Jaleel White is Pissed That the Emmys Overlook Child Actors
Stranger Things didn’t win any major awards, despite their almost entirely child cast is incredibly talented. But one of the most successful child actors of them all, Family Matters star Jaleel White, is coming to bat for them.
“Not surprising the #Emmys only pretended to acknowledge #StrangerThings,” the tweeted. “Ur family programs would be trash w/o solid young performers.”
He later noted that it’s been 33 years since a child actor won an Emmy. “Kids get roughed up in showbiz,” he said. “It ain’t always drugs.”
In a follow up interview with Entertainment Weekly, Jaleel wrote: “Sometimes our awards process can be very political, in terms of just driving personal agendas, and I think we forget. It’s just a simple message that I was trying to get across: You don’t get good and become great at anything without starting at a young age and having tremendous consistency. Somehow our youth doesn’t get honored; our youth just gets hazed.”
He continued: “They feel so entitled to the accolade they’ve probably worked for their entire career, that it’s offensive to them almost that someone so young, who hasn’t been through [their] journey, beat [them] for that award. And I just think that’s the wrong attitude to look at it. For directors and producers, you’re not going to get competent performers on your set if they didn’t start at a young age and understand professionalism.”