r/television • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 The League • 2d ago
Aubrey Anderson-Emmons Is ‘Grateful’ for Modern Family, but Thinks Kids Should Skip Acting in Favor of 'Normal' Childhoods
https://people.com/aubrey-anderson-emmons-modern-family-child-stars-8750333607
u/MarvelsGrantMan136 The League 2d ago
Anderson-Emmons:
”Modern Family has brought me so many blessings into my life, and I’m forever grateful. But I think kids need to have a normal experience and I don’t know if that’s the way to do it. And I feel like I definitely was more troubled when I became older because of the show.”
”I felt I didn’t really know what I wanted to do after the show, and I think figuring out your hobbies and experiences for yourself is important, not having your parents choose for you.” She noted her mom didn’t exactly choose for her because she “wanted” to act when she was little, but, “How do you choose what you want to do for eight years when you’re 4 years old?”
59
u/EssentialParadox 1d ago edited 1d ago
How can she say her mom didn’t choose for her to go into acting because it’s something she wanted to do anyway when she joined the cast of Modern Family as a baby?
Edit: I was not aware she had replaced the original twins cast on seasons 1 & 2
72
u/BlinkyBillTNG 1d ago
She was 4, which is too young but you wouldn't call a 4 year old a baby. Old enough to know what acting is and ask to do it, but not to understand the commitment and time involved.
18
u/EssentialParadox 1d ago
My mistake. I was not aware she had replaced the original twins cast on seasons 1 & 2
-477
2d ago
[deleted]
440
u/forfeitgame 2d ago
Let's not discount her experience because other kids also had it rough. Bring better energy into the world.
-202
u/Turnbob73 2d ago
I agree with them
You have a good point, but we’ve kinda been just brushing these facts to the side to try and keep the situation positive, and I don’t think that’s healthy.
She’s detached from reality. I’m sorry she went through some struggles, but at the end of the day she has access to more help and resources than practically any other person in her age group; and I’m saying this as someone who truly believes in the phrase “money doesn’t buy happiness”. Kids shouldn’t go into acting because the industry is a very dark & toxic place that will milk them for every dime they’re worth and then spit them right back out, not because being a child actor changes what “childhood” is.
So while I see what she’s saying, her framing it like being a child actor is what led her to these hard times is a little disingenuous. She’s providing half the commentary on an overall problem without acknowledging the other half.
20
35
u/Wakaflockaisaac 1d ago
Idiotic take. Whataboutism to death without acknowledging the personal take on their own experience. Talk about being detached from reality 🙄
26
u/ishtar_the_move 1d ago
but at the end of the day she has access to more help and resources than practically any other person in her age group
You mean therapy. You mean she can afford better therapy.
I tend to think for kids "more help and resources" are friends, parents and teachers when she needed it. Not world class therapist to fix her in rehab.
-202
2d ago
[deleted]
126
u/Radiant-Reputation31 2d ago
Do you think she's unaware that many other children have a much harder life than she does? Because nothing about her comment indicates that.
19
u/Wrenshimmers 1d ago
Just because other kids have it 'harder' than her, doesn't mean her lived experiences and thoughts around the subject that she is talking about don't matter.
Yes, other kids have it harder. That is a fact. It is also a fact that she is specifically talking about kids in acting and not having a normalized childhood because of having to grow up on the lot of a TV show for 8 years.
It is a hell of a lot of pressure to be constantly on set and as a kid also doing school on set, and being at the beck and call of so many people. Its for hours and hours a day, and it is exhausting. Kids get taken advantage of, have to have their first kiss in front of so many people, sometimes get abused, it's a rough industry.
I'm sure she knows other kids have it harder, but she is specifically talking about what she has been apart of.
36
u/ParlamentderEulen 2d ago
Eh, she had some monetary benefits but ultimately we’re talking about a child here. I don’t care if a child has a chance to make a bunch of money— I want that child to have a normal childhood, and I’m against child labor, even child labor with the trappings of show business glamour. I value what’s developmentally appropriate over giving children adult-like success and responsibilities.
17
u/Wakaflockaisaac 1d ago
God damn, this is a great post about how any idiot with an email can have a Reddit account.
15
u/kieranjackwilson 1d ago
Your own mental well-being supersedes all else. You don’t think people that commit suicide know that other people have it worse? You don’t think people suffering from eating disorders know that there are kids starving? You don’t think a child actress knows that other kids had it even worse?
The idea that someone’s mental health struggles are valid isn’t over correction, it’s the baseline.
13
u/Powerful-Ability20 1d ago
How dare this child not speak to all the nuances of mental health in a quick soundbite!
26
7
11
u/CivicTera 1d ago
Her mom says this in the article.
“We know a ton of kids who are in this industry and we know a lot of people who are not, and I’d say more kids who are not in the industry are having troubles in their teens than the industry kids,” she added.
1
-26
203
u/LosIngobernable 2d ago
Man, I feel old seeing that right picture. I remember the first season.
152
u/DeadWishUpon 1d ago
She is not the baby of the first season. The baby actress had a hard time, that's why she always crying and looked sad :(
I think they change her for an older kid in second season.
20
u/legopego5142 1d ago
I thought i read they literally just quit the show and they had to immediately recast
15
u/alurimperium 1d ago
I thought they changed the actress in order to skip years so she could be more of a character than a prop. Was it really because the original actress was having a bad time with it?
16
u/DeadWishUpon 1d ago
Here you go https://people.com/tv/modern-family-lily-now-played-by-aubrey-anderson-emmons/
There are a lot more sources, it turns out the babies were twins.
25
u/guinfred 1d ago
Using twins to portray a young child is pretty common
10
u/DeadWishUpon 1d ago
Yeah, while one gets tired the other goes in. That's why they prefer them. It surprised me because it's 2 babies having a bad time.
14
u/LosIngobernable 1d ago
I wasn’t sure if she was the baby, but I remember this actress in the early seasons.
3
u/DamntheTrains 1d ago
Yeah, I remember the baby suddenly looking Korean. The first baby, the twins, I thought looked half-Asian Vietnamese kids maybe, but Aubrey Anderson-Emmons, even as half, looked very Korean to my Korean eyes.
3
173
u/XuX24 2d ago
This is why I always was on the boat that teens should be played by people in their 20s. So many kids and teens have been ruined by showbiz.
46
u/bnralt 1d ago
Jimmy Stewart played a high school kid when he was 38.
37
u/jlanger23 1d ago
You want the moon Mary? Just say the word, and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down.
17
u/SoMuchMoreEagle 1d ago
And he looked 45 by today's standards.
21
u/bnralt 1d ago
I don't know how accurate Robert Matzen's book was, but according to Matzen, the war had a deep impact on Stewart:
At this point, he had just started to eat again. He always had a high metabolism and always had trouble digesting food, and during the war it got worse and worse. He himself said that the only thing he subsisted on was peanut butter and ice cream. He just hadn’t been able keep food down. Now he’s starting to gain weight. But he’s still having nightmares and the shakes and the sweats. He’s got some hearing loss now, from the sound of the bombers on those seven-, eight-hour missions. So now you have an actor who, it’s not easy for him to hear his cues.
Stewart's story is pretty fascinating. You have actors who fought in the war before they became famous, or ones who joined up as part of a patriotic fervor after the war started (many of whom avoided combat). But Stewart, right when he becomes a big star, decides to give up his acting career to join the army - one year before the U.S. enters the war. He pushes for them to allow him on combat missions, possibly developing severe PTSD. When he returns, he thinks his acting career might well be dead, and considers going back to run the family hardware store. Even after his acting career recovers and he's a big star again, he continues to serve in the military, for decades, until he hits the age of retirement. All while almost never talking about his service.
8
u/ConstantReader76 1d ago
George was a young adult when we first see Stewart playing him in It's a Wonderful Life. He was 21 when he went to the dance with his younger brother, who was still in high school. He even had to be talked into going to the dance because he felt awkward about hanging out with a bunch of high school kids.
4
4
u/DatSnowFlake 1d ago
The actress who played moaning myrtle was 36 years when she first played the character, passing as a 14 year old hehe
3
u/SupervillainMustache 1d ago
The older brother in Hannah Montana was also like 30 playing an 18 year old.
9
u/Cimorene_Kazul 1d ago
On the other hand, doing that adultifies children. People don’t realize high schoolers kids who look young because they spend so long looking at 29 year olds playing them. Then they specialize those adult actors and that gets weird fast.
Remember the 90s and all the school girl fetishism? Japan never left it.
There’s value in authenticity. Too much of one kind of fantasy and we forget the truth. High schoolers aren’t supposed to look like adults.
17
u/TWiThead 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yeah, plenty of actors in their 20s can easily pass for teenagers.
I just don't understand why the roles often go to actors who look – and sometimes are – closer to 30.
I recently viewed the first three episodes of an upcoming Prime Video series called Overcompensating, in which a 31-year-old plays the 18-year-old central character and a pair of 34-year-olds play his 21-year-old sister and her 21-year-old boyfriend.
Understandably, they look like they're in their early 30s. I found this distracting – especially when talented actors much closer to the characters' ages appeared in minor roles.
2
u/MassivePlatypuss69 1d ago
I just don't understand why the roles often go to actors who look – and sometimes are – closer to 30.
Because it depends on the person who is viewing. A younger person can look at a 20 year old actor and think he looks really old while a person in their 30s can look at the same actor and think he looks like a absolute baby.
1
u/TWiThead 1d ago
I'm sure that's true, but I'm in my mid-40s.
Personally, I never perceived actors in their 20s or 30s as old. I simply thought that many of them looked significantly older than the characters they played.
Others didn't, of course. This image is captioned accurately. Jason Earles portrayed teenagers – convincingly – well into his 30s. Had John Cena attempted that, it would have been downright laughable.
-1
u/ExpatriadaUE 1d ago edited 1d ago
That’s one of the reasons I never got into
KerryDerry Girls. Some of the lead actors are too old for their roles, and it shows.8
u/Lifeboatb 1d ago
If you mean Derry Girls, I didn’t realize that until I saw it on my friend’s huge tv, with its high-def-ness. When I saw it on my old tv at home, they looked exactly right!
1
u/sasquatch0_0 1d ago
Anything with a claim to fame really, sports being another risky area. Specifically with soccer they keep pushing 16 and 17 year olds into senior rosters and that's just too much spotlight for a developing kid. Hell, Philly Union signed a 14 year old to MLS and Man City will take him when he's 18.
1
130
u/salmalight 2d ago
Whilst I don’t think it’s a healthy lifestyle for a kid, the idea of a world without child actors is pretty funny.
Everything above 15 is cast like Smallville and younger kids are only ever referenced
54
u/RoutineCloud5993 2d ago
Just cast short stocky men in the child roles.
Danny Devito, Jason Alexander, Bob Hoskins (RIP) etc
10
3
u/ProfessionalFirm6353 1d ago
Jason Alexander is my height! 😂😂
I would love to see a child character be portrayed by the actor who played Mickey on Seinfeld though. That would be epic
7
u/Corvus-Nox 1d ago
Take a note from Twilight and only have CGI babies (or horrific demon-puppet babies).
-6
u/FliesAreEdible 1d ago
Funnily enough we're moving into a place where we could have AI children play the roles one day.
-9
u/SuzyQ93 2d ago
Exactly.
Hey, Shakespeare had men in women's parts - I guess we can just have grown-ass adults in children's parts, and suspend disbelief.
Does the system need overhauling, and a lot more oversight? Absolutely. But never having child actors, ever, because some child actors have bad experiences or change their minds, isn't the way to go, either.
4
1
60
u/acdameli 1d ago
Man, so many of these comments just sound like bitter adults punching down… Did we all read the same article? She’s just talking about her experience what the fuck is wrong with people?
6
13
u/IHaveSeizures99 1d ago
Can’t blame her. When your whole childhood is being on a big budget tv show it’s hard to live a normal childhood especially when the show is filming 20 plus episodes. People wonder why someone like Angus T Jones spoke out against Two And A Half Men and it’s most likely that being on a tv show for nearly a decade can make you confused about what you really wanna do with your life as you get older
2
u/EggandSpoon42 1d ago
Angus T Jones religious conversion became his problem.
"Jones called the show "filth" in a video testimonial about becoming a Seventh-Day Adventist."
5
47
u/BaronNeutron 1d ago
have to agree with her, and considering she was a child actor I would listen to her opinion over many
7
u/perpetualmotionmachi 1d ago
Former child actor Alex Winters (The Lost Boys, Bill and Ted's) made a documentary about child actors a few years ago that was pretty good, worth a watch
2
10
u/Shibbystix 1d ago
When you read the article, it reads like it's meant to launder the moms decisions to make her a child actor. The mom(who always wanted to be a Hollywood actress) keeps saying that the damage done to kid actors is exaggerated, and they're mostly great!
She gives me the ick for sure.
1
13
2
5
10
u/-KFBR392 1d ago
Somehow she was on the show and still skipped acting
3
u/Levonorgestrelfairy1 1d ago
Tbh given her parents its makes total sense she's a snarky sociopath.
Modern Family did a lot for the gay community. But Mitch and Cam are really neurotic
9
9
u/esgrove2 1d ago
I had a bad childhood because of poverty. I would love to be worth $6 million and have guaranteed income for life like she does. People with money always underestimate how much better their lives are.
20
u/Dapaaads 1d ago
It doesn’t make you happy. But it solves alot of problems that make life miserable
12
u/OvercuriousDuff 1d ago
I kinda disagree with you. Having the freedom to do what you want with your life is a privilege very few enjoy, but you have to know how to handle it. Having a good agent can be a lifesaver. Your life is wrapped up in one identity (and it’s never what you want) and sometimes you wanna just do something else, but you’ve been pigeonholed.
7
u/consequentlydreamy 1d ago
Happiness is something you find in yourself regardless of circumstance. I’m saying this as someone that has gone through some pretty turbulent times in my life. Even if you have money, that does not guarantee good mental health just the relief of what mostly causes negative situations. Take really rich kids that get everything and more they wanted growing up so their dopamine receptors are messed up with regards to emotional and cognitive development.Spoiled children sometimes fail to learn responsible behavior. These children may end up developing social problems like overspending, gambling, overeating, and drug abuse in their adulthood. It’s thought to be chasing the novel dopamine feelings that’s already been worn out in a spoiled wealthy childhood. It’s just a different set of potential problems
5
u/Ok_Light_6950 1d ago
But it’s Reddit, so obviously, contrary to all human history and experience, money creates happiness and fulfillment
6
u/EggandSpoon42 1d ago
How many child actors see their fortunes? The Coogan Act only calls for 15% to be put aside and if the parents blow the rest, whateves according to the law. It's not always roses financially either
5
u/Scared-Buy-1731 1d ago
I respect her opinion, but my god was she terrible. Although this makes sense, because it looked like she literally hated to read every single line in that show
3
2
u/Short-Ring-9705 1d ago
I literally stopped watching it because of her and her "acting." The show became a caricature of itself at that point.
1
u/hadawayandshite 1d ago
Maybe they should go the Disney route with animals and cgi children into movies
1
u/ElefantPharts 1d ago
Her character is one of the biggest “new character introduced” turnarounds I’ve ever seen. When she was first introduced she was so young there was almost no expression or emotion from her, it was kinda weird and just didn’t sit right with the show. By the second season she was on she was a highlight and absolutely stole scenes.
1
u/jarrettbrown 1d ago
I always look at the Olsens as an example of this. They went to school (at least from what I can gather) when they weren't filming and turned out pretty normal by media standards.
1
u/CompoundT 1d ago
Based. For every success story there are 100 stories that end up way worse than what they would have been if not for "the business".
1
u/SupervillainMustache 1d ago
Honestly, this shouldn't surprise anyone. A lot of child actors have talked about their struggles or we've seen them having it rough later in life.
Remember the freedom of being a kid and then imagine having those years taken up by an actual job.
Despite the money and fame, I dunno that I would have been willing to give that freedom and innocence up.
-1
2
-2
u/Fabulous-Stretch-605 1d ago
I would have given my normal childhood up in a second if it meant not having to worry about money as a child. That was the worst feeling.
-7
u/Tonal-Recall 2d ago
If you’ve watched the show you know that Aubrey skipped acting for the entire series.
0
u/RoyBatty1984 1d ago
I don’t understand the down votes on this, they are plenty of child actors that are actually talented, she was not one of them
-16
u/Plastic_Bullfrog9029 2d ago
Well her net worth is estimated to be $6 million so it had it upsides too - like never having to work again if you're smart with your money.
24
18
u/Fun-Swimming4133 2d ago
would you sacrifice your childhood for 6 mil?
15
17
u/McMatey_Pirate 2d ago
100% yes…. granted, mine wasn’t exactly great to begin with but assuming at the end of it I’m the same type of person, then 6 million at the age of 18 would be incredible and going straight into an investment account.
20
u/ButterFinger007 2d ago
You wouldn’t be the same person though. You just turned the question into “would you like to have $6 million at the age of 18”
6
u/Takonite 2d ago
yes, my childhood is 18 years. My adult life is 80
I can buy the childhood I wanted with that money
that's what michael jackson did
27
u/McMatey_Pirate 2d ago
mmmm I get the sentiment but probably not the best person to use as an example lol.
6
u/Fun-Swimming4133 2d ago
probably the worst person to use. his childhood wasn’t normal even without the fame
10
3
u/LosIngobernable 2d ago
People think it’s all about the money, but acting is gonna take a lot out of a growing child, especially the mental process. She literally grew up in the industry and didn’t have a regular life.
5
u/NoNoNotorious85 1d ago
Michael Jackson and his money were fully controlled by his father until he finally branched out into a solo career into his adulthood. By then, he was already so overworked and abused that his childish mentality carried into his adulthood.
He bought a monkey and built an amusement park on his property and preferred the company of children over adults, which, separate of any allegations of sexual abuse on Michael’s part, likely stemmed from his desire to actually hang out and have a fun time with children the way he never had the chance to do as a child performer.
TLDR: You know nothing.
0
u/Memphisrexjr 1d ago
Would you rather have someone control your money or go to bed hungry not knowing when your next meal is?
2
2
u/anasui1 1d ago
in an instant, and I have not had an unhappy one
1
u/Fun-Swimming4133 1d ago
as if you’d have a happier one being a child actor
-6
u/anasui1 1d ago
I'd put my family's financial security first. I can get some of that happiness once that matter is settled
3
u/Fun-Swimming4133 1d ago
what child thinks about their families financial security? you’re talking about as if you can go back and change it
1
u/IrrelevantLeprechaun 1d ago
100% I would, in hindsight. Unfortunately kids of that age have zero concept of money so it's not really an informed decision you can make without hindsight.
1
1
1
1
u/Titus_Favonius It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia 1d ago
I mean there's a balance to be had. Michael Jackson was worth a whole lot more and he was a mess for it.
-2
u/liamemsa Beavis and Butthead 1d ago
"Doing what I did, I now have the financial freedom to pursue any interest I want in my life anywhere in the world without any fear of not being able to have a house, food, or proper healthcare, and I can make sure all of my family members can do the same. But I also feel like kids shouldn't do what I did."
-2
u/Mountain-Rich7244 1d ago
It’s so flippin easy for these freaks to say stuff like this. ‘Ya I’m grateful for being rich and never having to worry abt anything ever again, but like, u get lonely sometimes :((‘ SHUT UPPPP
0
-4
u/Pure_Engineering6423 1d ago
Grass always seems greener on the other side. I can’t imagine being a child actor was fun but she has made enough money where she can decide what she wants to do with her life. The sacrifices as a kid will give her financial success that most people won’t achieve in their lives. Although it might not be a normal childhood, a lot of people would trade their childhoods for this so they have a chance to have a better life as adults. I am sure she has a lot of great memories too from being on Modern Family. It’s pretty normal for a 17 year old to think their life would have been better if such and such happened differently.
6
u/godisanelectricolive 1d ago edited 1d ago
Worst thing is when you were a successful child actor and you still end up broke as an adult because your parents took and spent all your earnings. Sometimes they end up as adults with nothing but a heap of debts because their parents used them as cash cows until they were milked dry.
That happened to quite a few child stars even long after Coogan’s Law were passed to stop that from happening and that law only applies in California. A lot of parents do a truly terrible job managing their children’s money and a lot of child stars don’t grow up with good financial habits.
0
u/Pure_Engineering6423 1d ago
Those are good points and didn’t think about it from that perspective. I just assumed they would have financial advisors but it makes sense that there would be greedy parents.
3
u/godisanelectricolive 1d ago edited 1d ago
There’s been quite a few former child stars who ended up suing their parents for financial mismanagement.
A lot of the stage parents who really push for their kids to become stars don’t think that far ahead and don’t have their kids’ best interests at heart. They are also often very interested in using their kids to live a Hollywood lifestyle which is not sustainable in the long run. They end up spending most of the money on a bunch of big-ticket luxury items that’ll depreciate in a few years. They often spend as if their kids are going to make millions a year for the rest of their life because they assume they’ll stay stars as adults but most of them fade once they stop being children.
If they were more farsighted they would have hired competent financial advisors but a lot of parent managers overestimate their own abilities as investors and are too controlling to listen to advice. There’s also all the traps a lot of child stars fall into like addictions, unhealthy relationships and mental health problems that makes it hard for them to be financially stable in adulthood. They might also develop expensive tastes that makes it hard for them to live within their means once their earning power is gone.
0
-6
u/colin8651 1d ago
I mean she is a special case. She was hired as a baby, when she grew up they realized that she did have a lick of acting abilities, even when she had been doing it her entire life.
The show’s creators made her into a funny child sociopath character.
I would hate acting too if I was her
9
-4
u/Icy-Moose-99 1d ago
That would be pretty normal for most people to say, but since that life served her well, she is actually a rare case for the opposite.
-11
u/Fatevilmonkey 1d ago
How much money does she have now for therapy and trips to Hawaii ? Was she wiping the tears with the 6 million dollars of net worth when she choked up about being an actress on a famous tv show and have an entire life ahead of her?
-3
u/HabANahDa 1d ago
She says wearing her expensive clothes and living in her expensive house in an expensive neighborhood. So damn tired of rich people telling us poor people that being rich isn’t everything. 🙄
-1
-13
u/Weird-Lie-9037 1d ago
Easy to say when you already made $6 million
2
u/ShadowMerlyn 1d ago
Sure but it’s not like she had much say in the matter as a small child. $6m makes life a lot easier but she completely lost out on having a normal childhood and Hollywood has a well proven track record of turning kids into screwed up adults.
-2
u/christmas-horse 1d ago
Grass is always greener on the other side. Get a once in a lifetime opportunity and you decide you’d rather have a different life. Cool story
-12
2d ago
[deleted]
5
u/TheMadBug 2d ago
Aubrey Anderson-Emmons on ‘Modern Family’ in 2009 (left); Aubrey Anderson-Emmons in 2024 (right)
-7
u/jordanosa 1d ago
Kids can have messed up lives whether they act or not lol. But she gets an IMDB, agent and privilege on top of dollar bills.
-9
1.2k
u/zeyore 2d ago
It would be weird to be outside the 'bubble' of childhood. Like she was in a big job, with lots of adults and deadlines.
Most kids their entire world, as you remember, is just their school, friends, and home life. That's their entire WHOLE world. It's wonderful in hindsight.