Open Options

A five-year-old Jacob Hopkins pulled a classic kid move and cut his hair in kindergarten class.

This would not have been a problem if he wasn’t set to shoot his very first commercial the following day. Luckily they were able to salvage the wonky cut for the K-Mart Mother’s Day commercial he did with Jaclyn Smith, and Hopkins was off and running with his acting career from there.

He was ‘discovered’ in his dad’s agent’s office when he was five years old. You may know Hopkins dad, Gerald. He played AJ. Quartermaine on General Hospital from 1991-92.

“I was just sitting in the corner playing with toys or whatever I did at five years old.” The agents asked if he wanted to try acting and he recalls answering with something like, “Yah, sure; what’s acting?”

He began acting lessons and his dad coached him for auditions. He started booking commercials and also landed his first movie, The Minis.

A few years later he booked a 3-episode run on HBO’s popular True Blood series. “I wouldn’t say that was my discover moment because I’m probably too young for that but I would say that was my first big thing,” Hopkins explained.

“I was nine when I auditioned for that,” Hopkins said. “I loved vampires. I still do. I really like to watch that kind of stuff. When I got the audition I was like, ‘This is going to be cool’ because I was in this really big monster phase. I loved werewolves vampires and zombies and all that.”

He remembers being awestruck by the special effects department. He was fascinated to learn how they created such things as fake flesh for the show. “I think my favorite part of was getting my fangs fitted. Obviously it wasn’t like those cheap plastic fangs that you get at Party City. They were, to me, my prize.”

At the time, he had “zero” concept of how popular that show was. Plus, as a kid, he parents didn’t want him watching much of the show. “I was only allowed to watch my scenes,” he remembers. “My mom and dad were never going to have me watch the gory stuff. The only gory scene that I was allowed to watch was my death where I get staked.”

“Yeaaah, I was evil,” he said proudly.

He revealed that he actually hasn’t gone back to watch any of the show now that he’s older.

“Maybe I’ll ask my mom if I’m old enough,” he joked. “I probably am.”

As a young actor, he learned a lot watching everyone on set and felt the love from the cast. “Everyone was so nice on set and treated me like a son.’ He also remembers being stressed out by the publicity interviews that he had to do for the show. “They were my first big interviews. I remember that was really hard for me.”

In 2014, Hopkins scored the voice role of Gumball Watterson on the inventive and clever The Amazing World of Gumball. The Cartoon Network show revolves around the life of a 12-year old cat, Gumball, who attends middle school. As one might expect, most of Gumball’s adventures involve his adoptive goldfish brother Darwin.

“It was my first voiceover audition,” Hopkins says about Gumball. “I was like ‘oh my gosh, Gumball!’ One of my favorite shows.

As part of the audition he voiced four full episodes. “I remember working so hard preparing for it because I wanted this role. I didn’t want anybody else to have it because it was just a dream. And then it became a dream come true.”

“Gumball is your classic house cat,” Hopkins said. “He’s a know-it-all. But he’s a good kid at heart. Gumball is sarcastic, fast-talking. He doesn’t want anyone to get a word in because he thinks he’s right. And most of the time, he is.”

In his spare time, Hopkins supports a few charities. One of those organizations, Breaking the Chains, was founded by his mom Debra. The goal of the foundation is to change the stigma of eating disorders and to use the arts as a healing tool. "It’s a really great cause,” he said.

So how does one balance acting, charity work, school work and being a kid? “Really, it’s not that hard,” he said. “There are just basic steps that get you on the path to not being stressed.” For instance, finding out shooting dates, securing school work ahead of time, and keeping in touch with teachers online.

“I cannot procrastinate and fall back,” he said. “I’ve gotta keep up with my school work.” Believe me that is hard for me because I am a serious gamer, but I find my gaming time somewhere else.”

As far as career goals are concerned, they range from doing an anime voice role to becoming a doctor.

"Who knows what the future holds?” he said. “I became an actor at 5 years old.” There’s plenty of time for multiple careers and for him to figure out what he’ll be doing 10 years from now. “I’m actually seriously planning on getting a doctoral degree. Just in case acting doesn’t work, I’ll have that to fall back on.”

“I’ve been drumming for nearly four years now and I’ve worked really hard at it,” he said. His brother plays guitar. “Who knows, maybe we can become a band.”

“I love to draw in my spare time, especially anime,” he added. “Maybe I could get into animation one day.”

This kid’s got options.