Sometimes, when I’m looking at new photos of the Jolie-Pitt children, I do wonder if any of them will end up in the film industry, and if they’ll be able to carve out their own celebrity identities apart from their famous parents. I tend to think it will be easier for Vivienne and Shiloh, should they want to become actresses. They’ll end up pretty women, and if they get even one-tenth of their mom’s wild streak, they should pretty entertaining. But I’ve never really wondered about the boys – Maddox and Pax especially seem too quiet and thoughtful for the actor’s life. Angelina has even said, in several interviews, that Maddox seems destined for military life. So imagine my surprise at this odd report in this week’s National Enquirer. According to an insider, Maddox is obsessed with movies, he wants to become an actor, and Brad might cast him in a film adaptation of a graphic novel:
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are out to make son Maddox’s greatest wish come true – by turning him into an action-film star! Maddox “lives, eats and breathes” movies and animated features, said an insider, and he’s been begging his parents to help him land a big-screen role. Now it looks like Brad and Angie have found the perfect part for him!
According to the insider, Angelina is pushing hard to get Maddox the lead role in “Battling Boy,” a science fiction epic being produced by Brad’s Plan B production company. They hope to begin filming next year.
Based on a graphic novel, “Battling Boy” is about the young son of a god who leaves his immortal mountaintop home to fight monsters in the city of Monstropolis.
“Brad loved the project so much he bought the book almost a year before it was on the shelves,” revealed an insider. “Brad and Angie think this is something Maddox can not only handle, but would do a great job on.”
“Maddox has been begging Brad and Angie for the chance to star in one of their movies,” added the insider “They feel that this superhero project is the perfect first step for him.”
[From The Enquirer, print edition]
Empress Zahara does not approve, I fear. Sidenote: Zahara is the movie-star of the family, right? THAT FACE. Anyway, back to Maddox – I just don’t think that Angelina would want to throw any of her kids into a film project. Whatever you think of her, she’s not Dina Lohan, you know? Even if Maddox is begging to do something, I can’t see Brad handing him a lead role, either. I think it would be fine if Brad and Angelina let the kids take small parts in their movies, let the kids see what film-making is really like.
As for the industry side of this – The Enquirer isn’t The Hollywood Reporter. There’s an IMDB page for Battling Boy, and there’s industry gossip about the script (David Gordon Green was said to be working on the adaptation) and some legit outlets are going with the Enquirer’s rumor. I don’t know – it sounds odd to me.
Photos courtesy of Fame.
All I know is that he could totally play a badass (just like his mother).
But I honestly hope they spare their kids from this industry — at least for a while.
EDIT @ Mln76:
I thought about the Smiths too. I don’t get some of these kids who are eager to become famous. If I was kid with that priviliged life I’d enjoy it as much as I could WITHOUT working.
I really doubt they’d do that. I really hope they wouldn’t turn into the Smiths. Angie has said several times that she doesn’t want them to be actors and would prefer writers/explorers. However I do think that Shiloh and Knox both seem to love costumes and have a flair for drama that would make good performers WHEN THEY GROW UP.
Maybe they should read the Corey Feldman post first.
I doubt it. That’s mixing family and business together. Even if Angie and Brad have worked many times together it’s different with kids and Angie already was a movie star.
It’s a lot of pressure for a kid to suddenly have a starring role as opposed to getting his feet wet with smaller roles. It’s worked for Will Smith’s son but even Jaden starred alongside his dad before doing the solo act. I doubt these two would put their kids in that pressure boiler so early in life.
@Mln76 Whats wrong with The Smith family?
Can’t say that I like this post…seriously, there are no quiet and thoughtful actors? Keanu Reeves is one. Your genetics don’t determine if you can be a successful actor or not. Sometimes they help, I guess,…but its not a deciding factor. If any of the JP children wanted to act and they were good actors, they could do it. I don’t buy this story at all, really wish tabloids wouldn’t do stories about children.
She seems very protective of all the kids. I think this story is BS, especially considering the source.
@Love Angelina I love how protective you are of celebs 🙂 I just don’t agree with how the Smiths are pushing their kids out there so early.
Here is a Willow Smith quote:
“I never really get to go to school because I am always on tour or with my father. There is a tutor most of the time, but usually I am working so I never get to do the lessons.
Read more: http://witchesbrewonline.com/2010/12/brew-quotes-willow-smith-on-skipping-math-class/#ixzz1Uotjy3Hl
I find that disturbing. She should go to school and wait several years. Look at what Corey Feldman has to say about what he went through. There are so many child stars that end up having tragic lives that a ‘normal’ & successful child star like Ron Howard is actually the exception not the norm.
I’ve had enough of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt to last a life time. I sure hope I won’tbe stuck watching their children for the next 30 years.
I agree with everything mln has said, with the exception of leaving Empress Z out, that girl, I swear, she’s going to take over the world by storm if she ever gets the itch to act or model.
@Derpy the Empress would be a great model but I also think she’s got the smarts to literally take over the planet.
It’s the National Enq but who knows I see maybe Shiloh kicking ass on the movie scene like Angie even Zahara. But I think Jolie-Pitt will not want their kids in this industry to young – they seem uber protective
OMG exploitation! 😮 Money must be tight in the Jolie-Pitt household if they’re sending the kids out to work. What next? The Empress and Shiloh selling home-made jewellery on the shopping channel, modelled by Viv and Knox?
I don’t really see them doing this but Maddox is a handsome little guy and it would be great to see some more child actors of Asian descent, instead of just casting white kids in those roles.
@7. Mln76 ‘Angie has said several times that she doesn’t want them to be actors and would prefer writers/explorers’ OMG seriously?? She wants her kids to become ‘writers/explorers’? Did she actually say that? In what kind of world does this woman live, 16th century Spain?
@cherry
to explore means to learn about the world. What’s wrong with that. Their children will have wealth. Thus more opportunties to do different things in and with their lives. What world do you live in to not know that there are actually people that do this for a living. Do you ever watch those National Geo shows or similar ones and I guess you have never read a book or seen a movie or play. Just as there are people that dream of their children being actors or professional athletes and now even Reality Stars. Trust those dream are just as strange to some people.
the comment was made when she was doing PR of KFP2. she and Jack were asked if their kids had shown any interest in action. Jack said he thought his 4 year old did. ‘Angie said not that she could see but she wanted or dreamed of writers and explorers. Especially considering how actors and such have so much of their lives picked to pieces. Every word taken as more than it was intended.
And why doeseverything she says have to be made into some overreaction.
@Mln76 Yea I have seen that quote before and it doesn’t make much sense. It doesn’t sound true. I think its a lie, creative fiction by The Telegraph. Will Smith is an actor…he isn’t a musician. What exactly is he on tour for? When he is on tour…I haven’t seen any Will Smith tour dates for Chicago. Haven’t seen any for her. Willow hasn’t even released an album yet, why would she need to be on tour? LOL “all the kids are ahead of me because they go to school” Does Willow mean her brothers? What kid talks like that? Why not just say my brothers? I can’t say I know much about how Jada and Will educate their kids but I was under the impression that they were all home schooled. That article was full of it IMO.
@mln76 re: Smiths
I don’t get what the rush either. Doesn’t she really have to do in on the biggest scale possible right now? Can’t she just have fun dancing and singing at her school art events or something? Take lessons if she’s really into it? Does her talent (although I’m not convinved she really has one) have to be exploited to the extend that it’s the only thing she knows at such a tender age?
Re: Maddox – it’s 100% BS.
@LOVE ANGELINA Will Smith IS a musician. Actually he was a musician before he was an actor. And still is.
Forget acting Maddox, I am waiting for you to grow up fast so you can write the first book of what it really was like to grow up in that family. Forget acting, learn to read and write instead!!!
Wouldn’t surprise me at all especially if he loves it & wanted to try it. Plus, his parents would be with him – it’s under Brad’s production co. Not giving my personal opinion on whether or not M should be allowed versus not, but just don’t find this surprising @ all. Angelina may have appearances to be a bitch, saint, whatever – but no one knows what she really thinks except for her.
I can’t see Maddox in the movie industries. But I can totally see the others.. Shilou would be a baddass actress like her mother in her young days, and Vivienne her totally opposite I guess. Oh yeah the Empress has that face.
I’m waiting for Maddox to stomp a knot in chelsea handlers *ss.
@N.D. EXACTLY it’s the worst thing in the world to give young kids everything they want. I especially find Jaden’s attitude disturbing. They maybe succesful now but what is all this doing to them. As Lohan, Haim and so many other have proved it can all go away in the bat of an eye and the public can turn on you like that. They are already really sheltered from reality as is every celeb kid. The best thing in the world for these kids is to be grounded to learn about the world outside of Hollywood and to get an education. If years down the road they still want to pursue it then so be it.
@ N.D. – Brings back memories of The Fresh Prince & DJ Jazzy Jeff! Now I’m aging myself, lol. 🙂
@Mln76 How does Jaden’s attitude disturb you? Just because Lohan and Haim turned out wrong doesn’t mean the Smith children will trun out that way. For one they actually have parents in the business…successful parents. Will and Jada aren’t stage parents. They are successful people, they have never had any troubles with the law or with drugs.
Second I can’t think of better guidance for aspiring child actors/singers like Willow and Jaden then their own parents who will keep them grounded just like Will’s family kept him grounded when he got famous at a young age.
Third, for every child actor who turns out screwed up there are 2 more who turn out fine. Like those kids on the Wonder Years. Dakota Fanning, that kid from Mad Men, Raven Simone, Malcolm Jamal Warner, Anna Paquin, Kirsten Dunst, and that Abigail Breslin. A bunch others.
So if you need to worry about any child actors, worry about the ones whose parents see a lil talent in their kid and because they are broke push the kid to be famous…or the ones who have parents that wish they were famous so they put the kid pageants and acting shows and crap. Ignore the kid if they say they don’t wanna do it or show signs of stress. Seriously this ganging up on Will and Jada doesn’t feel right at all. Two very nice, good people and because their children wanna do films and sing they are bad people. Thats crazy. Heck even Angelina started modeling at a young age and she was in her first film when she was five years old. A small part, yes but still.
@Love Angelina I’ve worked with kids in the past so I am speaking from expierience. Kids need boundaries they need to actually earn the things they want not have them handed to them. One of the differences between say the Fanning sisters and the Smiths is that especially Dakota got where she is because of talent not because of a family name. When a kid ends up getting things handed to them it sets up unrealistic expectations in the worst case scenario you end up w/someone like Cameron Douglas who after getting mentored by people like Pat Riley etc. feel like they’ve earned something they haven’t actually earned then come crashing back to reality. I hope they prove me wrong though.
Oh and LA Angie started young but she didn’t have her career handed to her she did a cameo in her dad’s film and the auditions were made through contacts she had to earn her fame by doing drivel like Cyborg2 and TV movies which ended up earning her acclaim. Handing your kid a multimillion potential franchise or getting Jay-Z to produce a record for a little kid is an utterly different thing. (there’s another long post in mod)
Brad said on the RC that his kids can only act after they are 18.@aenflex You have had enough of this family yet you can’t ignore articles about them .LOl. This is tabloid BS as usual.
Vivian looks just like Shilo, all such beautiful kids
@Mln76 I don’t think Willow or Jaden had anything handed to them. I don’t mind that their parents have connections and even still the kids have the talent to back it up. I think Jaden and Willow are very talented, why shouldn’t they act and sing when they can? If others kids can do it, I don’t see why they can’t.
@love Angelina you can’t seriously think Whip My Hair would be a hit w/o the Smith name. Willow is cute but she’s not by any stretch a good singer. I didn’t watch Jaden in Karate Kid. But in interviews Will has been very open about the fact that he got them these opportunities because they ‘wanted’ them. He honestly in MY mind is totally a show parent getting off on the fact that he can make his kids successful in the biz if not his wife. I’m betting his older son was kept so grounded by the first wife. No one said it better than Billie Holiday ‘Mama may have, Papa may have, but god bless the child that’s got his own’
I doubt this story. Mind you, Shiloh was in Benjamin Button, but she was just standing in for a fussy baby.
Small parts/stand-in work and maybe voiceover work – I can see, but a full-scale acting career – no.
Besides, I would think that the play-acting games they play at home would be heads and shoulders more fun than working in movies.
Knox in his pirate outfit – LOL!!!!
Does Maddox ever grow? No criticism here, just…they all seem to change except him.
i sure hope this is true, more jolie/pitt please,… keep it going.
buckley, maddox looks like the infant Angie adopted to you STILL? WOW
In every picture posted he is the tallest kid as he should be and you don’t see that? WOW
Then I can’t help you.
@HorsePoorHanna: Rolling on the floor laughing at your comment. Chelsea Handler needs a put down. I can’t stand her mean and vindictive jokes about the children just because their parents are Angie and Brad.
@Love Angelina
Willow Smith quote starts @1:00
“I never really get to go to school because I am always on tour or with my father. There is a tutor most of the time, but usually I am working so I never get to do the lessons.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOVKB8auDcA
@Little Helper
OK.. first the story about Madd in the movie has not been shown to NOT BE TRUE.
I saw some of that video.. of Willow and she said that she doesn’t do lessons even when the tutor is there. And that she is behind the other kids.
I thought Will and Jada built a school or something. Some new kind of education system they were putting in place.
I don’t mind child performers. I just think education is so important. If they are in school, home-schooled or tutors. Just have some kind of education. Willow in that video talking about hers is a bit scary. And she was being honest. I hope things have changed and she is actually doing more lessons.
So please stop ragging on the JPs for using tutors. I think their kids are getting well educated.
@LOVE ANGELINA It’s OK that they sing, dance and act. Why should they do it PROFESSIONALLY though? Why should it be their JOB? What’s the urgency? Why can’t they do it on kiddy level – in school with their peers/friends, taking classes and so on? Why they have to be thrown into business at 10?
BTW: Maddox isn’t doing this movie. It’s been refuted. By “sources”, mind you, but I’m pretty sure that JJ sources are correct.
just hoping maddox doesn’t get into silly romcoms…
Christian girl, if you think that’s what I meant, then I can’t help you either.
I don’t know, I could see Maddox doing something behind the scenes, like stunt work or special effects. He looks like he’d blowing things up.
Not sure if this rumor is true, but it’s not usual for kids to see what their parents do for a living or in their free time and want to do the same. These kids have both parents in a one-in-a-million-succeed industry, but their kids only see it as that thing Mom and Dad do. And hey, it looks like fun. Can I try that?
My kids see me on a stage in front of crowds a lot. They think it’s interesting, but I’m sure, like these kids, they’re around it so much that they take for granted they can step into that world whenever they take a fancy. Of course I don’t want my kids to grind it out for years like I have to achieve success. And I can’t say I won’t use connections to give them a leg up or a jump start, but at some point success has to be earned.
Giving Maddox a film role wrapped up in a pretty bow like it’s a Christmas present just sounds like a colossally bad idea.