This is getting really old

Question

This is getting really old. 
I keep running into limits on the way I can access information.
I have some code that was looking at a SerialElement:
pSerialElement.getChildAt(0).toString();     trace produces "[object VideoElement]"
Now if I simply store that SerialElement in a MediaElement (pMediaElement = pSerialElement )
I no longer can do a getChildAt.
trace pMediaElement = [object SerialElement]   (it says it's a SerialElement)
trace pPlayer.media = [object SerialElement]
1061: Call to a possibly undefined method getChildAt through a reference with static type org.osmf.media:MediaElement.
You encourage us to use MediaElement, yet you lock us out of inspecting our elements
once inside the MediaElement.
I want read-only access to the objects inside of MediaElement.
I should be able to inspect the SerialElement no matter which way it's stored.
I honestly don't understand the logic, on an open source project, to locking everything down
so tight with private vars.

Answer 1

Yes, this type casting you had mentioned before, just didn't stick in my memory.
Sorry for the late night rant.
I'm now getting the results I wanted, thanks again for your patience.
trace(pMediaElement);
result:  [object SerialElement]
trace(pPlayer.media);
result:  [object SerialElement]
trace ((pPlayer.media as SerialElement).getChildAt(0));
result:  [object VideoElement]
trace ((pMediaElement as SerialElement).getChildAt(0));
result:  [object VideoElement]
trace ((pMediaElement as SerialElement).getChildAt(0).resource);
result:  [object URLResource]
var vResource:URLResource = ((pMediaElement as SerialElement).getChildAt(0).resource as URLResource);
trace (vResource.url);
result:   ./media/walkin.flv