Hayden Panettiere says growing up in Hollywood made her ‘very protective’ of kids on set
Hayden Panettiere reflected on her years as a child actress, telling Fox News Digital that she wishes she hadn’t been so hard on herself.
"Criticism in any form is a hard pill to swallow, and especially when you're at these very vulnerable ages where you're already struggling and picking yourself apart and going through all of these changes, physically, mentally, emotionally," the "Sleepwalker" actress said. "And I think encouraging me to love myself more and love myself with my flaws and all, and — It's not about how many times you fall down or how you fall, it's about how you handle it afterwards, how you pick yourself up and dust yourself off and carry on."
While promoting her movie "Sleepwalker," in which Panettiere plays a grieving mother who is haunted by the tragic loss of her daughter, the actress noted that her own experiences growing up in Hollywood have made her especially protective of child actors she now works with on set.
"Having been one myself, I'm very, very protective of them," Panettiere told MovieFone. "Especially with a dark subject matter like this, I was trying to be protective of them, their emotions, and them mentally, as well, and being able to pull them in and out of these dark, intense scenes."
She explained that she made a conscious effort to help the young actors separate the heavy material from real life.
"Knowing when to shake it off, lighten up, crack some jokes, and say, ‘Okay. Now, let's get back into it.’ So, we don't have to spend all day feeling this heavy, dark weight following us around," she said. "I love them. They're just so pure. They're so energetic. They're so honest. They're so real and untainted, and they're beautiful."
When speaking with Fox News Digital, the 36-year-old said her "definition of success" has also changed as she’s gotten older.
"It's become more important to me to have a positive experience and feel good about my job and what I've done, what I have accomplished," she explained. "And I stopped being such a perfectionist and nitpicking at myself. And I'm not saying I don't still do that. I do, but I'm much better at giving myself grace, I think, and therefore get to enjoy my job more than I ever did before."
Panettiere, who plays a sleepwalker in the movie, told Fox News Digital that she used to sleepwalk in real life.
"I was a big sleepwalker," she explained. "I don't have a lot of recollection of it, but I would wake up — like I would have sleepovers with friends and stuff — and I would wake up, and they would have these wild stories about how I get up in the middle of the night and start feeling around the room."
She also admitted to being a "sleep talker as well."
"Who knows what I say? Who knows what stories I've told? I don't think I wanna know," she laughed.
She even remembered an incident when she was having a sleepover with actress friend Kristen Bell when they were younger.
"She said in the middle of the night, I started talking to her and I did the sweetest thing. I reached out, and I just cupped her face like this. And she said she slept, she thought it was so sweet, that she spent the rest of the night letting me cup her face," Panettiere explained through hysterical laughter. "So, I never lived that one down."
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Panettiere said she also felt very protective of the actors who played her children in the movie.
"I love working with the kids," she said. "I really do, having been a child actor myself, I'm very protective of them. And even though it was a dark subject matter, I wanted to make sure that they enjoyed themselves, that they knew how to have fun as well and got to jump in and out of it. They didn't have to stay in this dark, sad place."
WATCH: HAYDEN PANETTIERE SAYS THAT CRITICISM CAN BE A STRUGGLE FOR CHILD ACTORS WHO ARE ALREADY AT A VULNERABLE AGE
Filming "Sleepwalker," which premiered in theaters and on VOD on Jan. 9, was emotionally and physically challenging because of its dark subject matter, she revealed.
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"The whole film is pretty dark. It's this descent into darkness, you know, as this character battles between this nightmare world and knowing when she's in that and when she is in reality," she explained of the psychological thriller.
Being a mother herself made her emotions "readily available," especially for one scene with her onscreen daughter and "made my job really easy."
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"Trying to keep the scenes where we have to keep heightened emotion, not only emotionally, but physically as well, and coming in and out of those dream states in complete terror," was draining emotionally and physically, she admitted, along with staying in "such a dark emotional place."
WATCH: HAYDEN PANETTIERE EXPLAINS THE MENTAL AND PHYSICAL CHALLENGES OF MAKING NEW THRILLER ‘SLEEPWALKER’
She added, however, that the scenes were "ultimately rewarding" for her.
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The "Heroes" alum was also grateful to work with veteran actress Beverly D’Angelo, whom she said she met when she was little.
"She’s become a dear, dear friend of mine," she said. "And I actually grew up down the street from her."
While growing up in Rockland County, New York, Panettiere said that her father was a firefighter who had a contracting business and D’Angelo hired him to do her house while she was living there with Al Pacino.
"And he brought me over to meet her. And so, fast-forward to all these years later, it's wild that we got a chance to work together," she said of the full circle moment. "But I have never worked with somebody who looks so much like me. We put our faces side by side, and it was like uncanny. Not to mention we have very similar personalities, and she was just a saving grace for me because we kept each other laughing, you know, in between [takes] and we're able to kind of pull ourselves in and out of those dark emotional states."