Filmmakers are always taking a major risk when they choose to include children in their roster of characters. Often, directors will rely heavily on a child’s natural cuteness and organic naïveté to get them through each scene in a way that doesn’t undermine the storytelling. However, when it’s time for real plot movement and character development, a poor performance from a child can rapidly disrupt the suspension of disbelief required to keep an audience engaged. Convincing acting performances require years of real-life experience and technical training — something young actors typically lack. Still, every so often young actors are able to turn out grounded, powerful performances that have even resulted in Oscar nominations. Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense, Abigail Breslin in Little Miss Sunshine, and Hailee Steinfeld in True Grit (2010) are fairly recent examples of this.
