Justin Timberlake isn’t holding back about his life as a child star.
The 36-year-old SexyBack singer opened up about his childhood spent in the spotlight in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter and how his upbringing has affected his thoughts on raising his son, Silas.
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“I think we can all agree that I did not have a normal childhood,” Timberlake revealed, remembering being chased by mobs of teenage girls at 15 years old. “I have some faint images from my childhood, but no, I can’t really remember not being famous.”
The *NSYNC frontman got his show business start at just 10 years old, appearing on Star Search before making the cut for The New Mickey Mouse Club a year later.
“We were taking acting classes, music classes, dance class. We were learning how coverage and editing and cinematography work. And being put in front of a live audience, learning how to engage the crowd to get a laugh. Honestly it was like SNL for children,” he said.
The New Mickey Mouse Club also launched the careers of other well-known artists like Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Ryan Gosling.
Timberlake is clearly conflicted by his unusual upbringing.
“You go through your life with your own traumas, big and small, and think, ‘It’s not that bad, I have a lot to be thankful for, my parents did the best they could,” he continued. “But then you have a child of your own, and suddenly it opens all the floodgates, and you’re like, ‘No, no, no! That childhood trauma really did f— me up!’ “
The singer confessed that he struggled with it all when he first became a parent. He and his actress wife, Jessica Biel, welcomed their son in April of 2015.
“At first, it broke me down. Those first eight months felt like those old [Ed Sullivan] shows where people are balancing spinning plates on poles — except if you drop one, they die.”
What about his son following in his footsteps?
“You know, I haven’t been able to answer that question in my mind,” he admitted. “If he wanted it bad enough, I suppose I could teach him a lot about what not to do.”
But with such incredible success, we bet he could teach him a lot about what to do, as well!
Originally posted on Womanista.com.
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