You certainly wouldn’t look at Jonathan Lipnicki today and say, “Oh, that’s the kid from Jerry Maguire.” Lipnicki has managed to do what so many child stars have not, he’s grown up without the specter of his childhood stardom hanging around to haunt him. Now, at age 20, he’s firing up his acting career again.
Lipnicki has successfully avoided being weighed down my his childhood career as a precocious little boy whose innocently mischievous grin and big, bespectacled eyes by dropping out of the spotlight and enjoying his childhood.
“I think a lot of people don’t know that I grew up,” Jonathan told Access Hollywood Live’s Billy Bush and Kit Hoover. “They think I’m five! I was fortunate enough to work a lot after ["Jerry Maguire"], and then I decided to take off time to really just go to school.”
“I went to public school — went to prom, did homecoming, everything,” Jonathan told Billy and Kit. “It’s great because now I can come back as a different person. I’ve learned a lot and I can come back and have kind of a new career.”
He also spoke of his time working with on Jerry Maguire, still his most famous role:
“[Tom and Renee] were both just awesome to work with,” Jonathan told Access Hollywood. “I’m just so thankful that was my first experience working was with such a great cast.
“Tom was always just having fun, every day was just so much fun,” he continued. “They were all just excited to be at work — it was such a fun atmosphere.”
Lipnicki is returning to the screen along side James Caan in For The Love of Money, which will be released in 2011.
