Tyler James Williams Shares His Transition From Being a Child Star
Williams estimated that it would take 10 years for him to do it correctly and find a project that “felt heartfelt and was challenging.”
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Actor Tyler James Williams stars in the new ABC comedy “Abbott Elementary,” but he’s best known for playing a young Chris Rock on “Everyone Hates Chris.”
During a recent interview shared on TikTok, Williams, who has been acting since he was four, reflected on the pitfalls of being a child star.
“There’s a definite trap there that people fall into. More recently, we’ve seen Zendaya do it really well,” Williams said. “She saw it and moved around it.”
He added that transitioning to an adult star can be hard because there’s “no formula.”
For his transition, Williams estimated that it would take 10 years for him to do it correctly and find a project that “felt heartfelt and was challenging.”
“The first step that everyone misses is that when you have your first hit, that’s not the time to relax. It’s actually the time to work harder. That’s what a lot of people miss. They think, ‘Oh well I have a hit now, people are asking for me to do things, I don’t have to grind the way I used to,’” Williams said.
This can lead to typecasting, he said, “You have to go back to the drawing board and start over.”