Celebrity
Joey King & Logan Lerman Discussed The “Darkness” Of Being Child Actors
Their TikTok about it was “really not funny.”
We Were the Lucky Ones is the title of Joey King and Logan Lerman’s new Hulu miniseries, and it turns out it’s also a phrase that sums up how they feel about being working actors after growing up in the entertainment industry. When the two appeared on The Kelly Clarkson Show on April 5, they described themselves as “trauma bonded” due to their experiences as child actors.
King, 24, and Lerman, 32, were both elementary school-aged when they had their breakout roles — she in 2010’s Ramona and Beezus and he as Mel Gibson’s youngest son in 2000’s The Patriot. They first met at a Q&A event 10 or 11 years ago, Lerman told Clarkson. It was only later, after 2022’s Bullet Train, that they “had time to actually hang out” and “really became friends,” they said. King revealed that Lerman’s fiancée, Ana Corrigan, calls them “trauma bonded,” and he attributed it to “the weirdness of being in this industry.”
A “Dark” TikTok
King got deeper into their bond by sharing the story of their failed attempt to make a funny TikTok. After “a couple margaritas,” the two decided to jump on the “Of Course” trend, where you make a video saying, “I’m a [blank]. Of course I [blank].” They spent about an hour working on one about child actors, King recalled, and thought it was “hysterical” at first.
It didn’t take long for their opinion to change. “The next morning, we were like, ‘This is really not funny. This is really dark,’” King said, adding, “We were like, ‘Let’s not post that maybe.’”
A Shared Passion
On the plus side, the two have also taken good things from their pasts, despite the struggles child actors face. “We kind of enjoyed the journey and … there’s weird things that happened, but it didn’t really, like, take away from the fact that we just love making movies and television shows,” Lerman said. He highlighted that they bonded over their “resilience” and King said they “both have positive outlooks.”
Both have continued to be able to do the work they love. King shared that she wants to be acting “for a long time,” and Lerman called it “not just a job” but “a passion.” “It’s such a privilege,” he said. “Not everyone gets to do that. You might start at a certain point, you’ll get a little bit of luck, a little bit of work, and then it fizzles away. The fact that we’re able to continue doing what we love is really fortunate.”
Watch their interview below.
