Former child stars are opening about sexual abuse and emotional trauma resulting from being a child actor in Bill & Ted star Alex Winter’s new HBO documentary, Showbiz Kids.
“It was a fantasy come to life,” Winter told the New York Post. “All of the Broadway giants would be backstage every night. It was an amazing memory.”
Winter — best known for portrayal of Bill S. Preston, Esq. in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure — does not appear in his documentary, because he “would have overtaken the film.” Winter, now 55, revealed to The Post that he had suffered sexual abuse at the hands of an adult during a show’s run when he was only 12-years-old.
“I didn’t feel safe talking about it for 25 years,” Winter said. “You keep [the experience] compartmentalized and it either blows apart — drugs, alcohol, suicide — or you get help, process what happened and put the pieces back together.”
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