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Justin Timberlake on fatherhood: 'It opens up all the floodgates'

The star revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that raising his 2-year-old son, Silas, has made him realize how unusual his childhood was.
/ Source: TODAY

Justin Timberlake can't remember a time he wasn't a celebrity.

"I have some faint images from my childhood," the 36-year-old actor and musician revealed in the February edition of The Hollywood Reporter, "but no, I can't really remember not being famous."

Justin Timberlake opened up to the magazine about how being a dad to Silas, 22 months, has made him re-examine his own childhood.
Justin Timberlake opened up to the magazine about how being a dad to Silas, 22 months, has made him re-examine his own childhood.thehollywoodreporter/Instagram

Timberlake performed on "Star Search" at the tender age of 10, and a year later he was a bona fide child star — along with Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and others — on "The New Mickey Mouse Club."

By his teens, Timberlake was touring the world with his bestselling boy band NSYNC.

Though the speedy road to superstardom was thrilling, Timberlake, now dad to a 22-month-old son Silas, with wife Jessica Biel, says parenthood forced him realize how unusual his own childhood was.

Justin Timberlake poses in the February issue of The Hollywood Reporter.
Justin Timberlake poses in the February issue of The Hollywood Reporter.

"You go through your life with your own traumas, big and small, and think, 'It's not that bad, I have a lot to be thankful for, my parents did the best they could,'" he told the magazine.

"But then you have a child of your own," he continued, "and suddenly it opens all the floodgates, and you're like, 'No, no, no! That childhood trauma really did f— me up!' "

RELATED: Justin Timberlake talks fatherhood on TODAY: 'It changes everything'

By 21, Timberlake quit NSYNC: "We were on a stadium tour, and I just felt like the whole thing was too big. It started as a fun snowball fight that was becoming an avalanche."

"And, also, I was growing out of it," he said, adding that he felt he "cared more about the music than some of the other people in the group" and he was ready to "follow my heart" by making music of his own.

"I can't really remember not being famous," Timberlake revealed.
"I can't really remember not being famous," Timberlake revealed. The Hollywood Reporter

Timberlake, who's nominated for both a Grammy and an Oscar for "Can't Stop the Feeling!" (from the "Trolls" soundtrack) and appearing opposite Kate Winslet in a new Woody Allen movie, says he's unsure if he'd want little Silas to follow in his footsteps.

"I haven't been able to answer that question in my mind," he said. "If he wanted it bad enough, I suppose I could teach him a lot about what not to do."

Read the full interview in The Hollywood Reporter.