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Chequerboard Revisited – Episode 5: You Can’t Have A Child That’s Ugly (2000)

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All that promise

Original classification rating: PG. This clip chosen to be PG

Clip description

Grant was an adorable child star who could dance and sing and play the drums. He gave it all away when the kids at school teased him about his work in television ads. Later when he tried to get back into acting, he’d lost his place in a very competitive market.

Curator’s notes

This is the story of a life that might have been. Grant was a top earning child star who gave it all away to be a normal boy. Later, when he wanted to go back into acting, he found it was too hard. These days he’s writing a fictional autobiography about a young boy who just might be himself.

The footage of Grant alone on a stormy beach, while an often used technique, is here very effective in creating a mood, and in the interview with the director he is open and engaged, and very articulate about his situation.