‘Chucky’ Star Alex Vincent Hated Being Recognized From the ‘Child’s Play’ Movies as a 9-Year-Old
Alex Vincent returned to the Chucky movies in 2013’s Curse of Chucky. Andy Barclay (Vincent) had grown up but still holds a grudge against the killer doll. Vincent starred in the first two horror movies when he was a kid. Then Justin Whalin played teenage Andy in Child’s Play 3. Now that enough time has passed, Vincent reveals he always hated being recognized from Child’s Play.
Vincent spoke with Showbiz Cheat Sheet by Zoom on Nov. 3 about Chucky. We’ll have more with Vincent and the cast of the show here on Showbiz Cheat Sheet. Chucky airs Tuesdays at 10 p.m. on Syfy and USA.
Chucky wasn’t the scariest thing Alex Vincent dealt with as a child
Vincent is 40 now, so that means he was only seven when he made the first Child’s Play. Chucky graced the pages of Fangoria which meant Vincent alongside him. By the sequel, young Vincent was over it.
“After Child’s Play 2, the truth is, at eight, nine years old, I was kind of getting sick of the attention already,” Vincent told Cheat Sheet. “It was a lot for me as a child. I really wanted to just have a childhood. As much as I appreciate that my father was incredibly proud of me, I was getting a little sick of him telling every waiter that I was the kid in the Chucky movies. So being recognized added to that stress for me at that age. I didn’t really enjoy that very much. It kind of led to me wanting to stop going on auditions. It was one factor of several.”
Chucky stopped following Alex Vincent at this age
Fortunately, for Vincent, it didn’t take long before he no longer looked like that sweet little boy Chucky preyed upon. And as Child’s Play 3 jumped ahead in time, Vincent also stepped back from the spotlight.
“Luckily, for me, when you turn 11, 12, 13 years old, you look nothing like you did when you were seven, eight years old,” Vincent said. “So I’ve lived my entire life all the way up until this day barely ever being recognized. It’s really rare that someone stops me and recognizes me outside of a horror convention where everybody knows me. I can gear myself up for that kind of attention for a convention weekend but in person, and in my normal life, I don’t get that very much and I kind of hope after these episodes air, it stays that way.”
Alex Vincent is back now
Vincent said he had lost interest in acting. It was only because Chucky creator Don Mancini wanted the actual Andy Barclay back that Vincent returned. Now that he’s in the weekly TV series, Vincent may get recognized again.
“But, returning to these films the past couple years and just kind of growing up and being mature enough to handle that kind of attention and being very practiced at it, I often say I’m a master at diffusing awkwardness in conversation with people because I’ve done it so much in my life,” Vincent said. “I think I can handle being recognized now more than I could at any other time in my life. If that leads me forward on a path of more performance type work, I think I’d be more comfortable now than I was maybe ever before.”
When Vincent goes out for roles unrelated to Chucky, he might have to face his old acting demons.
“Most actors hate auditioning but I really hated auditioning,” Vincent said. “So it kind of drove me away from the business in that way. Then when you’re away from it for a long time, you have confidence questions about your ability to do it.”
