Mark Levin: (co-director of “Little Manhattan,” about Josh’s audition) Josh was the first kid we met at the reading, and he so blew everyone away at the reading that he……
Jennifer Flackett: (second director) He made it impossible for them to say no.

Mark Levin: (director of “Little Manhattan”) Josh is so game for anything that you put in front of him, and he’s got an amazing acting style, which is that he just is “Johnny on the spot.” You just say “Hit that window,” and he says “How hard?” And he does it again and again. And he enjoys it, he’s just having fun…..it’s just kind of indicative of his incredible commitment.

Cynthia Nixon: (Josh’s on-screen mother in “Little Manhattan”) Sometimes you just run across kids who are so grown-up. Josh is cute, but he is also smart and makes good choices.

Jon Favreau: (director of “Zathura”) He was a real, real pro. He had, um…..it was like, you’d think he was working for thirty years. He knew all his lines, his parents were very astute about how the way the set works and all that stuff, and he just brought a tremendous professionalism to the set.

Gabor Csupo: (director of “Bridge to Terabithia,” about Josh’s emotional crying scene with Robert Patrick in the film) This scene is, again, amazing because I think we shot it only twice, and both times, those tears coming out of Joshua’s eyes……they’re real teardrops. It’s not like we had to physically put them in there with the drop help, or CGI, or anything. These are his real tears. He really melted into this performance so deeply, that even his mom, on the set, was amazed by his performance. And she was saying, “I just don’t know how he can do this. What was he thinking about?” He did, you know…..such an amazing emotional job on it.

Michelle Hutcherson: We work hard to keep his life as normal as it can be. He doesn’t get to just go out and buy things. His three big purchases–a dirt bike, a laptop and a gas powered motor scooter–have been spread out over 18 months. Every kid around here has a motorized scooter, but he was the last kid to get one in our subdivision. We didn’t let him at first. He kept working hard, and doing chores around here, so we decided to let him get one. We give him as normal of a life that we can. We let him be a kid. That’s what a lot of people say to me– he’s so professional, yet he’s still a kid. And I think that’s because we let him be a kid.

Michelle Hutcherson: (about seeing her son on a billboard for the first time) I honestly started crying when I saw the billboard. You never imagine that one day, your 11-year-old son will be on a billboard on Sunset Boulevard in the middle of Hollywood. Josh just started screaming when he saw it!

Michelle Hutcherson: He bugged us so much. He wanted to do it. I have no clue why. We just thought, “He’s a kid, he doesn’t know what he wants.” And finally, he just pushed and pushed enough that I said I’d look into it. And I did. And this is where it went, all of a sudden.
Chris Hutcherson: Ever since he’s been little, he’s liked to perform for people. He has a personality that attracts people’s attention. He does have talent. And it’s part of a parent’s responsibility–if your child wants to do something, support him whenever you can.

Suzanne Collins: (author of ‘The Hunger Games’) People may get thrown, say, by the color of an actor’s hair, or something physical. But I tell you, if Josh had been bright purple and had six-foot wings and gave that audition, I’d have been like, ‘Cast him! We can work around the wings.’ He was that good.

Jennifer Lawrence: Josh is so charming, and when you read the books about Peeta being able to manipulate anybody…I mean, Josh could get — well, I don’t know a metaphor except for dirty ones.

Gary Ross: He kind of reminds me of a young Jack Lemmon. There’s this incredible versatility to him; he’s wise beyond his years, he’s sort of mature beyond his years, and there’s just such a natural ease to his acting. He’s so comfortable.