Former Liar Liar child star shares honest reason he stepped away from acting
Justin Cooper had already built an impressive acting résumé before most kids had even started thinking about a career.
But the former child star, best known for playing Max Reede, Jim Carrey's son in the 1997 comedy Liar Liar, has revealed why he eventually decided to leave acting behind - and it wasn't because he suddenly stopped getting opportunities.
Speaking on The Not So Little Rascals Podcast, Cooper explained that acting gradually started to feel less like something he enjoyed and more like another obligation as he got older.
Cooper began working at just four years old, appearing in a Domino's commercial before landing roles including two years on General Hospital, an episode of Full House, The Boys Are Back and the TGIF sitcom Brother's Keeper.
Advert
His biggest movie role came in Liar Liar, where he starred opposite Carrey as Fletcher Reede's young son.
Why did Justin Cooper stop acting?
For Cooper, the problem wasn't acting itself. It was everything surrounding it.
He said his first experience of public school coincided with puberty and a period when he wasn't booking roles as frequently.
"I was in an awkward stage," he explained, adding that auditions had started to become less exciting.
His mom would ask whether he had an audition that day, but Cooper admitted his reaction was increasingly along the lines of: "You got to like it felt like work."
The process could involve a 45-minute drive to an audition, followed by the journey home and then homework. "I want to just go home right now and talk to girls on AIM," Cooper recalled thinking at the time.
Eventually, his mom told him he didn't have to continue if he genuinely didn't want to. "If you don't want to do it anymore, you don't have to," she told him, according to Cooper's recollection.
Even that didn't result in an immediate decision. Cooper said it took him a while to finally accept that he wanted out, partly because he worried his mother might be disappointed.
"I felt like, 'Oh, she doesn't want me to say that I don't want to do it anymore,'" he said. There was also the less glamorous reality of repeatedly auditioning and being rejected.
Cooper explained that the majority of an actor's work isn't necessarily the filming audiences eventually see, and said the process became harder once he was old enough to recognize what was happening.
He also revealed his mum shielded him from some of the darker sides of his childhood fame, including letters he received from prison inmates.
Speaking on the podcast, the now-37-year-old said the reality of his fame hit him once the film came out, when he could no longer 'go anywhere in public'.
He said he'd found the attention exciting at the time, though admitted it likely wore thin on the rest of his family, recalling how meals out would be interrupted by fans queuing at their table for his autograph while they tried to eat.
Asked whether any of it had felt frightening as a child, Cooper said his mother had worked hard to protect him from the more unsettling side of being a young star, including keeping him in the dark about mail he'd received from prison inmates, which she only told him about years later.
Pressed for more detail, Cooper said the letters had come from men in prison, some of whom described themselves as fans, while others commented on how cute he was.
What did Justin Cooper do after leaving acting?
Walking away from acting didn't mean Cooper walked away from the entertainment industry altogether.
After leaving the audition circuit, he eventually reinvented his career by cold-emailing his way into an internship.
That opportunity developed into a 14-year career producing an overnight sports radio show.
Topics: Nostalgia, Film and TV
Thomas Bamford