Brian Damage
04-09-2010, 09:53 PM
Former child stars are famous for their all-too-frequent troubles -- the untimely death of Corey Haim is perhaps the most dramatic example in recent memory, but brushes with drugs and the law have plagued young stars from 'Diff'rent Strokes' to 'Full House.' Just this week, former 'Family Ties' baby Brian Bonsall was sentenced for charges of assault and felony menacing.
It's refreshing to see a one-time child actor emerge from the experience unscathed; 'Blossom' star Mayim Bialik is one such success story. The actress has been working steadily in television after a lengthy hiatus -- during which she earned a PhD in neuroscience and started a family. Bialik talks to PopEater exclusively about keeping it together in Hollywood, balancing motherhood with her career and her upcoming arc on 'The Big Bang Theory.'
Bialik acknowledges the dangers of growing up in the public eye but insists that no child is immune to trouble. "There is no formula for how to make any kid turn out OK. Whether they're in the industry or not," Bialik says. "Obviously, it's more interesting when we're in the industry because people get access to our lives and details about us that they don't with the average kid down the street who's doing drugs."
"I knew Corey [Haim], we ran in the same circles and we did publicity stuff together," she continues. "His parents were immigrants to Israel, and he was Jewish. I know a little bit about his family ... I feel like it would be a disservice to his memory and to his family to say, you know, my grandparents worked in sweatshops and my parents lived in poverty and they were very strict with me. And they were, I mean that is the truth. But that's not why I turned out the way I did. Yes, I was raised in a traditional home. Yes, my dad believed I should take out the trash even if I was on 'The Tonight Show' that evening as well. But it's not that simple."
"When you deal with kids in the industry, we're either getting something that we need by being in front of people and getting that attention, or being in front of people and getting that attention is fulfilling to some need we didn't know we had. So I think when it gets to the degree of self-medicating that you see people do ... that's really an issue of mental illness. I also speak from kind of a neuroscience perspective, because that was my training, but I think any time someone is driven to be that numb, it's a larger issue. It's not just that they were famous."
http://www.popeater.com/2010/04/09/mayim-bialik-corey-haim-big-bang/
It's refreshing to see a one-time child actor emerge from the experience unscathed; 'Blossom' star Mayim Bialik is one such success story. The actress has been working steadily in television after a lengthy hiatus -- during which she earned a PhD in neuroscience and started a family. Bialik talks to PopEater exclusively about keeping it together in Hollywood, balancing motherhood with her career and her upcoming arc on 'The Big Bang Theory.'
Bialik acknowledges the dangers of growing up in the public eye but insists that no child is immune to trouble. "There is no formula for how to make any kid turn out OK. Whether they're in the industry or not," Bialik says. "Obviously, it's more interesting when we're in the industry because people get access to our lives and details about us that they don't with the average kid down the street who's doing drugs."
"I knew Corey [Haim], we ran in the same circles and we did publicity stuff together," she continues. "His parents were immigrants to Israel, and he was Jewish. I know a little bit about his family ... I feel like it would be a disservice to his memory and to his family to say, you know, my grandparents worked in sweatshops and my parents lived in poverty and they were very strict with me. And they were, I mean that is the truth. But that's not why I turned out the way I did. Yes, I was raised in a traditional home. Yes, my dad believed I should take out the trash even if I was on 'The Tonight Show' that evening as well. But it's not that simple."
"When you deal with kids in the industry, we're either getting something that we need by being in front of people and getting that attention, or being in front of people and getting that attention is fulfilling to some need we didn't know we had. So I think when it gets to the degree of self-medicating that you see people do ... that's really an issue of mental illness. I also speak from kind of a neuroscience perspective, because that was my training, but I think any time someone is driven to be that numb, it's a larger issue. It's not just that they were famous."
http://www.popeater.com/2010/04/09/mayim-bialik-corey-haim-big-bang/