The beloved child star Jonathan Lipnicki gave a dispiriting update on the status of his career in a new interview.
Lipnicki, 34, is best known for going toe-to-toe with star Tom Cruise in the Oscar-winning blockbuster Jerry Maguire (1996).
‘I had some really good things that happened when I was younger,’ the former child actor admitted while speaking with People.
But he described a bumpy road to becoming a successful adult actor, even after he recently attempted a career comeback.
‘It’s perfectly okay to admit that I haven’t reached my desired career level,’ he mentioned, noting that he is content with how his career is progressing at the moment. ‘Practically everything we strive for in life seems unattainable.’
Lipnicki expressed his passion for acting by calling it ‘the lifelong dream,’ and emphasized, ‘You must maintain unwavering belief that your aspirations will materialize and take proactive steps in the right direction.’
After gaining fame from his role in Jerry Maguire, Lipnicki secured significant supporting characters in Stuart Little (1999) and its sequel Stuart Little 2 (2002), where Michael J. Fox lent his voice for the main character. He also appeared in the film Like Mike in 2002, alongside other projects.
However, his output in the 2000s slowed to a trickle as he took time off from acting to make high school his primary focus.
Afterward, he devoted himself more seriously to his craft by taking acting classes, which he called the ‘best thing’ he could have done for his career.
Since honing his acting skills, Lipnicki has largely nabbed roles in small independent films, as opposed to the big-budget, major studio releases that he primarily appeared in as a child.
He also diversified his acting work by starting to take on stage roles around LA, and more recently he has begun working behind the camera as a producer.
He managed to develop an enviable physique in recent years thanks to mixed martial arts (MMA) training, as his family owns a company that promotes MMA fights.
However, he has resisted the temptation to pursue MMA fighting headlong, as acting seems to still be his overriding passion.Â
He has been wildly prolific since focusing again on acting. He had two films released in 2016, but in 20187 he appeared in a whopping six features and one short film. Since then, he has appeared in just one or two films per year, aside from a fallow period in the first years of the Covid-19 pandemic.Â
Lipnicki said his guest appearance on the TBS revival of The Joe Schmo Show — in which people are misled into believing they are appearing on a fake reality series — has now become one of the things he is most ‘proud’ of.Â
He plays himself on the show, but in name only, as his character is a comical, ego-driven version of the former child star.
The actor said the show, which forced him to get outside of his ‘comfort zone,’ is a ‘step in the right direction’ for his career.
Although the most in-demand actors tend to be those who are most professional on set, Lipnicki enjoyed getting a chance to be on his ‘worst’ behavior. ‘There was something empowering about that in a weird way.’Â
The longtime actor told People his career was now ‘half-and-half’ as an adult, with half of his projects being more forgettable, while he thought the other half were solid films — even though few people have seen them.
Lipnicki was careful to say that he had ‘no regrets’ about other the films he has appeared in as an adult, but he also admitted that he needed to be ‘careful’ about what projects he signs on to going forward.
He admitted to turning down around five films he was offered in the past year in order to focus more on quality projects.
‘I just really want to turn this ship around,’ he admitted.
‘I pray every night for clarity on where I need to go, and I’m confident the best is yet to come for me,’ Lipnicki continued. ‘And I think you just have to believe that. If you’re going to pursue this, you’re doing yourself a disservice not to dream big.’
