“High at age ten”: New documentary about child stars like Drew Barrymore

“High at the age of ten”
New documentary about child stars like Drew Barrymore

Former child stars Demi Lovato (32) and Drew Barrymore (49) shock viewers in a documentary with new revelations about their drug past. Lovato herself directed the Hulu documentary “Child Star”, which was released on the US streaming service on September 17th. The former Disney star also interviews other celebrities like Barrymore, who also became world famous at a younger age. Talk show host Barrymore reveals in the documentary: “When I was 10, I got high with my mother's friend.”

Traumatic childhood experiences

Back then, Barrymore said, she thought it was “so cool”. The now 49-year-olds come from a family of actors. When filming began on Steven Spielberg's (77) “ET – The Extra-Terrestrial”, she was only six years old. The film made her a global star. “I started working when I was eleven months old, it was an advert, and after that I never stopped working again, except when my mother put me on the job,” the former child star reveals in “Child Star”.

In the documentary, interviewer Lovato asks aloud in “Entertainment Weekly” whether the child stars or outsiders were responsible for the widespread alcohol and drug addiction among minors at the time.

“It's hard to say you don't blame other people when other people may have given you substances as a child,” argued the actress and musician, who co-directed the program with Nicola Marsh.

Demi Lovato was a Disney star

Many other former child stars also spoke openly to Lovato about the events of that time. For example, Christina Ricci (44), who was only nine years old when she appeared in the hit film “Mermaids Kiss Better”, stressed that she “immediately turned to drugs and alcohol” in her “teenage years”. “I can't remember feeling like there was any other way to be happy,” said Ricci in “Child Star”.

Director Lovato herself enjoyed early successes, including the role of Mitchie Torres in the Disney film “Camp Rock” (2008) and the portrayal of Sonny Munroe in the Disney Channel television series of the same name. She also started a singing career. In the 2017 documentary “Demi Lovato: Simply Complicated” and the documentary series “Demi Lovato: Dancing with the Devil” she already spoke about trauma from her past and problems with mental health and addiction.

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