"My acting career began at age three and my parents got me into it. I was in a McDonald's commercial"
About this Quote
A child star remembers his beginning with a shrug: age three, a parents decision, a fast-food commercial. The details are small but loaded. Starting at three is less a career choice than a family project, and the phrase "my parents got me into it" puts agency squarely elsewhere. The tone is plainspoken, almost casual, yet what it describes is the machinery of early commodification: a toddler placed in front of a camera to sell hamburgers, and, by extension, to begin selling himself as a brand.
Corey Feldman is one of the emblematic figures of 1980s Hollywood, a kid who seemed omnipresent in films like Stand by Me, The Goonies, and The Lost Boys. The path to that visibility often runs through commercials and sitcom guest spots, the low-stakes training ground where studios and agents scout pliable, photogenic children. McDonalds is not incidental here. It is a global shorthand for mass-market culture, ubiquity, and the smoothing of individuality into a logo. To say the first gig was a McDonalds commercial is to admit that the career began not with art but with commerce, in the purest sense.
The line also hints at the ambivalence that often shadows child performers. Gratitude and resentment can coexist: pride in early success, and the lingering question of consent. Feldman has since spoken about exploitation and abuse in the industry; the origin story becomes an omen. If the entry point is a corporate advertisement chosen by adults, the boundaries between work, identity, and childhood blur immediately. That blurring can be intoxicating and corrosive at once.
There is also a broader American story folded inside: the alignment of aspirational parenting, entertainment labor, and consumer capitalism. A family seeks opportunity, a corporation seeks attention, an industry seeks the next fresh face. What sounds like a simple memory is really a map of how fame manufactures itself, beginning with a child who has not yet learned to say no.
Corey Feldman is one of the emblematic figures of 1980s Hollywood, a kid who seemed omnipresent in films like Stand by Me, The Goonies, and The Lost Boys. The path to that visibility often runs through commercials and sitcom guest spots, the low-stakes training ground where studios and agents scout pliable, photogenic children. McDonalds is not incidental here. It is a global shorthand for mass-market culture, ubiquity, and the smoothing of individuality into a logo. To say the first gig was a McDonalds commercial is to admit that the career began not with art but with commerce, in the purest sense.
The line also hints at the ambivalence that often shadows child performers. Gratitude and resentment can coexist: pride in early success, and the lingering question of consent. Feldman has since spoken about exploitation and abuse in the industry; the origin story becomes an omen. If the entry point is a corporate advertisement chosen by adults, the boundaries between work, identity, and childhood blur immediately. That blurring can be intoxicating and corrosive at once.
There is also a broader American story folded inside: the alignment of aspirational parenting, entertainment labor, and consumer capitalism. A family seeks opportunity, a corporation seeks attention, an industry seeks the next fresh face. What sounds like a simple memory is really a map of how fame manufactures itself, beginning with a child who has not yet learned to say no.
Quote Details
| Topic | Career |
|---|
More Quotes by Corey
Add to List
