Why ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ Star Henry Thomas Doesn’t Usually Like Working With Child Actors

Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House follows the Crain family as it struggles to overcome the memories of a traumatic event that took place years ago. So we follow two casts of Crains: the older and the younger versions of the characters. Actor Henry Thomas plays Hugh Crain, the family patriarch, in the flashbacks, which means most of his scene partners wound up being children.

“I���m generally pretty critical of child actors,” Thomas said. “Oftentimes, children are cast because they’re cute. And they kind of show up and do the bit and everybody goes ‘Oh! They’re so cute! Look at them, it’s brilliant.‘ But these guys were generally pros.”

The irony is Henry Thomas was once one of the most famous child actors in the world. Most notably, he played Elliott in Steven Spielberg’s E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial. As an adult, Thomas is realistic about the complications that child actors add to the process. “Sometimes when you work with kids you gotta shoot the kids out first. All the priority goes to the kids. And the oftentimes, the kids are wrapped, in school, or at home, and the older actors are held over to look at a tape mark on a thing,” Thomas said. “But in a way, it was my penance because I was that guy.”

However, Thomas was quick to point out that this wasn’t the case on The Haunting of Hill House. He said he was “worried” about one “pretty intense” scene in particular. In Episode 5, a blood-soaked Hugh sits on a bench with young Nell (Violet McGraw) and gives her a watch. Thomas said that this scene sold him on his five-year-old co-star.

“You want the kids to be good. After the first couple of days I realized, we don’t have anything to worry about there. These kids always knew their lines, they knew the scene as well as I did, or better, and they would do things that would amaze you. It was a real pleasure to see that work ethic, it was really nice,” Thomas said.

Watch The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix