Holy shit, Jacob Tremblay grew up.

That was pretty much my first thought watching the trailer for Netflix’s UNABOMBER.

Not because Jacob Tremblay disappeared. He didn’t. He’s continued acting and, thankfully, we’ve gotten to watch him grow up on screen instead of having one of those weird Hollywood moments where a child actor seemingly vanishes at 12 and reappears at 25 looking like an entirely different human being.

But this feels different.

Jacob is playing a teenage Ted Kaczynski, years before the world would know him as the Unabomber, and I have a feeling this is going to be the movie that makes a whole lot of people realize something I’ve thought for years:

Jacob Tremblay isn’t a great child actor.

He’s a great actor.

There’s a difference.

I first saw Jacob in Room, like a lot of people did. He was nine years old when that movie came out, acting opposite Brie Larson, and somehow this tiny kid held his own in material that would have been difficult for actors three times his age.

And he didn’t just hold his own.

He pulled you in.

That’s the thing I’ve always noticed about the truly extraordinary child actors. Macaulay Culkin had it. Elijah Wood had it. Thora Birch had it. Christina Ricci had it. Haley Joel Osment absolutely had it.

You don’t watch them and think, Wow, that kid memorized a lot of lines.

They make you part of their journey.

They make you forget you’re watching a child perform and instead make you care about whatever this little person on the screen is experiencing.

Then Jacob did Wonder.

And holy hell, I thought he was extraordinary.

Again, he was surrounded by established adult actors. Julia Roberts. Owen Wilson. Mandy Patinkin. And once again, I wasn’t watching Wonder thinking about how impressive Jacob was for his age.

I was hooked.

He brought me into Auggie’s world and made me feel it with him.

That’s not something you can fake, and it’s not something every technically talented actor can do. Some actors can give a perfectly good performance and still leave you sitting comfortably on your couch watching them perform.

The special ones drag you into the damn movie.

Jacob does that.

And every movie he makes, he gets better.

Which brings me to UNABOMBER.

The movie follows Ted Kaczynski during his younger years, including entering Harvard at only 16 and his involvement in controversial psychological experiments conducted by Harvard professor Henry Murray.

That’s fascinating to me.

And before somebody gets the wrong idea:

It better not justify shit.

Ted Kaczynski eventually became a domestic terrorist. He killed three people and injured many others during a bombing campaign that lasted nearly two decades. Learning about the experiences that shaped him doesn’t change what he ultimately chose to do.

But haven’t human beings always been fascinated by the question of how someone becomes capable of doing something horrific?

Look at how many documentaries, movies, television series, books and podcasts exist about murderers.

We want to understand.

Was something always there?

Did something happen?

Was it nature? Nurture?

Was it both?

Were there turning points where his life could have gone differently?

What effect did entering Harvard at 16 have on him? What effect did Murray and those experiments have? What parts of the adult Kaczynski were already developing in the teenager, and what came later?

I want all of it.

Understanding how somebody evolved into the person they became is not the same thing as excusing what that person eventually did.

He did what he did.

Nothing a movie shows me about Ted Kaczynski’s childhood or adolescence is going to erase his victims.

But exploring how that teenager eventually became the Unabomber?

Hell yes, I want to watch that.

And Jacob Tremblay is exactly the kind of actor I want taking me through that transformation.

There’s also something interesting about Jacob himself understanding what it’s like to be a kid operating in adult spaces.

He has talked about drawing from his own experience of being young and surrounded professionally by adults when approaching teenage Ted arriving at Harvard.

That caught my attention because I understand a version of that.

I was raised by my grandparents, so I spent a lot of my childhood around adults. When you grow up around adults more than kids, it changes how you move through the world. You learn how to interact with adults differently. People might describe you as being “older for your age.”

Obviously, Jacob growing up on movie sets and Ted Kaczynski entering Harvard at 16 are completely different circumstances.

But the feeling of being the kid in an adult world?

There’s something there for an actor to grab onto.

And Jacob isn’t walking into this movie surrounded by lightweight talent, either.

Russell Crowe plays Henry Murray. Shailene Woodley, Annabelle Wallis, Alexander Ludwig, Steven Ogg and Marc Menchaca are part of the cast.

Do I wonder whether Jacob can hold his own with them?

Nope.

I know he can.

I’ve already watched him do it.

What I’m excited about is watching everybody else figure it out.

Because Hollywood has always had a complicated relationship with child actors growing up.

Sometimes audiences freeze them at whatever age they were when we fell in love with them. Sometimes Hollywood doesn’t quite know what to do with them once they’re too old to play the precocious kid but haven’t yet established themselves as adult performers.

Jacob has been smart — or lucky, or probably some combination of both — because he kept working through those years. We’ve gotten to see him gradually grow up through his roles.

But UNABOMBER feels like a line in the sand.

The little boy from Room is gone.

There’s an adult actor standing there now.

And this is where my Leonardo DiCaprio comparison comes in.

I’m not talking about Titanic Leo.

Go backward.

Watch This Boy’s Life.

Watch What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.

Watch The Basketball Diaries.

Young Leonardo DiCaprio had this ability to disappear inside difficult, damaged, complicated young men and make you go wherever the character went.

You felt the journey.

That’s what I see in Jacob Tremblay.

I’m not saying Jacob acts like Leonardo DiCaprio. I’m not asking him to become Leonardo DiCaprio.

I’m saying I see the potential for that kind of career.

The child actor who doesn’t simply survive growing up.

The child actor who becomes one of the actors.

Period.

And I think UNABOMBER may be the moment when everyone else sees it too.

Jacob has already shown us he can make us feel.

He’s already shown us he can carry emotionally difficult material.

He’s already shown us he can stand opposite major actors without disappearing next to them.

Now give him something darker.

Give him something complicated.

Give him a character we’re uncomfortable following.

Give him material Hollywood couldn’t have handed him when he was nine years old.

And see what happens.

I’ve been waiting for this part of Jacob Tremblay’s career.

I’m calling it now.

Jacob Tremblay is here to stay.

And UNABOMBER is going to show everybody what I’ve been seeing all along.

He’s gonna be our next Leo. 😉