Jaleel White Calls Out the Emmys for Disregarding Child Actors
TV

'We live in an age of sound bites and buzz words. So if I say 'child actor,' automatically your mind says, 'Oh, drugs. Mug shot,' ' the 'Me, Myself and I' actor said.

AceShowbiz - Jaleel White has something to say about this year's Primetime Emmy Awards. The onetime "Family Matters" actor tweeted his disappointment that the Television Academy seemingly overlooked young actors, noting that "Stranger Things" could have taken home some major Emmys.

"Not surprising the #Emmys only pretended to acknowledge #StrangerThings," the actor wrote on Monday, September 18. "Ur family programs would be trash w/o solid young performers."

He went on slamming the Emmys, "33 yrs is the last time a young performer of any color/gender won an #Emmy #funfact Kids get roughed up in showbiz. It ain't always drugs."

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Jaleel further explained his views on Hollywood overlooking young performers, a term he preferred compared to "child actors."

"Sometimes our awards process can be very political, in terms of just driving personal agendas, and I think we forget," he shared. "It's just a simple message that I was trying to get across: You don't get good and become great at anything without starting at a young age and having tremendous consistency. Somehow our youth doesn't get honored; our youth just gets hazed."

"They feel so entitled to the accolade they've probably worked for their entire career, that it's offensive to them almost that someone so young, who hasn't been through [their] journey, beat [them] for that award," the "Me, Myself & I" actor spoke of some adult actors. "And I just think that's the wrong attitude to look at it. For directors and producers, you're not going to get competent performers on your set if they didn't start at a young age and understand professionalism."

Jaleel also pointed out bad stigma associated with being a child actor. "A lot of times, the assumption is that if you got labeled a child actor, it's like, 'Oh, well where's your drug story?' " he said. "We live in an age of sound bites and buzz words. So if I say 'child actor,' automatically your mind says, 'Oh, drugs. Mug shot.' And I just think that's so wrong, so I'm trying to coin this phrase 'young performer.' "

Jaleel later said that he was such "a huge fan" of "Stranger Things". He gushed about its young cast members, "I didn't want to start up with the Emmys or anything like that, but when I see that sometimes... I really wish they would acknowledge some of these kids that come along and give a stellar performance."

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