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.”
Lovato made a sincere apology for that feeling.
Alyson Stoner caught Demi Lovato purging during “Camp Rock” filming
Both Alyson Stoner and Demi Lovato have long been open about the struggles they each had with eating disorders as teenagers, and during “Child Star,” Lovato recalled a moment during filming on the “Camp Rock” movies where Stoner figured her out.
“I remember one time you followed me into the bathroom and I had been purging. And you picked up on it because you were in tune with those behaviors. You followed and talked to me,” Lovato recalled.
“I was really grateful that someone didn’t just shun me or shame me,” she continued. “I felt like you were very understanding. That was definitely where I was like, ‘Oh f–k, someone knows.’ But I was also really grateful you were there for me.”
JoJo Siwa posts roughly 300 times a day on social media
In her conversation with Lovato, former “Dance Moms” star JoJo Siwa detailed her relationship with Nickelodeon, explaining that “they owned all my rights to everything, except social media.”
As such, social media is where Siwa puts everything. And if it seems to you like she posts a lot, it’s because, well, she does. As she revealed to Lovato, she posts 250-300 times a day.
“There’s nothing left for me at the end of the day,” she said.
“Child Star” is now streaming on Hulu.
