My, how you’ve grown: child stars in their best adult roles

Remember Christina Ricci as Wednesday Addams? Kieran Culkin in Home Alone? Evan Rachel Wood in Thirteen? They’re just a few of the Hollywood stars on this list who rose to fame as children and are still in the game. Catch them and their peers in these seven titles streaming on Showmax.

Yellowjackets

The limited series (it’s actually been renewed for a second season – go figure) features two very well-known mega-famous actresses who’ve been in the acting game longer than most of their co-stars have been alive. Juliette Lewis has worked in Hollywood since the age of 12 – you’ll remember her from Natural Born Killers in 1994 – while Christina Ricci has been doing the movie scene since she was eight (she’s best known as Wednesday Addams in the Addams Family).

They play Natalie and Misty respectively in Yellowjackets and there’s something horrible that connects them: as soccer teammates at high school, they were involved in a plane crash and were lost for 18 months in the Canadian wilderness. Years later and all grown up, they’re still running from their demons and the things they were forced to do to survive. And we’ll be blunt – they did some nasty stuff!

Phoenix Rising

Evan Rachel Wood has been in front of the camera since she was seven – and it’s thanks to her actress mom Sara Lynn Moore, who saw talent in her tot. Evan started with made-for-TV movies but hit the big time with roles in hit series American Gothic as well as Profiler before the age of 10. And she hasn’t stopped. Besides playing the self-aware cyborg Delores in epic sci-fi series Westworld, she’s also in Phoenix Rising, but it’s a far more personal project.

This is a documentary by director Amy Berg that lets Evan tell her story about being in a relationship with shock-rocker Marilyn Manson when she was 18 and he was 37, and how, while it looked a little creepy from the outside, it was crazy on the inside. Evan not only reveals that her then-fiancé used to drug and rape her, he emotionally and mentally abused her too. While Manson has tried to have the project shut down in court, he’s been stopped at every turn and more and more women are exposing him for the sex pest that he is.

Succession

Sure, Kieran Culkin isn’t as famous as his brother Macaulay (of Home Alone Fame) but he’s more than held his own in Hollywood for over 30 years. And sure, he starred alongside big bro Mac in Home Alone (nepotism, much?), but he’s actually pretty good at his job. How good? Take a peek at finance satire drama series Succession – he plays wild child-turned-savvy businessman Roman Roy and he’s viciously ruthless and demanding and domineering.

He’s short in stature and probably weighs less than a bag of flour, but he knows how to throw his weight around the room in his role. Egotistic arrogant narcissist with a tendency to be belligerent and sexist. Is there a more perfect character you’d love to hate but end up connecting with just because the actor plays him so well?

Tom & Jerry

Chloe Grace Moretz started off as an eight-year-old scaring people as Chelsea Lutz in the remake of The Amityville Horror, but nowadays she’s been bitten by the comedy bug. She’s on Showmax in the live-action movie of kids’ cartoon Tom & Jerry and it’s pretty cute even though it’s more for the kiddies than those of us who watched the cartoon as kids. 

At least you know she can laugh at herself – besides playing happy-go-lucky Kayla in Tom & Jerry, she used to date Brooklyn Beckham. You know: David Beckham’s son who needs a team of 50 people to help him make a toasted sarmie for his Instagram account. Plus, Chloe also voices Wednesday Addams in the 2019 animated Addams Family movie.

Equals

Nicholas Hoult is best known as “the boy with the eyebrows” Marcus in 2002 movie About A Boy, which he starred in when he was 11, but you can also see him in Equals as Silas. It’s a dystopian sci-fi romantic drama movie where people are called “members” and they have no emotions or feelings or senses. Everyone is “drugged” to be “normal” and just float along.

Even sex is outlawed and everyone is conceived artificially. Silas, though, gets caught in a spin when he notices someone else being emotional and he lands on the wrong side of the law for pointing it out. Nicholas himself, on the other hand, loves emotion, saying that “the day I became a father, I cried for hours. Kind of like when I was cast in The X-Men movies. It’s so surreal.”

Jackie

Natalie Portman will always be known for her role in 1994 hit action movie Leon: The Professional, but she’s done a boatload of movies and TV shows since then. She’s even conquered the far reaches of space in the Star Wars movies as Queen Amidala and won the heart of God Of Thunder And Lightning Thor in the Marvel movies.

But there’s another role that was equally as daunting to take on: playing real-life fashion and political icon Jaqueline Kennedy Onassis in the biographical movie Jackie. It’s not just any role – in the US, the Kennedy dynasty is kinda like the Royal Family in the UK … except Americans love the Kennedys…

The Stand In

She’s Hollywood royalty – literally, Drew Barrymore is an icon. Her dad and grandad were legendary actors John Barrymore and John Barrymore Sr, and her godfather is THE director, Steven Spielberg. She’s been doing her thing in Tinseltown since she was only six – remember the little girl in ET: The Extra-Terrestrial? That’s Drew!

And she’s done a lot of growing up over the years – and yes, she went off the rails spectacularly: drugs, booze, cigarettes and tattoos, you name it, she’s done it. Did you know that when she posed for Playboy, Steven had his artists repro clothes back onto her and he sent a fully reprinted edition with her clothed and the message “cover up” written on the cover?