At 19, I got signed up for commercials, it was easy money.
In all honesty I think that I've had a very normal life, even though I've been making movies since I was 9.
At times, I feel sorry for kids who have succumbed in some kind of way to being a child actor.
Back when Jerry Seinfeld was just another comedian hanging around the clubs, I'd imitate him to amuse myself and the other comics. The club owners would say, 'What are you doing that for? Nobody knows him.'
I'd thought of myself as a great big motion picture star from the time I was 6.
I got a part in a package of commercials for this big drugstore from the age of 6 to 10. For four years I shot those commercials, and old ladies would stop me on the street and grab my cheeks. That's how it started.
I grew up on camera. I started at 16.
When I graduated from college, I thought that I would probably never be an actor because it seemed like everyone was big by the time they were 20 or not at all.
I was always the young guy. And when you're successful when you're young, it leads to an arrested adolescence or something, y'know.
When I did 'Parent Trap,' I was ten. I was thrown off by the whole fame thing.
When I was little, I asked my mom to move us to Los Angeles and get me an agent. She would say, 'Stop it. Go play in the dirt.'
I grew up in front of the camera from an early age. It distorts your perception of who you are. Having a lot of attention at a young age is not healthy.
The next time a former child star is in the news, look at the age at which he or she started performing. Then imagine making a life-changing decision at that age. Chances are good he or she wasn't the one who made it.
'American Idol' was fun; it was definitely an experience. I was 16 years old when I did it, and I was curious about how I would do on the show.
I was famous from birth.
Looking back on it, when I was eight or nine, of course I did see myself on TV, so in a way, I was privileged.
When I was 5, I did a commercial for Whirlpool sitting on a tree stump eating a popsicle that dripped all over my clothes.
I became famous almost before I had a craft.
When I was in England doing Romeo and Juliet as a child star, I was interviewed by the British press, who are even more vicious and cruel than the Americans. So I have been extremely guarded ever since.
Listen, in England people are already writing their memoirs at the age of 23.
You know, I think when people fly the nest a little too soon, as far as getting involved in movies, anything beyond the music can make it suffer, I just want to make sure that I'm not that guy.
When I was five I was touring, singing and dancing. Always gone, always out of school.
I think the first thing I did when I was a kid was a Maxwell House Coffee commercial with George Strait. And I did a Wrangler Jeans commercial, and then 'The Patriot' came to town.
Early success is really scary. Especially in acting.
I started working when I was three years old and was basically known before I knew who my own name was. My parents needed money, so at that time it became my responsibility to pay the bills.
