Jonathan Lipnicki was no doubt a household name after his roles in Jerry Maguire, Stuart Little, The Little Vampire, and Like Mike.
However, Lipnicki, now 34, admitted the transition from childhood to adult acting wasn’t an easy one.
“I had some really good things that happened when I was younger. It’s totally fine to say I’m not where I want to be career-wise. Everything we’re doing in this life is nearly impossible,” the California native told People in an interview published on Wednesday, May 7.
“This is the thing I want to do for the rest of my life, and I think you just have to believe it’s going to happen and do everything in your power to take action in the right direction,” Lipnick added.
Following high school, the Dawson’s Creek alum went on to take acting classes and focus on less mainstream projects. “I’ve had half-and-half in my adult career where there are some things that were really good and nobody saw them,” Lipnicki said.
Even so, he prefers to be selective about his work. “To be quite honest, I said no to about five movies in the last year,” Lipnicki revealed. “I just really want to turn this ship around.”
Ultimately, the Hollywood lifer is confident that his career is far from over.
“I pray every night for clarity on where I need to go, and I’m confident the best is yet to come for me—and I think you just have to believe that,” Lipnicki mused. “If you’re going to pursue this, you’re doing yourself a disservice not to dream big.”
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Lipnicki is currently working on TBS’ The Joe Schmo Show, where he plays himself … sort of. His role is essentially that of a “Hollywood D-Bag.”
“As an actor growing up in this industry, you want to be on your best behavior, and I got to be on my worst,” Lipnicki explained of the role. “There was something empowering about that in a weird way.”
