Paramount Pictures
- “School of Rock” star Rivkah Reyes said their role in the movie led to bullying and addiction.
- Reyes told the New York Post that their classmates teased and bullied her endlessly.
- Reyes detailed their experience with addiction and self-harm in a 2017 Medium essay.
- Visit Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Former child star Rivkah Reyes said that their role in “School of Rock” led to bullying and addiction, and they believe their experience parallels that of Britney Spears.
Reyes, who goes by the pronouns they/them, played Katie in Jack Black’s 2003 movie “School of Rock” when they were just 10 years old. The success of this movie brought Reyes a lot of attention, which wasn’t always a good thing.
Reyes’ classmates at school made their life painful following their successful role in the hit movie, she said.
Reyes told the New York Post in a new interview: “Especially after production wrapped, when I first came back to school, people were really nice or really mean. There was no middle ground.”
Reyes said: “I was literally followed around the school with people chanting ‘School of Rock.'”
In an essay for Medium in 2017, Reyes detailed: "I'll never forget one girl who came up to me and asked me to sign her lunch card, then tore it up and threw it in the trash in front of me."
Reyes said that they "felt unsafe existing" due to obsessive fans and feeling sexualized as a child when they were barely into their teens, including by one man who attempted to photograph them while they were in sixth grade. Reyes said that her mother used to read message boards to them online, where adult men would write things like how they couldn't "wait 'til she's 18" or "the bassist is going to grow up to be hot."
Reyes told the Post that they became a "raging addict" for a decade from the age of 14 to 24 as they put pressure on themself to land a bigger part so that people would stop calling her Katie and the bullying would stop.
In their Medium essay, Reyes wrote that they used self-harm, sex, drugs, and alcohol as coping mechanisms to get through this time.
"I spent over a decade terrified that I'd peaked at 10 years old," Reyes said in their essay.
However, while Reyes said that their time on the movie and examining themselves on the big screen at the premiere led to an eating disorder, they do not regret doing "School of Rock."
"It was nothing but love and support. I have never lost gratitude for that, or wish that I wasn't part of it," Reyes said.
Reyes said the other child actors in the movie quickly became their close friends, and they have all stayed in touch ever since via group chats and multiple reunions over the years. Reyes said that Black has also stayed in touch with the cast as well, calling the actor a "great guy."
Reyes, who worked hard to become sober after spending two years recovering from alcoholism and addiction, told the Post that they have overcome "a lot of demons."
Reyes said: "To quote Britney, I'm stronger than yesterday."
The actor has been getting back into acting since 2017, and they are releasing a podcast called "Where Are We Now" later this year that will give other child stars a platform to speak about their own experiences.
More and more child stars have recently been coming forward detailing their traumatic experiences. "Matilda" star Mara Wilson wrote an essay for the New York Times slamming the treatment of child stars and Britney Spears, and drew comparisons between her early career and that of Spears'.
Spears, meanwhile, has been at the center of a #FreeBritney movement that has seen many fans support the singer, who has been stuck in conservatorship for 13 years. The New York Times' documentary "Framing Britney Spears" examines the conservatorship and the many legal battles over it.