Chloe Grace Moretz Opens Up About Power Struggle She Faced As A Child Actor

Chloë Grace Moretz first appeared on the CBS television show "The Guardian" at just eight years old, per Bustle. After nabbing her first movie role in the TV movie "Family Plan," Moretz when on to appear in hit movies like the 2005 film "The Amityville Horror" and "(500) Days of Summer" (via IMDb). The young actor was not one to shy away from more mature roles and her depiction of Hit-Girl in the action-filled movie "Kick-A**" put her on the map. When the movie came out, Moretz was only 13 years old and starring alongside major Hollywood leading men like Nicholas Cage and Christopher Mintz-Plasse.

By the time she starred in the 2013 remake of "Carrie," Moretz was still in her early teens. Even though she was already pretty established by that point, she had to fight to be cast as the main character. "When I was auditioning for 'Carrie,' I was told, 'Well, look, you're too young, you're too pretty, you're too accomplished.' I love showing people I can do something that they might think I will never be able to do." Moretz told Teen Vogue (via Digital Spy).

As a child actor amongst many bigwigs in Hollywood, Moretz had to fight for her place and in November 2022, she opened up about how she dealt with the power dynamics.

These days, Chloë Grace Moretz has an extensive resume of television and film roles, but she has still had to prove herself. In a November 29th podcast episode of "Reign with Josh Smith," Moretz recalled the power struggle she faced as a young female actor. "It was always odd from my first leading role when I was 14 in 'Carrie.' It was always really interesting to see who would be really unhappy with a young woman," she shared. 

The actor explained that she had been working for almost a decade at that point, but still would get "pushback" when she tried to voice her opinions. "The majority of it was older men for sure who would infantilize me. If I had real things to bring to the table, a lot of the time it would get shot down." Moretz revealed that she learned how to navigate around the power struggle by appearing "very sweet and very kind of back-footed" and tricked the older men into thinking her ideas were theirs. "[Having] to advocate to an older man on behalf of your 14, 15, 16-year old self is a really, really crazy kind of mindf***," she said.

Despite all the naysayers, Moretz is continuing to thrive in her acting career. As of this writing, she's currently appearing in the sci-fi series "The Peripheral." The actor told Hunger, "I've always used acting as a form of therapy. So being able to use that in this project was wonderful and really healing."