Max Burkholder says Kingdom Hearts was therapy during his child acting career

For Max Burkholder, Kingdom Hearts 2 isn’t just nostalgia — it’s closer to survival. The 28-year-old actor, best known as the star of Peacock’s Ted, says his childhood was defined as much by save files as by call sheets. Working steadily from a young age taught him that the stress of being a child actor on sets full of veteran performers doesn’t simply fade; you have to build a space to process it.

For Burkholder, that space looked like repeated playthroughs of Square Enix’s Disney crossover RPG. “If I am super stressed about something and need a way to turn my brain off and just process, I go for that,” he says. He still gravitates toward RPGs as he navigates a Hollywood career, praising their mix of “mind-numbing, repetitive bullshit and really huge emotional catharsis.” That catharsis can be intense: Burkholder admits he wept after defeating Malenia in Elden Ring.

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