Stuart Little star reveals he took a break from acting because he "wasn't a very good actor"

(Image credit: Sony Pictures Releasing)

Stuart Little child star Jonathan Lipnicki has revealed why he's been absent from our screens over the past decade, sticking to short films and direct-to-video releases instead of the big-screen hits where he rose to fame in the late '90s. The actor is best known for playing George Little in 1999's Stuart Little and its 2002 sequel after making his big-screen debut in Jerry Maguire alongside Tom Cruise.

"The biggest transition for me was… I didn’t work for a long time," Lipnicki said in a recent interview with /Film. "And people always frame that as, 'Oh, I went to high school,' and whatnot. And that’s the story that people tell sometimes when they don’t work. Or if they’re a child actor or whatever, they took time off. I did take time off, in the sense that it wasn’t the only priority I had. But I didn’t work because I just didn’t work. I didn’t really get any roles for a while."

"I’m honest about that. And it was because [I] wasn’t a very good actor at one point," Lipnicki continued. "Because the great thing about being young, a kid, is there’s this nice inherent childlike wonder. And that’s why a lot of kids you see are quite talented. And filters come in and you become nervous… or the world comes into play. And so for me, I went from just doing the natural thing to trying to be like my favorite actors."

Next up for Lipnicki is a role in the movie The Re-Education of Molly Singer, in which he'll appear alongside Britt Robertson, Holland Roden, and Jaime Presley. For more on upcoming movies on the horizon, check out our guide to this year's movie release dates.