Re: Gotta disagree on some points

Its easier for those ( like Russell ) who got their fame as adolescents. Most of his Disney films were done as a teen.

However Russell illustrates what happens on the downward cycle. The transition ( in this case to adulthood ) provides few feature film roles, and you see a rise in TV movies during the lull. ( That period is one of the few where Ricci was doing TV movies. )

In Russell's case, the big break was a TV biopic about Elvis shot by a guy named John Carpenter. As Carpenter's cinema career started getting more steam, he remembered Kurt Russell and cast him in Escape From New York, The Thing and Big Trouble In Little China.

For Anna Chlumsky we see some more TV movies on the way to dropping the career.

But a lot of the "luck" lies in how you were perceived as a child actor ( was it as an "actress," or just as a "role?," ) as well as the lucky break along the way.

Dante