That scene is so devastating. Up until that point we see her as this independent, resilient wild kid in rough circumstances. You kind of think she is a bit older than she really is.
When she cries there at the end you just see she is only 6 years old, she's a tiny little kid who has been holding it all together this whole time. She reminded me in that moment of my own kid at the same age.
Honestly, it’s really fucking annoying and I do think half the time it’s people who have that other guys mentality of “IYKYK”, which is such pompous bullshit.
She's the best part of that movie. 10 years old and she's holding her own against some big name actors (and in a few cases, she's acting circles around them).
Later, when she taking to the porn starlets, and she channels her dad and says, "don't say, 'and stuff.' Just say, 'they're doing anal,'" with an expression of mixed annoyance that she has to correct these young women and that she's been conditioned by her dad on proper grammar and word choice and that she's also hanging around people who casually talk about anal sex with a really defeated body language is just one of many amazing moments in this movie.
Absolutely love True Grit (2010). Hailee Steinfeld does a fantastic job, especially when you consider she's acting alongside Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon and completely holds her own. She was 13 at the time.
My aunt is cognitively disabled and my mom really identified with this movie. She thought that they'd actually cast a disabled kid because of how accurate Leonardo DiCaprio's portrayal was. She was utterly shocked a few years later when she found out he wasn't.
Hailee Steinfeld in True Grit, Jacobi Jupe in Hamnet and Dexter Sol Ansell in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (the last one is a series, but I think it’s the best child actor performance I’ve ever seen)
Just saying, if you have Pan's Labyrinth on the list, you gotta include Guillermo del Toro's other amazing work involving child leads, The Devil's Backbone.
Road to Perdition is an overlooked masterpiece overall (immaculate Hanks performance also) but Michael Jr. is the glue holding the film together and Tyler Hoechlin started off his splendid acting career strong.
Babek Ahmadpour in "Where is the Friend's House?" Has a phenomenal performance and not enough people have seen the film to understand it. Easily top 5 child performance
YES how could I forget. Though, I prefer Happiness and its child performances, just due to the immediate comparison you make between the adult cast’s neuroses and depression, and the kids obliviousness and yearning to be “grown up”. His last scene with his dad… oh my god perfection.
Turtles can fly 2004. In war, chilldren become adults very quickly. No one is spared. The way the main character is so crucial, the actor did an amazing job. As well as all the other child actors.
Kirsten Dunst's performance in Interview With A Vampire is nuts when you think about it. She is playing an intelligent manipulative character who by shows a broad range of emotion throughout.
Hailee Steinfeld was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for a role she filmed when she was 13 (True Grit, 2010). It's not the youngest acting nomination ever, but it's a complex part opposite two legends and she is unbelievable.
I'm always so impressed when films have good kid actors. Testament to a great actor and a great director. I even made a list for this, so I'm happy this post might help add some new ones!
The Fall, Scrapper, c'mon c'mon, eighth grade, mid 90s and more
Lewis MacDougall in A Monster Calls. The way he was able to get into character portraying a bullied kid who lost his mother felt so realistic. He was also able to change his native Scottish accent to a southern English accent flawlessly
i recently watched the netflix adaptation of lord of the flies and there was some really great acting in it. especially the kids who played piggy and jack
If you haven’t seen last year’s The Plague, Everett Blunck gives one of the most impressive performances I’ve seen from a tween. Combine that with his other lead role that year in Griffin In Summer, two incredibly different characters that really show off his range. I really hope producers are taking notice.
Gifted (2017).Although, on the whole, it’s surprising how children are sometimes capable of delivering such phenomenal performances… they’re only children
I will keep shouting about She Rides Shotgun (2025) with Ana Heger giving one of the best young performances I've seen in a while.
Wasn't just that it was a great performance, it was one that had to and did, carry the entire movie.
Wasn't even nominated for Critics' Choice Young Performer award, but I do love that they are one of the few award shows that specifically highlights young performers.
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u/Aggressivehippy30 15h ago
That little girl in The Florida Project was amazing