8 Best Child Performances in Movies

Children in movies are always a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, it’s nice to meet new talent before it’s been properly formed. On the other hand, there’s many movies in which they make you go “Jesus, why’d they add a kid to this?” Child actors, due to lack of experience and training, rarely raise a movie above what it already is. Every once in a while though, a diamond in the rough appears and we get to see a new child star be born.

Let’s take a look at some of the best child performances in Hollywood – you’ll know at least a few of these names, I assure you.

Christian Bale (Empire of the Sun)

Sure, we may know him mostly as being the best Batman in recent memory, but that wasn’t his first big acting gig. Bale starred in Empire of the Sun back in 1987, when he was only 12 years old. In that Steven Spielberg classic, he played the role of a child from a wealthy upbringing who gets imprisoned by the Japanese army. This leads him to become separated from his parents and lose his life of wealth. So basically, this movie tells the story of what would’ve happened if Bruce Wayne didn’t inherit all that money to become Batman.

Macaulay Culkin (Home Alone)

Despite having had a somewhat weird streak growing up and getting sidetracked through life (to put it mildly), Macaulay’s performance in Home Alone was well above what you would expect from a child his age. Whether you hate the movie or not, there’s a certain charisma to Macaulay that you can’t teach people.

Haley Joel Osment (The Sixth Sense)

We all still remember the phrase “I see dead people” from this movie, and the simple reason for that is that Osment’s portrayal was so perfect that this line haunts any audience. His role earned him an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor, but he sadly didn’t win.