Child Actors

I generally hate child actors, having worked with one myself! However, I was recently watching Little Miss Sunshine and realised the girl who plays Olive, Abigail Breslin, is amazing! She plays the role of an innocent child caught up in the madness of a disfunctional family perfectly, and her longing to become a beauty queen leads the family to face their problems, and come to terms with them, all without her realising she has done this! She also plays the daughter of Mel Gibson in Signs, which I didn't realise until now. I'll have to watch it again, purely to see how well she plays it.

I also watched The Sixth Sense recently too, and Haley Joel Osment is perfect for that role. I think Bruce Willis really plays down his part and lets Joel run away with it. The most important part about his role is playing scared, and he does a great job of not hamming it up like child actors could do in that situation.
I keep forgetting he also plays Tom Hanks' son in Forrest Gump, and is adorable and believable in the role. It's a shame he might end up going down the same rebel route as Macaulay Culkin now that he's all grown up. (I must also mention, whilst looking up stuff about that incident, I found this rather funny anti-Haley Joel Osment site. It's not very long, read it and see how much you laugh!)

There are some child actors however, who really do wind me up, Dakota Fanning being one of them! I mean, just look at her? She is scary looking - look at those teeth! I have seen her in a few of her main roles; Cat in the Hat, Man on Fire and War of the Worlds, and I have to say you can tell she is so pretentious and full of herself. I once saw an interview with her behaving incredibly mature for her age, and I think that's just sad. She's missing out on a much needed childhood. Just look at Michael Jackson for example!
Take this picture of her in Vanity Fair for example. Jeez, she's only 12! I'm sure she'll keep working for as long as her young looks last and then everyone will realise she's actually a rubbish actor, she'll end up in a huge drug scandal, be in rehab for drink and drug abuse, and all by the tender age of 18. I really cannot see how this girl will be able to carry on her career beyond her child roles.

Let me know what you think about my opinions of child stars and tell me about anyone else I should keep my eye out for. The criteria is they have to be at least under the age of 12 in the film, and have a starring role, or have enough lines to be able to tell if they're any good!