The iconic film The Sound of Music was released in 1965 and remains a classic. One of the movie’s stars, Nicholas Hammond, recently opened up about the difficulties of being a child actor in a film that became so universally popular.
Hammond talked with People about playing the role of Friedrich von Trapp at the age of 14. He shared, “It was a joyous film to make.”
“I’m enormously proud of having a small part in it and being a part of something that’s brought so much pleasure to so many, now billions of people over the years.”
Nicholas Hammond, People
As much as Hammond treasures being a part of the iconic film, the experience also came with its downsides. After the movie initially blew up, Hammond recalled that it was difficult to suddenly become “one of the seven most famous children in the world.”
When he left to film The Sound of Music, Hammond explained, he was attending Williamsburg Junior High School in Arlington, Virginia. He was in ninth grade, and when he returned to school during the movie’s popularity, he found the stardom was “a big thing to put on a 14-year-old.”
He played Friedrich, the oldest son in the von Trapp family. The movie’s quick success followed him through his teen years, which Hammond noted “is always a bit of a challenging time for a lot of reasons.”
“It can be a time of great insecurity. It can be a time of you’re having growth spurts and all that sort of thing,” he added.
During what was an awkward time in life anyway, Hammond recalled the additional weight of experiencing “what it was like to walk into the school cafeteria and suddenly 500 people just stop eating and turn and stare at you. And it’s not what you want, but it happens.”
Hammond and the other child actors from The Sound of Music remained close after filming, and he is glad that was the case. “We only had each other, really. It was only us seven that knew what that experience was like,” he explained.
The actor can see how other child actors struggled with fame, and he feels “so blessed that I had a series of good, positive experiences working with people whom I admired and who treated me respectfully.”
As a result of having a positive experience and good support system, Hammond shared, “To me, it was just the greatest job in the world.”
Hammon had acted in a couple of projects before landing The Sound of Music, and he successfully continued his career in the years following its release. He even starred in an iconic episode of The Brady Bunch, the one where Marcia’s (Maureen McCormick’s) nose is hit by a football, causing Hammond’s character to lose interest in her.
As much as Hammond struggled with the fame after The Sound of Music became a huge hit, he acknowledged that some of the other child actors from the film likely struggled more. He explained that some were “literally kids off the street of L.A. who had been plucked out by a casting director. And so I think for them it was a lot tougher, is my guess.”
Despite feeling uncomfortable with the stardom as a teen, ultimately, Hammond said the overall experience was “always a good thing.”
“It was never a bad thing,” Hammond stated. He shared that he never felt he had lost his childhood by doing the film, nor did he regret it.
