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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

...to not really want my son to be an actor for the NSPCC advert?

30 replies

FinnJett · 12/07/2016 22:12

I'm delurking to ask this, so please bear with me. My son is 7 and is really into acting, etc.

He has been asked to put forward a video audition, through his acting school's agency. I'm not so sure that I like the idea... The children that are actors, for their adverts, always stick in my mind - I feel sorry for them (which I know is the point) but do you see where I'm coming from? If not, that's okay.

Would you let him?

OP posts:
TattyDevine · 12/07/2016 22:13

Nope.

inlovewithhubby · 12/07/2016 22:14

No I wouldn't. He's very young. I think acting and drama can be brilliant for confidence etc, but I'd wait till he was at least in double figures before allowing that exposure to potential fame and potential failure. He's too tiny to make an informed choice now.

Crusoe · 12/07/2016 22:17

As the adoptive parent of a child who was abused and neglected my answer has to be yes because if just one other child can be helped as a result of your sons advert that has to be good.
I'm not sure I understand your reservations. Can you elaborate? I think 7 is quite young to get your head around the fact that some kids have to endure really awful things. Is that your concern?

MumOnTheRunCatchingUp · 12/07/2016 22:20

my friends ds is in a nspcc ad. it was all fine

but he's done loads of modelling and adverts. its very professional and the kids are not stupid

....they are very very selective when choosing children.

Earlgreywithmilk · 12/07/2016 22:27

I'm sure it would be fine but I wouldn't want my child in one (I wouldn't want my child on telly full stop tbh) - they're so sad those ads I always turn them over (I donate to the nspcc, i just don't like the manipulation of those adverts though I know people will disagree.)

If it doesn't feel right don't do it!

HidingUnderARock · 12/07/2016 22:50

I would hate people seeing my DC, recognising him, and thinking of him as the neglected/beaten/raped child in the advert. Is that what you mean?

I think it would definitely affect the way many people respond to him, especially those meeting him for the first time seeing the ad.

EverySongbirdSays · 12/07/2016 22:51

I wouldn't be able to bear to watch it. It'd be your DS's face alongside a horrendous story and you'd always be taken aback by it unawares. The NSPCC are great but given that people are provoked to donation often by "the child's face" - I would not want that to be my child's face.

SweetieDrops · 12/07/2016 22:54

NSPCC adverts stay with you don't they. I still remember that "Miles is a quiet baby, Josie is always bumping into things" one from years ago but I wouldn't recognise the children in real life.

AnotherPrickInTheWall · 12/07/2016 22:57

Yes I would let him..
Acting is just that; playing the part of someone else.
I doubt your child would be recognisable in RL as make up and lighting would make him look very different in the advert..
I think this is too good an opportunity for him to pass up and a very noble and worthwhile thing to do.

BastardGoDarkly · 12/07/2016 23:13

No, I honestly don't think I would.

DameDiazepamTheDramaQueen · 12/07/2016 23:16

My ds could do a fab nspcc sad faceWink

Seriously though, yes I'd let him if he's into acting anyway.

OlennasWimple · 12/07/2016 23:21

If you're not happy with any acting job for any reason, you should be prepared to say no

WorraLiberty · 12/07/2016 23:24

I'd be worried about the other kids at school, being too young/naive to realise it's only acting.

NeedsAsockamnesty · 12/07/2016 23:36

I wouldn't.

A very close friend of mine has been verbally and physically attacked in the street when with her child who appeared in a set of magazine ads about child abuse.

Some people are to stupid to realise it's actors

YourNewspaperIsShit · 13/07/2016 00:35

What Needs said. It's like when people go psycho about soap villains. There's a lot of idiots out there that don't understand reality

SomeDaysIDontGiveAMonkeys · 13/07/2016 00:52

Personally no. He is still very young. I find the ads extremely manipulative. I don't donate to charities that pay hundreds of thousands for advertising and pay their senior staff huge salaries. I prefer to donate to smaller local charities. Sorry went a bit off piste.

HidingUnderARock · 13/07/2016 11:33

somedays I agree totally, and then some.

MsWorthington · 13/07/2016 11:37

You can say no, I've turned down auditions for my DD because I didn't like the project. If your gut instinct is that he shouldn't do it go with it.

HidingUnderARock · 13/07/2016 11:41

oh MsWorthington just the perfect name Grin

ArcheryAnnie · 13/07/2016 12:16

There are two things here: your child being a child actor, and your child being a child actor in an NSPCC advert.

There are lots of pros and cons about allowing a 7 year old to be a child actor, but you seem to have worked through the issues and have decided that you will support him doing this. So, acting is not the issue here.

On the NSPCC advert: that's what acting is, pretending to be someone else with an entirely different back story to your own child. He won't be playing himself. That's what acting is. (Plus, this particular bit of acting is not just creating a bit of entertainment, it has the chance to help other children.)

If you do turn this NSPCC job down, in the future would you allow him to play a neglected, abused, semi-starved, friendless child, one who when "rescued" was plunged by his rescuers into a life of unimaginable danger, and who was tortured, and in the end had to murder someone to survive? Would you allow your child to play this character if (unlike an NSPCC advert) this role meant your child had worldwide recognition, could not walk down the street without everyone knowing he had played this neglected, abused child? Because that's the decision Daniel Radcliffe's parents faced, and he seems to have turned out alright.

Kenduskeag · 13/07/2016 12:18

No, but only because people are tremendously stupid and you'll be fending off comments from people who know you/see you asking why your kid's abused. Because they saw it on TV.

I was a child actor. I did a drama series where my in-the-show parents committed crimes.

For the rest of primary school I was mocked, but high school was where it got a lot more serious, with outright hostility, verbal and physical abuse based around the fact 'my mum and dad' did those things. It was a nightmare. My parents ordered me to 'put a stop to the bullying' because they were concerned people would hear the gossip and think they were murderers. So, yeah, not very supportive. Nor were the school ("just a bit of joshing, isn't it? I'm sure you're all friends really")

So really, just to avoid the inevitable years of dopey gits in the street tugging on your arm and asking if you got your boy from the TV people, or that you're scum and they're going to burn your house down, or your son having his classmates asking him if his dad pushed him downstairs again or climbed into his bed at night. For the next ten years.

lljkk · 13/07/2016 12:26

I loathe NSPCC, so no from me. But I wouldn't be enthused about my child being an actor, anyway.

Pinkheart5915 · 13/07/2016 12:33

I wouldn't but only because I think 7 is way too young for acting on tv and there are bound to be some stupid people out there that think your ds is actually abused and not realise his an actor.

EverySongbirdSays · 13/07/2016 13:24

Annie because playing a fictional wizard is TOTALLY the same as an ad campaign were you are the face of true horror stories Hmm

Attending school became difficult for Radcliffe after the release of the first Harry Potter film, with some fellow pupils becoming hostile, though he says it was people just trying to "have a crack at the kid that plays Harry Potter" rather than jealousy

Yeah, that sounds like a right barrel of laughs for Radcliffe who was educated in the main from then on by tutors on film sets and elected not to go to uni, because he didn't believe he could ever have a 'real' uni experience

mouldycheesefan · 13/07/2016 13:28

No but I am very choosy about auditions.

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