Return to sender.
Child star Justin Cooper, whose claim to fame is playing Jim Carreyâs son in the 1997 film âLiar, Liarâ when he was 8 years old, revealed in a recent interview on the âNot So Little Rascalsâ podcast that he received disturbing fan mail from prisoners when he was just a kid.
âMy mom did a really good job of kind of, like, shielding me from stuff, you know,â he told co-hosts Jordan Warkol and Blake Collins (who starred in 1994âs âThe Little Rascalsâ) when asked if there were any âoverwhelmingâ or âscaryâ moments of childhood fame.
âShe would tell me later on about, like, prison mail that I would get that she never showed me,â Cooper told a stunned Warkol and Collins.
âLike, letters from people in jail, like, talking about ⊠you know ⊠dudes in jail talking about how theyâre such big fans of me and, like, Iâm such a cute kid.â
The co-hosts called the bizarre postage ânext levelâ and âwild.â
Cooper, 37, went on to praise his mother for never leaving him alone with anyone on film or TV sets in an industry where some parents tell their kids to âdo whatever they tell you to do.â
The actor, who also starred as the titular character in 1998âs direct-to-video âDennis the Menace Strikes Again,â also opened up about how childhood fame affected his life after the release of âLiar, Liar.â
âI couldnât really go anywhere in public. I enjoyed it. I thought it was cool,â Cooper said.
He admitted it âprobably annoyedâ his family âa little bit more,â recalling how people would line up at their hometown buffet to ask for his autograph.
Outside of âLiar, Liar,â Cooperâs lengthier TV credits include roles on âThe Boys Are Backâ and âBrotherâs Keeperâ in the â90s, though he also made one-off appearances in âFull House,â âER,â âGeneral Hospitalâ and âBoy Meets Worldâ throughout the decade.
His most recent credit is a 2003 episode of âThe Practice.â
These days, Cooper is an executive producer on âThe Ben Maller Showâ on FOX Sports Radio.
In addition to Cooper and Carrey, âLiar, Liarâ starred Maura Tierney, Cary Elwes and Jennifer Tilly, among others.
Cooper was nominated for best performance in a feature film for an actor aged 10 or under at the Young Artist Awards for his work in the Tom Shadyac-directed movie.
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