Minnie Driver has harsh words for showbiz parents

by

Sara McGinnis

posted in Celebrities

Minnie Driver may love having a career in the spotlight, but she surely doesn't think the film industry is a good place for children to be.

The actress, who is mom to 6-year-old son Henry, has opened up about her views on child stardom while promoting her latest film, Beyond The Lights, in which she plays a showbiz parent. Take a look:

"I'm not really for the whole kids in show business thing," Minnie Driver explained to Us Weekly, adding she's sometimes uncomfortable around parents of young children in the spotlight.

"It's really difficult even when you meet lovely parents of children who are in show business," she explained. "There is still the fact that they're not having a childhood. They are out of their element, and in the element of an adult world which is not always appropriate. It seems to me there is always a certain level of desperation that makes a person put a child in that position."

Trying to draw the character profile of a stage parent she continued, "That's an interesting place to start for a character: Someone who's desperate and conflicted, and if that's overshadowing everything else, it doesn't matter how nice or kind or empathetic they may be elsewhere. The overriding thing is quite fierce."

Speaking from her character's point of view she added, "You love them, of course you love them, but you want this other thing. It's the realm of the hungry ghosts. That's really interesting for an actor...You really understand why she does what she does… You really get it. It's not from a malicious point of view. She's not a sociopath, she's not evil. She just desperately did not want to go back to that poverty and she wanted something better for her kid."

Of course, child actors were at least briefly required to make this film, as evidenced in the preview. How do you the parents of those kids feel today hearing what this actress really thinks? "Desperate and conflicted" are hard words to hear even indirectly spoken to you.

As an average outsider, who lives nowhere near Hollywood and knows no one with a child in the spotlight, it's hard to get a handle on this topic. On the one hand I agree with Minnie and think a 'normal' childhood is not to be undervalued, but on the other some kids are really, truly passionate about performing. I can't say that if my child absolutely loved to sing and wanted to be on stage I'd tell him no, and I sure as heck wouldn't want to be judged as a 'stage mom' for just supporting my kid's interests.

Why or why not?

Do you agree with Minnie Driver that "the whole kids in show business thing" is a bad idea?

Photo: PR Photos

More celebrities, including some who've been there and done that, talk child stardom: