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Justin Cooper was only 8 when he landed the role that made him recognizable to millions of moviegoers.
As Max Reede, the son of Jim Carrey's character in the 1997 comedy Liar Liar, Cooper became a familiar face while still a child. He went on to appear in Dennis the Menace Strikes Again!, Brother's Keeper and several television shows before quietly leaving acting behind as a teenager.
Now 37, Cooper has opened up about what led him to walk away from Hollywood.
Speaking on The Not So Little Rascals podcast with former child stars Jordan Warkol and Blake Collins, Cooper said he was simply starting to lose interest in auditions as he entered his teenage years.
"It was my first time going to public school. I started going through puberty. I was in an awkward stage and I would go on auditions, but I wasn't booking things as often as I used to," he explained.
The long drives to auditions became especially frustrating. Cooper recalled sitting in the car for nearly an hour, only to return home with homework waiting for him.
"I want to just go home right now and talk to girls on AIM," he said.
Eventually, his mother gave him an option that made the decision easier. "Look, if you don't want to do it anymore, you don't have to do it," she told him.
Cooper said there was "some disappointment" initially, but his mother ultimately supported his choice.
His transition from private school to public high school also played a role in how he viewed his childhood fame. While the students at his previous school already knew him as an actor, public school was a completely different experience.
"I was scared s---less going to public school," Cooper said, explaining that he suddenly had to worry about what to wear, where to sit and how he would fit in.
Some students were interested in him because they recognized him, while others immediately disliked him because they assumed he was "stuck up" because he had been in movies.
"It's ironic that they assumed that I thought I was better than everybody else and meanwhile I'm just trying to blend in," he said.
Cooper also revealed that fame came with some unsettling experiences his mother kept from him while he was young. She later told him that he had received letters from prisoners who claimed to be fans and commented on how "cute" he was.
Cooper credits his mother for protecting him from those experiences and for never leaving him alone with adults on sets.
Although he eventually left acting, his childhood career remains a memorable part of his life. His final credited acting role came in a 2003 episode of The Practice.
