Hayden Panettiere sat down with BBC Breakfast to talk about her life as a child star.
Now all grown up and playing a darker character on the show Nashville, the former child star admits that growing up in Hollywood requires avoiding a lot of vices:
“I’m no different to anyone else and those same doors were opened to me and they were very easy to walk through—drugs, alcohol, being in inappropriate places where you shouldn’t be at a certain age—it’s a very tough position to be in, but I had great people to pull me back from it.”
As expected, that train of thought quickly turned to sympathy for other female child stars, specifically Amanda Bynes and Lindsay Lohan. Hayden says of those fallen stars:
“Being a young female growing up in the industry is tough. I grew up in the generation of the wild child—I was guilty by association. So everyone sits there and waits for you to fall off your horse.
Panettiere adds:
“But as long as you have people who are willing to tell you the truth and are not afraid to tell you the truth and give you a reality check—it makes a world of difference.”
Hayden has managed to crawl out of the of child stars and become a respectable actress who has proven she can take on different types of roles.
Just because she didn’t get sucked into an endless cycle of booze and drugs doesn’t mean Hayden can’t throw down. She recently admitted that she can get rough with boxer boyfriend Vladamir Klitschko. According to Panettiere, “I throw him around.”
Do you think child stars who fall into a life of drugs and alcohol do so because of the pressures associated with Hollywood or because of the crowds they choose to hang out with?
