Child Star Wil Wheaton Felt ‘Forced’ To Act By Parents

Wil Wheaton Did Not Want Child Stardom

Columbia Pictures

Stand By Me, which turns 35 years old this year, is an amazing movies. All the child actors, including Wil Wheaton, brought their roles to life. Of course, for the anniversary many people have been conducting interviews with the original cast, including Wheaton. Sadly, in a recent interview, the 48-year-old star confessed that he faced child abuse from his parents during the filming of the movie. In fact, he did not want to act at all.

“My mother coached me to go into her agency and tell the children’s agent, ‘I want to do what mommy does,’” Wheaton revealed last week. “And through a combination of an incredible emotional abuse from my father and a lot of manipulation, using me, from my mother, it really put me in that place.” Stand By Me made him a star, in particular, later granting Wheaton a place in Star Trek: The Next Generation’s cast. Yet, the fame didn’t bring him much happiness.

Forced To Become A Child Star

Columbia Pictures

In fact, Wheaton said that the role portrayed in Stand By Me really suited the real emotions the young actor felt at the time. Perhaps, Reiner felt it, too, so he cast the boy right away. “[It] put me in exactly the right place to play Gordie because Gordie’s experience very much reflected my experience,” Wheaton explained. “We’re both invisible in our homes. We both have a brother who is the golden child. We’re both the scapegoat in the family. So when I watch Stand By Me now, I cannot ignore the unbelievable sadness in my eyes. And I cannot ignore the reality that it was that sadness, that isolation that I think gave me what Gordie needed to come to life and I think Rob Reiner saw that.” Now, he said that he’d want to be a writer more than an actor.

No one knew what was happening in Wheaton’s family. Even Jerry O’Connell, the Stand By Me co-star and the actor’s great friend said that he had no idea about those parental issues. “I think what should be said is you have no idea — not even co-workers, just people close to you — you have no idea what is going on with someone,” he said. O’Connell advised to always pay attention to your friends and family members and intervene if anything goes wrong. “I think just even saying that reaches a hand out to someone,” he added.