Why Jonathan Taylor Thomas Stepped Away From the Spotlight: Everything He’s Said

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Why Jonathan Taylor Thomas Stepped Away From the Spotlight: Everything He's Said

At one point, Jonathan Taylor Thomas was on the cover of every magazine — but he's happy it's not that way anymore. After acting in dozens of films and appearing on hit TV shows in the '90s, he stepped out of the spotlight. After becoming a massive child star, Thomas famously exited Home Improvement in 1998 to focus on going to college — a decision that surprised most of his colleagues. "It's a pretty sore point around here," Patricia Richardson, who played his mother on the show, told TV Guide magazine in 1999, admitting she was disappointed that he didn't return for the series finale. "I think there were a lot of bad feelings all along. I don't think it's a good idea that he didn't show up, but I don't always think he gets the best advice." Tim Allen, who played his father on the show, added that Thomas was "miffed" at him when he started asking about why he'd leave the show. "I was a little confused at why he didn't want to do this whole year," the Don't Stand Too Close to a Naked Man author said in 1999. "He said it was about going to school, but then he did some films. Did he want to do films? Did he want to go to school? It got mixed up in the translation. I mentioned [publicly] that I was confused. I don’t think he liked that." He stayed on good terms with his TV family after working together for eight seasons. In 2014, he made a cameo on Allen's Last Man Standing, alongside Richardson. He also directed three episodes of the sitcom. "I always love stunt casting," Allen told Us Weekly exclusively in 2020 about having his Home Improvement family on the show. In 2013, the comedian also noted that Thomas was always interested in directing and a wonderful actor. "He really was dedicated to his studies, and then kind of got away from TV. But he graduated and he came back, and loves directing, loves working with actors," he told Yahoo at the time. "He's so shy. It's funny to see him so shy, so nervous. He worried whether he still had it, and he didn't want to do this because he's had other stuff in mind. But they asked him, and he agreed to it. I was shocked because as I said, he's just shy." Thomas was photographed out and about in Hollywood for the first time since 2013 in June 2021, walking two dogs around the city in photos obtained exclusively by Us. Scroll through the gallery below for more of what Thomas has said through the years about leaving the industry: [podcast_block]

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Staying True to Himself

In 1996, the Man of the House star noted that he keeps his job very separate from his real life. "You can't be trapped in this bubble called the acting industry," he told Premiere magazine at the time. "The industry is neurotic and weird, and so when I go home and I play basketball with my friends, I'm not Jonathan Taylor Thomas. I'm just Jonathan. I don't like hanging out with other actors and actresses."

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His Goals Early On

In the same interview, he noted that while some hoped he'd be "the next Macaulay Culkin," he'd prefer to become "the next Ron Howard."

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Not His Choice

Thomas explained the difficulties of being a child star in 1996.

"You should be focused on doing a good job, but ... every job has an end," he told Premiere. "I think most [fallen child stars] weren’t prepared for the end. I mean, it’s not the end of your life! You can’t base your life around one thing. So that's why I focus on school, I play sports, I learn the technical side of [filmmaking]. Because sometime it'll change, and I'll have my education to fall back on."

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Making Everyone Happy

In 1997, Thomas spoke about the crowd of fans appearing on set of Wild America. ”It's sometimes distracting to look over and see a whole group of girls staring and giggling," he told The New York Times at the time. "You are a part of their life, and there is a lot that is owed them. But it's difficult because you want to make everyone happy, but if you try to do that, you're setting yourself up for failure.”

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Over the Nickname

"I'm over that," the former child star told Conan O'Brien in 1998 about the nickname JTT. "I've always been over that."

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Why He Left Home Improvement

After eight seasons, the Lion King star chose to walk away from the sitcom. "I'd been going nonstop since I was 8 years old. I wanted to go to school, to travel and have a bit of a break," he said about his choice to go to college. "To sit in a big library amongst books and students, that was pretty cool. It was a novel experience for me."

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Something Edgier

”I would like to do edgier material because that's what seems to be respected,” he told the Times in 1997. ”Maybe this will last forever. Acting will get you to a lot of places, but there are a multitude of things I can do later on. Acting is just one of them.”

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The Right Choice

While his costars didn't seem thrilled about his exit, Thomas defended his choice in 1999, telling press at the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, "I made such a good decision because had I stayed at the show and tried to do academically what I'm doing now, I would've, you know, put myself in an early grave."