Jeremiah McDonald: Man Talks To 12-Year-Old Self In Video Set To Go Viral

By Ceylan Yeginsu | July 05 2012 8:52 PM

For most people, one's 12-year-old self is something of a blur, but filmmaker Jeremiah McDonald has created a time capsule interview, where the younger version of himself interviews the 32-year-old man via videotape.

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Any creative 12-year-old could have come up with the idea to film himself interviewing a future version, but what makes McDonald's video extraordinary is that the idea never left him and he followed through with it 20 years later.

The dialogue starts a little slowly, with the 12-year-old boy asking present-day McDonald how he is and if his pets are still alive. But the conversation then builds into a witty, funny dialogue between a pre- and post-YouTube version of the man.

The video has more than 14,000 likes on YouTube and is well poised to go viral, but it has also attracted some skepticism, with some viewers asking which child actor played his 12-year-old self.

McDonald is resolute that the 12-year-old boy is in fact himself performing for a home video he made for his future self.

This gives me an idea. I'm not exactly sure what I would say to myself at age 50, though. I'm pretty sure that me in 24 years would hate the current me. Maybe that's how we all should strive to live our lives. Strive to make sure future you won't hate current you and vice versa. It may help to simply imagine the conversation the two of you would have, if it ever came to that, McDonald said.

Other users have complimented McDonald for being so precocious and creative from a very young age.

I think he was probably a very clever kid and imagined a dialogue between him and his future self and wrote out most of the questions and answers beforehand and then just saved them. His mature and sophisticated self then used editing and snappier dialog to sharpen it up. It's great!, writes Corpore Metal in a comment on io9.com.