This Former Child Actor Claims Hollywood Has A Child Abuse Problem

Update: Elijah Wood has since taken to Twitter to clarify what he calls misrepresentations of his statements to The Sunday Times. We've compiled his statement, which he made over the course of several tweets, into a single paragraph for ease of reading.

"The Sunday Times interviewed me about my latest film but the story became about something else entirely," Wood says in his statement. "It prompted a number of false and misleading headlines. I had just seen a powerful documentary and I briefly spoke with the reporter about the subject which had consequences I did not intend or expect. Lesson learned. Let me be clear: This subject of child abuse is an important one that should be discussed and properly investigated. But as I made absolutely clear to the writer, I have no first-hand experience or observation of the topic, so I cannot speak with any authority beyond articles I have read and films I have seen."

Former child star Elijah Wood claims that Hollywood has a child abuse problem that no one is talking about.

In an interview with the U.K.'s The Sunday Times, Wood said there are "vipers in this industry" and Hollywood has “darkness in the underbelly” that takes advantage of young performers. "If you can imagine it, it’s probably happened," Wood said, adding, “I’ve been led down dark paths to realize that these things probably are still happening," While Wood said that he was lucky enough to have his mom around to protect him when he was a child actor, he knows that others have not been as lucky, mentioning that some have been “preyed upon” at parties by industry figures. The Lord Of The Rings star says innocence unfortunately makes child actors easy targets. "You have very little knowledge of the world and you want to succeed,” he said. “ People with parasitic interests will see you as their prey. What upsets me about these situations is that the victims can’t speak as loudly as the people in power.” Wood's reference to victims being silenced by powerful people has led some to compare it to the recent essay by Woody Allen's son, Ronan Farrow, criticizing the media for not asking the hard questions about the child abuse allegations against the director. “That’s the tragedy of attempting to reveal what is happening to innocent people,” Wood told The Sunday Times. “They can be squashed, but their lives have been irreparably damaged.” As the Huffington Post noted, former child actor Corey Feldman (Goonies, Stand By Me) revealed in his 2013 memoir that both he and his friend Corey Haim had been sexually abused while working in Hollywood during their teens.