13 Former Child Actors Who Have Said They Would Never Have Chosen That Path

Sometimes, being a star isn't on your bucket list.

For many children, it's a dream to become a big Hollywood actor, but for those who did make it big, they all didn't have that kind of life in mind for themselves.

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Whether they simply regret their acting careers or simply didn't expect them at all, these former child stars never quite imagined their lives would have been cast into the limelight at a such a high level. For better or worse, these are 13 former child actors who said they would never have chosen that path.

13. Miranda Cosgrove

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Star of classic sitcoms like Drake & Josh and iCarly, Miranda Cosgrove was discovered by a talent agent when she sang and danced at a restaurant in LA at age 3. Cosgrove claims that when the agent spoke to her and her mother, she never thought of being an actress and that she had gotten lucky.

12. Alyssa Milano

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Famous for her roles in Who's the Boss?, Melrose Place, Charmed, and My Name Is Earl, Milano began her career in acting by starring in the first national tour of Annie. The surprising truth is that she was actually dragged along to the open audition by her babysitter behind the backs of Milano's parents. The babysitter was the one seeking a role in the production, but in an ironic twist, Milano was the only one who got a part in the play.

11. Rosario Dawson

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Though she made a small appearance on Sesame Street as a child, Dawson's acting career happened purely by chance. Dawson was discovered at age 15 by photographer Larry Clark and Harmony Korine when she was sitting on her front porch. Korine gave Dawson a role in the controversial coming-of-age drama, Kids, and the rest was history. 

10. Jodie Foster

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Most well-known for her roles in Taxi Driver and The Silence of the Lambs, Jodie Foster's acting career came completely out of the blue when she was 3 years old. Foster's mother took her to a casting call, intending only for her brother, Buddy, to participate in the audition. However, the casting agents noticed Jodie, and she got to appear in a TV advertisement instead of Buddy, and her career took off from there.

9. Christy Carlson Romano

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Many millennials grew up with Romano starring in Even Stevens and Kim Possible, but this certainly wasn't how she envisioned her childhood. Romano's mother tried to get all her children to pursue acting careers, with Christy being the only one successful with it. In fact, Romano claims she felt devastated when she got her breakout role as Ren on Even Stevens, as she was just starting to live a normal life in Connecticut.

8. Ariel Winter

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Many people know Winter for portraying Alex Dunphy on ABC's classic sitcom, Modern Family. But like many other child actors before her, Winter’s showbiz career was a dream forced upon her by her abusive and controlling mother, Crystal Workman, when she was 4 years old. Though Modern Family has ended, Winter continues to act while maintaining a relatively low profile.

7. Kristen Stewart

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The Twilight star first began acting at the age of 8, and since her rise to fame, she has been very open about how much she hates the limelight. Kristen has even claimed she thought she would become a screenwriter or director and never considered being an actor. "I never wanted to be the center of attention," said Stewart. "I wasn't that 'I want to be famous, I want to be an actor' kid." She may not hate her career in acting, but she certainly wouldn't have chosen the fame that came with it.

6. Bella Thorne

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Thorne found her breakout role starring alongside Zendaya in the Disney Channel show, Shake It Up. But like some of the child stars on this list, Thorne had only started acting to help support her mother and three other siblings, as they were all living on the edge of homelessness. She claims she never even wanted to star in Shake It Up, saying flat-out in her audition, "I don't sing. I don't dance. I'm basically tone-deaf, and I'm not funny. So, I don't know why I'm here." Apparently, everyone thought she was joking, and so she got the job.

5. Natalie Wood

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This is probably one of the earliest cases of a child actor being forced into the business. Natalie Wood famously starred in films like Miracle on 34th Street, Rebel Without a Cause, The Searchers, and West Side Story. However, Wood's sister, Olga, claimed that Natalie was not interested in becoming a movie star, despite being a natural-born thespian, and that their mother was obsessed with making her children famous. Eager to please her mother, Natalie went along with her pursuit of acting gigs, eventually making her first credited part in Irving Pichel's Tomorrow Is Forever.

4. Wil Wheaton

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Though famous for his roles in Stand By Me and Star Trek: The Next Generation, Wil Wheaton claims that his mother forced him to become an actor as a child and had repeatedly begged her to let him stop. In an interview with Access Hollywood, Wheaton said, “I have these very clear memories of saying over and over, ‘I don’t want to do this. I just want to be a kid. Let me be a kid.’”

3. Macaulay Culkin

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Thanks to his role as Kevin McCallister in the holiday smash-hit Home Alone, Macaulay Culkin became one of the biggest celebrities in the world. However, his career had been forced upon him by his father to help their family escape poverty. Though Culkin had taken a hiatus from acting following his '90s success, he eventually returned with smaller roles and has recently reentered the spotlight by appearing in American Horror Story.

2. Shia LaBeouf

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Shia LaBeouf has had a long and "colorful" history in Hollywood, having appeared in films like Holes, Transformers, and The Peanut Butter Falcon, as well as multiple legal cases and public controversies. But like some other actors on this list, LaBeouf became an actor out of a desire to support his impoverished family and not because he wanted an acting career. In fact, he started out doing stand-out comedy when he was twelve.

1. Jennette McCurdy

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Jennette McCurdy had started acting when she was 8 years old, eventually finding her breakout role as Sam Puckett on Nickelodeon's iCarly. However, McCurdy has now retired from acting and has been openly critical of her time as a performer. She has said that she's "ashamed" of her past roles and that her abusive mother had pushed her into becoming a star at a young age to provide for them both.