For Nickelodeon’s NED’S DECLASSIFIED star Jennifer Tedmori, not spending one of her latest residual checks in one place might prove challenging as she revealed in a viral video.
In her video she opened a stack of envelopes to reveal checks as low as 2 cents and checks as high as $1.01 from her time as Doris Trembly on DECLASSIFIED, totaling $8.63. Her biggest checks were from her role on 90210 totaling $30.06.
“Maybe I can go buy a coffee at Starbucks. Do I even report this to the IRS?” Tedmori joked.
She used this video not to complain about the money, saying that she was surprised she got any checks at all, but to dispel the myth that being an actor means you’re automatically rich and says that other fellow child stars receive similar residual checks.
“So, there is a misunderstanding that you are set for life, and that isn’t necessarily the case,” she told Fox News Digital.
Ted McGinley, who played Jefferson on MARRIED…WITH CHILDREN, never cashed a stack of residual checks for a penny each.
Related: QUIET ON SET: THE DARK SIDE OF KIDS TV
Drake Bell from the Nickelodeon show DRAKE & JOSH said that he does not receive any residuals at all but received a one-time payout.
“That’s the perception of the world — it’s always been this way,” Bell said on the “The Unplanned” podcast. “It’s like, you know, ‘Oh, you made a Folgers Coffee commercial. You must live in a mansion in Hollywood. I saw you on TV, you’re rich.’”
Tedmori, who went on to become a sports and entertainment lawyer, said that while she is “super grateful” for her time as an actress, other child stars have struggled as they transitioned into adulthood.
“[A]s I watch some colleagues and co-stars go through really tough times with being an adult, I think I would just want the public to know that these are human beings,” the “Off My Meds” podcaster said. “And I think there should be a level of compassion that is given to some of them because, as much as they’re prepared for being a child star, they really aren’t prepared for the adult world.”
“… And in most cases, I think it costs more in their mental health than it does in the checks that they’re getting in terms of the value lost and value earned for a child actor. … I think it ends up being kind of rough for them,” she added.
Bell’s time as a child actor was especially harrowing, as he revealed in the documentary QUIET ON SET: THE DARK SIDE OF KIDS TV that he was the previously unnamed victim in a sexual assault case against dialogue coach Brian Peck.
In an essay responding to fellow former child costar Hayden Panettiere’s recent death at the age of 36, Christy Carlson Romano, who starred in EVEN STEVENS and was the voice of the titular KIM POSSIBLE, shared the pitfalls of fame at such a young age.
“We’re rejected from auditions more times before we’re 10 than most people accrue in 10 lifetimes,” Romano wrote. “Those of us who make it are given the adoration of saints — and then, if we don’t climb to A-list fast enough, we’re torn down as if we’ve committed some unspeakable mortal sin. All before our frontal lobes have fully formed.”
“Is it any wonder so many of us struggle with addiction?” she continued. “The industry gives us the wound and then acts surprised when we reach for something to treat it.”
Panettiere who rose to fame in REMEMBER THE TITANS in 2000 and starred in HEROES and NASHVILLE was open about her struggles with alcohol and drug abuse. The official cause of death is still under investigation.
These stories are reminders to pray as believers for those in the entertainment world, especially children, as they navigate fame that they would be surrounded by those who will protect them — body, mind and soul.
Read Next: Former Child Stars Talk Fame’s Toll
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