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Jonathan Lipnicki rose to fame in the 1990s, playing the token child in movies like Jerry Maguire and Stuart Little
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He later took a break, but has since returned, most recently on The Joe Schmo Show
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However, he tells PEOPLE, he’s looking for something more
Jonathan Lipnicki’s Hollywood journey has been a long one.
At age 5, the now 34-year-old actor starred alongside Tom Cruise and Renée Zellweger in 1996’s Jerry Maguire. He also had major roles in 1999’s Stuart Little, 2000’s The Little Vampire and 2002’s Like Mike.
“I had some really good things that happened when I was younger,” the actor tells PEOPLE exclusively. But he admits that the jump from child acting to adult acting was a little rough. “It’s totally fine to say I’m not where I want to be career-wise,” he says, which he’s “all right” with for now. “Everything we’re doing in this life is nearly impossible.”
“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,” he says.
Columbia Pictures/Getty;TBS
Jonathan Lipnicki in 1999’s ‘Stuart Little’ (left); Jonathan Lipnicki in 2025’s ‘The Joe Schmo Show’ (right)
After high school, during which he purposefully cut back on his career, Lipnicki went and took acting classes, which he says was the “best thing” he’s done. Then he started to appear in more independent films, as well as Los Angeles stage productions.
“I’ve had half-and-half in my adult career where there are some things that were really good and nobody saw them,” he says. But, while he adds he’s had no “regrets,” the other half of his projects taught him to be “careful” about what he picks.
“To be quite honest, I said no to about five movies in the last year,” Lipnicki admits. “I just really want to turn this ship around.”
“And I pray every night for clarity on where I need to go, and I’m confident the best is yet to come for me,” he says. “And I think you just have to believe that. If you’re going to pursue this, you’re doing yourself a disservice not to dream big.” Lipnicki has also branched out into producing.
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He says his latest project — TBS’ The Joe Schmo Show — was “a step in the right direction.” The series involves pranking one “normal” person who thinks they’re starring in a reality show, but really it’s an enormous gag. Lipnicki plays a fictionalized, egotistical version of himself. It was a step “outside [his] comfort zone,” which was the thing he was “most proud of,” he adds.
“As an actor growing up in this industry, you want to be on your best behavior, and I got to be on my worst,” he says. “There was something empowering about that in a weird way.”
The Joe Schmo Show airs Tuesdays on TBS.
Read the original article on People
