Legally Independent! Drew Barrymore and Other Child Stars Who Were Emancipated From Their Parents

Drew Barrymore

Don’t forget, Drew Barrymore used to be a child star! When she was just 14 years old, she got emancipated from her mother, Jaid Barrymore, due to their tumultuous relationship.

In her memoir Wildflower, Drew explained why she and her mother never got along. “It’s no secret that I had to part ways from my mother,” she wrote. “We had driven our relationship into the ground. She had lost credibility as a mother by taking me to Studio 54 (so wrong, but so fun) instead of school. And I was out of control due to working since I was 11 months old and what that had done to my childhood, which made me grow up too fast.”

Macaulay Culkin

Being a child star is not as easy as it seems. At the age of 16, Home Alone star Macaulay Culkin got emancipated by the courts. At the time, he claimed his father, Kit Culkin, had mismanaged his multi-million dollar fortune and had squandered his earnings.

Alicia Silverstone

When Alicia Silverstone filed to be emancipated from her parents, she was anything but clueless! In order for the former teen idol to work longer hours in Hollywood, she had to skirt child labor laws and that’s exactly what she did to book her The Crush gig at age 15.

“If you’re emancipated, it means you’re legally 18,” she told Rolling Stone in a 1995 interview. “I had to stand before a judge and tell him I was living on my own, which was not true, and also tell him I was self-supporting, which was true. And then after sophomore year, I quit high school.”

Alicia’s dad, Monty Silverstone, helped her with the whole process. The only thing he wanted was for his daughter to succeed. There was no love lost with him.

“I didn’t want her to be emancipated,” Monty recalled. “But her agent kept telling me if she wasn’t emancipated, she wouldn’t get The Crush. So I weakened and sat Alicia down and said, ‘Listen, you’re emancipated, but you’ve got to promise you’re always going to be my little girl. I don’t want anything to change. It’s got to be exactly as it is now.’”

Alicia tried to keep her promise, but soon after she gained her freedom, everything soon changed. “I’ll never forget the feeling the day she went off to do The Crush,” her mom, Didi Silverstone, told the magazine. “This feeling of loss like I lost her. From that day on, it was never quite the same.”

Michelle Williams

Very much like Alicia’s situation, Michelle Williams had enough of being told how long she could stay on set while doing a film. As soon as she turned 15 years old she became legally emancipated from her parents and never looked back.

“My father was supportive of it, my mother not so much, being a mother,” she previously told the Telegraph, but said that ultimately it worked out for her. “It has its benefits. I did discover along the way that I loved to do [acting].” How about that!

Jaden Smith (Well, Almost)

Once Will Smith and Jada Pickett Smith‘s son, Jaden Smith, started to get a feel of the world, he decided it was time for him to separate himself from his parents.

“At 15 years old, Jaden, and I remember this day specifically, it’s probably one of the most heartbreaking moments of my life,” his mom previously recalled on Red Table Talk. “You got to a point where you told me straight up, you were like, ‘Mom, I have to leave here to live my life.’”

Instead of arguing with Jaden and forcing him to stay, Jada knew that it was time for her to let him go. “I remember thinking to myself, as devastated as I was, I was like, ‘He’s right.’ The time is now. He’s 15. It’s time for him to leave the house,’” she said. But when it came down to it, Jaden never went through with the process.

“Every child needs something different,” the Different World actress said. “Being in this lifestyle, in this world is a bubble and he wanted out. I understood that because I didn’t have the bubble. I knew what having my freedom outside the bubble, what I gained from that. I knew the sooner I let him go, the faster he was going to come back.”

Laura Dern

Before Laura Dern was nominated for her first Oscar in 1992, she was simply a child actress — the daughter of actor Bruce Dern — trying to make her way in Hollywood. Turns out that once the Big Little Lies star turned 17, her mother helped her file for emancipation so she could further her career in Hollywood.

After Laura became legally independent she moved in with self-help writer Marianne Williamson — who is currently running as a Democratic candidate to become president of the United States — and went on to become one of the most popular actresses in L.A.!

Courtney Love

Just like Laura, Courtney Love got emancipated from her parents at age 17, but she didn’t do it for a professional reason. She just didn’t want to be attached to her mother, Linda Carroll, and her father, Hank Harrison, anymore.

Ironically, once Courtney’s daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, became a teenager, she filed to be emancipated as well. “When I stepped away from all those antics, I was looking for the most normal thing I could find,” Frances revealed to RuPaul and Michelle Visage about her mother on their “What’s the Tee?” podcast in January 2019.

Corey Feldman

At age 15, Corey Feldman became legally independent. In order to be emancipated from his parents, he argued to a judge that his caretakers squandered his fortune from movies like Goonies and Stand By Me and he simply wanted to be in charge of his own funds.

After careful deliberation, the judge granted him his freedom and thus began the so-called “Emancipation Proclamation in Hollywood.”

Rose McGowan

Rose McGowan emancipated herself from her parents at age 15. In her book Brave, she claims she was raised by an absentee mother and a verbally abusive father. At the time, Rose didn’t think twice about separating herself from the people who brought her into the world. The decision made itself.

Jaime Pressly

In a past interview, Jaime Pressly explained why she sought to be a legally independent woman at a very young age.

“At 14, especially for a girl, it’s hormone hell. We all think we know everything. I was very strong-minded – I still am. I was emancipated at 15 and off to Japan on a [modeling] contract, working,” she said. “I felt for my parents. I apologized profusely years later, but I was just very strong-willed and strong-minded and had my own ideas, thought outside of the box. And coming from a small town, I really didn’t fit in at all.”

Juliette Lewis

Juliette Lewis was another kid actor who wanted to work longer hours in Hollywood. “My parents helped me get emancipated from child labor laws,” she confessed on HuffPost Live in 2014.

“I know that sounds all radical, but when you start acting when you’re younger, you talk to other actor kids and their moms, and they’re like, ‘Yeah, if you want to get a job, they like on your resume to say emancipated minor versus minor, because you then can work over eight hours,'” she continued. “So I just have to clear that up.”

Eliza Dushku

Let’s not forget that Eliza Dushku was an emancipated child actor too! Her decision was simple: Work only eight hours in Hollywood and still be attached to her parents or work as long as she liked and get more roles while being separated from her caretakers. She chose the latter!