Former child star ended up working in McDonald's despite starring in Hollywood hit
Former child star ended up working in McDonald's despite starring in Hollywood hit
Averee Nelson Sun, August 2, 2026 at 6:08 PM UTC
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Collins was 7 when he played Woim in The Little Rascals (Image: -)
A former child actor has opened up about working a regular job at McDonald's during his teenage years, despite having starred in a Hollywood hit as a kid.
Blake Collins, 41, who starred in the 1994 blockbuster film The Little Rascals as Woim when he was 7, rose to stardom at a young age but has since reflected on what his life was like after leaving his career in front of the camera. He worked at McDonald's after his prominent role in the fan-favorite movie.
In recent years, many former child stars have opened up about the realities of the pressures and toll of becoming famous at a young age. Collins reflected in a new interview on the financial reality that hit him after The Little Rascals debuted, and on his return to his normal life.
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Collins told People in an interview that after being in the spotlight from The Little Rascals and starring in "150 national commercials in the '90s," he returned to high school and got a normal after-school job as a teenager.
Blake Collins said he worked at McDonald's after starring in The Little Rascals as a child (Image: YouTube)
"I worked at McDonald's in high school," Collins told People, adding that he was recognized from his acting work "all the time."
"It was in a Walmart," he said. "All my friends worked there in high school."
He continued to explain to the outlet: "It was fun, but it's very awkward to be working a cash register at McDonald's, you're 15 years old, someone going like, 'Can I get a number one please? Wait, I know you from somewhere. Were you in The Little Rascals?' And I'm like, 'Yes.' And they're like, 'Now you work at McDonald's?' I'm like, 'Yes.'"
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Collins noted that his experience going back to his regular life after Hollywood pointed to the reality that child actors "don't make as much money as most people would've thought."
Collins started The Not So Little Rascals podcast with Jordan Warkol (Image: YouTube)
"And unfortunately, which is a common story with a lot of child actors, the money doesn't get always handled very well," Collins told People. "But one of my favorite things to talk about with our peers is like, 'How is your money handled?' And we've gotten some very mixed answers."
Jordan Warkol, 39, who played Froggy in The Little Rascals when he was 6, started a podcast with Collins called The Not So Little Rascals. The podcast focused on reconnecting with former child actors to talk about what it was like to rise to prominence in Hollywood as a child and what their lives look like now.
According to the podcast's website, their platform is about "Just real conversations about identity, family, burnout, reinvention-and growing up a little too early."
The Little Rascals star left behind his acting career
Collins left his acting career behind when he entered high school, telling People that it was because he wanted a "normal relationship with my mother," and calling the demands of a child actor "wild."
"It was a manager/employee relationship to some degree," he explained to the outlet. "She was a wonderful mother, but I just kind of wanted even more normalcy going to high school. I wanted to play sports. I wanted to hang out with my friends."
While he isn't acting anymore, Collins hasn't left movie-making completely behind. He now works behind the scenes, doing camera work for notable movies and TV productions, including All American, Surviving Black Hawk Down, The Suicide Squad, and Wonder Woman 1984, among other titles.
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
