Stuart Little and Jerry Maguire star Jonathan Lipnicki says he stopped acting as 'he wasn't very good'

Former child star Jonathan Lipnicki has spoken out about why he stepped away from acting, admitting that it wasn’t to do with him wanting to focus on his schooling. 

Lipnicki was a well known - and adorable - face back in the late 1990s and early 2000s thanks to his roles in Stuart Little, Like Mike and Jerry Maguire. 

However, fast forward a few years to 2010 and he pretty much disappeared from the big screen despite loving acting. 

Now, Lipnicki has shared some details about why he took a break from the big screen.

Columbia Tri Star

In a revealing interview with /Film, he said: “The biggest transition for me was... I didn't work for a long time. And people always frame that as, ‘Oh, I went to high school’ and whatnot. And that's the story that people tell sometimes when they don't work.

"Or if they're a child actor or whatever, they took time off. I did take time off, in the sense that it wasn't the only priority I had. But I didn't work because I just didn't work. I didn't really get any roles for a while.

"I'm honest about that. And it was because [I] wasn't a very good actor at one point.

"Because the great thing about being young, a kid, is there's this nice inherent childlike wonder. And that's why a lot of kids you see are quite talented. And filters come in and you become nervous…or the world comes into play.

"And so for me, I went from just doing the natural thing to trying to be like my favourite actors."

Everett Collection Inc / Alamy Stock Photo

But Lipnicki refused to give up on his career of choice and while attending high school, he also picked up some acting classes - which must have come as a bit of a shock to the rest of his class, given that he’d previously managed to bag himself roles alongside stars such as Tom Cruise and Michael J. Fox. 

Through studying acting, Lipnick said he began to fall in love with stage acting and has appeared in numerous theatre productions; he has recently turned his hand to writing, too. 

Looking ahead, Lipnicki is working on a couple of upcoming projects, including indie horror flick Camp Lake Pleasant and comedy The Re-Education of Molly Singer.

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Topics: Film and TV

Claire Reid

Claire is a journalist at UNILAD who, after dossing around for a few years, went to Liverpool John Moores University. She graduated with a degree in Journalism and a whole load of debt. When not writing words in exchange for money she is usually at home watching serial killer documentaries surrounded by cats.