Many child stars seem born to work in Hollywood and hit the ground running on their first gig. While others due to personal choices or complicated paths full of obstacles prefer to plan new routes.
Actor Michael Humphreys, who belongs to the second group, reemerged into the world recently giving some interviews about his life and career almost three decades ago after working on “Forrest Gump”, one of cinema’s great classics. Unlike many other cases, his parents gave him the power to dictate his path from an early age and he has no regrets deviating from the Hollywood path.
He went on to speak to The Sun in 2019 about his decision to retire from Hollywood after playing the younger version of Tom Hanks as Forrest Gump in the 1994 film.
2 of 5 Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump: The Storyteller (1994) Photo: Reproduction Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump: The Storyteller (1994) Photo: Reproduction
“I’m not sure I wanted to be a child star it doesn’t always seem to go well for a lot of them. I think I’m right when I look at some of them today,” said the 38yearold boy.
“I don’t think Hollywood is a healthy lifestyle for kids and you don’t have a childhood and you don’t grow up fast. I felt a lot better the way I did it.”
Michael said his parents gave him complete freedom to choose what he wanted to do with his life and as a child he naturally chose to have a lighthearted and fun childhood.
3 of 5 Michael Conner Hamphreys in Forrest Gump The Storyteller Photo: Disclosure Michael Conner Hamphreys in Forrest Gump The Storyteller Photo: Disclosure
“Back then, my parents just let me decide for myself what I wanted to do next; and they never pressured me to do other acting roles.” It was the opposite. I loved my home and just wanted to have fun and play with my friends, mostly because I liked school.”
Michael revealed that after working on Forrest Gump he turned down offers to continue school and has no regrets. “I was a kid and didn’t have a Hollywood actor’s mentality of being selfcentered and putting that above everything else.”
Michael is currently studying acting, since he starred in Forrest Gump he had never done anything like it. Nevertheless, he knows that good works in the cinema will still be a little further away for the time being. “It was only in the last two years that I decided to pursue professional training. “I’m trying to get back into acting now,” he revealed in an interview with online talk show The Paul Leslie Hour. “It’s intense. The fear of being on stage is the first step.”
Life imitated art
4 of 5 Before and After Michael Conner Hamphreys Photo: Reproduction Before and After Michael Conner Hamphreys Photo: Reproduction
As much as he “escaped” from Hollywood during his childhood, his life crossed paths with “Forrest Gump” in two odd situations. The first was when he decided to join the US Army, where he stayed as an infantryman for four years. “Even as a child I was interested in military technology. Planes, ships, tanks and all that stuff,” he said. “When I was making ‘Forrest Gump’ I was in direct contact with the Marines. They took me to the naval base and let me see an F18 jet and everything.”
In Forrest Gump, the character, already in the shoes of Tom Hanks, enters and fights in the Vietnam War, even earning a medal for a brave act. Because of these scenes, there were several military items on the set. “When I was a kid, they let me play with these things, which piqued my interest a little more. And I have a family that was in the military, my father and my uncle,” he recalls.
Believe it or not, Michael is…a great runner. Yes, “run, forest, run” style. Like the character he played, he even ran marathons: “It’s funny how many connections to Forrest’s life have flooded into mine,” he admitted to The Sun. “Is it fate? Something made these coincidences keep happening.”
5 out of 5 Actor Michael Humphreys Photo: Reproduction/Instagram Actor Michael Humphreys Photo: Reproduction/Instagram