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In ProductIon |<br />
By sean J. mIller<br />
Angus T. Jones’ plea to<br />
be released from his<br />
contract on “Two and<br />
a Half Men” came as<br />
little surprise to the managers and<br />
families of child performers.<br />
Jones’ comments in an interview<br />
with Alabama-based<br />
Christian doomsday preacher<br />
Christopher Hudson have sparked<br />
a backlash against the actor. In<br />
the lengthy interview, Jones said<br />
his work on the long-running<br />
CBS series “means nothing.”<br />
He addressed the viewers directly.<br />
“If you watch ‘Two and a Half<br />
Men’ please stop watching ‘Two and<br />
a Half Men.’ I’m on ‘Two and a Half<br />
Men’ and I don’t want to be on it.<br />
Please stop watching it. Please stop<br />
filling your head with filth,” he said.<br />
Jones said his views had been<br />
shaped by his joining a Los Angeles–<br />
area Seventh-day Adventist Church.<br />
“I walked in and sat down kind<br />
of in the back. The message that<br />
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and the First winners are…<br />
IFp’s 22nd annual gotham Independent<br />
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New york, named wes anderson’s “Moonrise<br />
Kingdom” best feature over nominees “the Master,”<br />
“Bernie,” “the Loneliest Planet,” and “Middle<br />
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emayatzy corinealdi earned the breakthrough<br />
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tv<br />
Childhood’s End<br />
Like other young performers, “two and a<br />
haLf men” star angus t. Jones wants out<br />
the pastor was preaching that day<br />
was tailor-made for me. Everything<br />
about the message was me,” he<br />
said. “That was my church.”<br />
The Seventh-day Adventist<br />
Church, a Protestant denomination,<br />
marks Saturday as the Sabbath and<br />
believes that the second coming<br />
of Jesus Christ is imminent.<br />
Jones’ employers aren’t commenting<br />
on the young actor’s<br />
expression of his religious beliefs.<br />
Jones later issued a statement<br />
apologizing to cast and crew for<br />
his comments, saying he did not<br />
intend them to be disparaging.<br />
But the reaction from TV columnists,<br />
critics, and viewers of the<br />
show has been swift: Don’t let<br />
the door hit you on the way out.<br />
“If Angus doesn’t want to work<br />
on a hit show, why should he?<br />
There are thousands of actors in<br />
Hollywood who need the work. Set<br />
him free,” wrote Hal Boedeker, a<br />
columnist for the Orlando Sentinel.<br />
Still, those experienced in<br />
working with child actors—Jones<br />
actor award for her performance in<br />
the sundance film festival favorite;<br />
“Beasts of the southern<br />
wild” director Benh Zeitlin<br />
won the breakthrough director<br />
award.<br />
“your sister’s sister,”<br />
starring Mark Duplass, emily<br />
Blunt, and rosemarie Dewitt,<br />
was the surprise winner<br />
of the award for best ensemble<br />
Jon Cryer and Angus T. Jones<br />
on “Two and a Half Men”<br />
is 19 but has been on the show<br />
since its 2003 debut—say he’s going<br />
through something typical.<br />
“It’s not really unusual at all for<br />
kids who have worked a long time<br />
to hit 18 and want to do something<br />
else,” said Anne Henry, co-founder<br />
of BizParentz Foundation, a<br />
nonprofit advocacy group. “He’s just<br />
not allowed to transition because<br />
he’s held in a contract that was<br />
signed when he was still a minor.”<br />
Jones renewed his contract<br />
last May, bringing his salary to<br />
some $300,000 an episode.<br />
Other young performers on<br />
successful TV series have openly rebelled<br />
against their public personas.<br />
During her stint on “7th<br />
Heaven,” a 17-year-old Jessica<br />
Biel became dissatisfied with her<br />
work and posed seminude in Gear<br />
magazine, a decision that prompted<br />
the show’s producers to reduce<br />
her role in the family drama.<br />
Peggy Becker, a manager who<br />
co-owns Parkside Talent, said<br />
it’s up to Jones’ representatives<br />
to help him transition. “It’s the<br />
personal manager’s job to help the<br />
kids transition, the family and the<br />
manager. And sometimes we fail,”<br />
she said. “Sometimes we succeed.”<br />
Becker, who hasn’t worked with<br />
Jones, said it appears the actor has<br />
lost his passion for performing. “If<br />
it’s constantly work, work, work,<br />
you get burned out,” she said. “We<br />
have seen that in children a lot.<br />
“When it starts to become a<br />
chore for the child, it’s time to find<br />
another avenue of inspiration.”<br />
performance, a crowded category that<br />
included “Moonrise Kingdom,” “silver<br />
Linings Playbook,” “Bernie,” and<br />
“safety Not guaranteed.”<br />
actors Marion cotillard (“rust<br />
and Bone”) and Matt Damon<br />
(“Promised Land”) and director<br />
David o. russell (“silver Linings<br />
Playbook”) each received<br />
honorary lifetime achievement<br />
awards. —Daniel lehMan<br />
upstage News | actor 101 | center stage cover story | features | downstage castiNg | reviews <strong>backstage</strong>.com<br />
Darren Michaels/ Warner B ros.
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