The Hollywood Complex

A documentary screened on ABC2 tonight which gave a behind the scenes insight into the journey families undertake to turn their children into the next big stars in film and television in the US. Making it in Hollywood as we all can imagine is quite a big achievement for anybody (everyone's dream right?), and the devoted parents make very big sacrifices and suffer many moments of heartache along the way as well. Honestly the efforts some of them put in just make the ordinary person judging them just shake their heads in disgust (I did while watching). For instance, my favourite family highlighted in this was one woman Sandy Haun and her young daughter Megan who had tried out 66 times just to get an audition and spent over $180 000 in 3 years of attempting to crack it big time.

Sandy and little Megan waiting patiently for the next crack at the big time.

It was a really well presented documentary in my view as it was filmed over a couple of years. Starting in 2009, the story looks at the tough world of child acting and exposes the grief and perpetual self-belief of the children who really believe they will 'make it' in Hollywood. Focusing on the stories of a few families who flock to tinsel town as its known during what is regarded as the all important 'pilot season', we see them staying for 5 months at Oakwood Apartments, Burbank, an acting and agent home. We see how some of them gain success as well as failure over time. One woman referred to her children as being given a gift- funnily enough though all four of them were unsuccessful in the end and even resort to picking out recycling out of garbage bins to make more money (yes, it gets that bad) to allow them to afford staying there the entire time.
Chirpy yet very annoying Megan ends up changing her name to Presley Ca$h, (I think because of her influences from idols Elvis and Johnny Cash) and she is able to bounce back for yet another year at Oakwood and belt out some redneck country tunes. She now regards herself to be famous as far as her twitter account states because she starred in a Taylor Swift music video last year. Mum Sandy would be so proud at long last.

You know you've made it big when you swiftly make a video with Taylor. Picture courtesy of http://twitter.com/#!/CupCake54.

Link to the official site