Elden Henson Quotes

Family is very important to me. People often ask me how I managed to stay grounded and sane, having started as a child star and growing up in the industry, and really, it's God. But it's also my family and God in my family.

I've never fancied that footballer lifestyle. I suppose I could live that kind of flash life. People stereotype child actors and kind of expect you to go off the rails a bit, be a bit crazy, but that's not really happened yet. I've got a big family so that helps, and they live really close to the studios so it's just so much easier.

I guess I'm just a normal kid apart from the acting.

I don't feel I was ever a 'famous' child actor. I was just a working actor who happened to be a kid. I was never really in a hit show until I was a teenager with West Wing playing First Daughter Zoey Bartlet. In a way, that was my saving grace - not being a star on a hit show. It kept me working and kept me grounded.

I come from a very uncool profession: being a washed up child actor.

The majority of actor kids are really competitive. But Gabby Sidibe on 'The Big C' has been a big help to me. Her career went from zero to a hundred in about one second, so she's warned me what to expect.

I think that, in the beginning, you think, 'I want to be the biggest movie star in the world.' And then, with the more movies you make, you are like, 'I don't know if I want to be that anymore. I think what I am looking for is something different.' I like acting, but a lot of times, stardom comes with a lot of strings attached.

I wasn't like a Hollywood child actor - 'I'm five! I can sing, I can dance, I can act! I wanna be a star!'

I never thought about the actors on television or film, like what kind of life they had.

I hate the stereotype of the pitfalls of the child actor. There are so many amazing examples - Natalie Portman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jodie Foster, Drew Barrymore - of people who have made it through.

There's no way I'm going to put this kid in the movies, because of the rejection. It's so hard as an adult, so why set her up to feel that bad as a child?

Guys like Todd Bridges never overcame being a child star. You can't have any big failures. I've always felt regular. I played organized ball at the rec league. At 13, they told me I sold 3 million copies. I didn't know what that meant.

I didn't really want to be a movie star. I thought they were so screwed up!

When I booked 'Hairspray,' I really didn't have a support system other than my family and friends.

Of course being in movies is very exciting, and it's a wonderful thing for an actor to do.

Though I was aware that the success rate in film industry was one percent and how difficult it was to survive, I wanted to try my luck as an actor.

When you are a successful footballer, you get put on a pedestal. You are the person your friends and family look up to, and they do not know how to approach you when things are going wrong, even when you just need someone to reach out to you and ask you if you are all right.

When I was 18, I drove from New York to California to be a movie star. Not an actor, mind you, but a movie star. Have you ever heard of anything so silly?

I didn't want to be a hero and get into the mould but the film industry doesn't work like that. It has a habit of branding you in a specific image to market you easily.

Some of those kid stars who got screwed up were pretty talented. My mom warns me every day what can happen. Sometimes she clips the headlines out and puts them in my room.

Child stardom is a really hard thing. It can really lead to bad things, and I think a lot of people have gone through that.

I'm a kid who grew up in a small town and started acting when he was seven for no reason and got lucky. Sometimes it can be a little overwhelming. I feel like some people, especially child stars, act out because they don't know how to handle the pressure.

I don't really care to be a movie star.

I've been on 'iCarly' and 'Hannah Montana.' And a few other things.

There's an incredible amount of loneliness that comes with child stardom because you're isolated from your society.