Hayden Panettiere says she was 'groomed' as she opens up on dark side of growing up in Hollywood
Warning: This article contains discussion of self-harm which some readers may find distressing.
Hayden Panettiere has hit the headlines in recent weeks after the actress shed some light on some of her darker experiences in Hollywood.
It is never easy for a young attractive woman making her way in the film industry and the 36-year-old was thrust into the limelight from a very early age, appearing as a child actor in a number of 90s TV series.
The American actor perhaps had her big breakthrough as Britney in Bring it On but that attracted attention from places she didn't always want.
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After recently coming out as bisexual, the Nashville star also recalled a traumatic experience which saw her being put in bed with a 'very famous undressed man' when she was just 18.
And now she's spoken more about how she was 'groomed' during her early days in Hollywood, and how she wants her 11-year-old daughter to avoid the same fate, after she expressed an interest in acting.
During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, she said: "I think it's the way I was raised. I was groomed. I was like a little soldier and I always have been. No was never an option.
"It was just, here are your scenes, here's your dialogue, memorise it, hit the marks, do what your director tells you to do. I took my marching orders."
Panettiere, who shares her daughter with former heavyweight champion boxer Wladimir Klitschko, is releasing her memoir next week where she delves more into her childhood acting, which saw paparazzi target her from as young as 16.
She only realised that she had been groomed when she started 'self-harming in the form of substance abuse'.
She added: "My people pleasing had built up and up, it was anger and anxiety and frustration. My life revolved around other people, and I lived to make other people happy and I was the last one on the list. The pressure of that built and built and just exploded. I started figuring out any way I could get through it.
"Sometimes they'll say in treatment that, believe it or not, our addictions probably saved us at a certain point."
Panettiere admitted that she was curious if acting was something that she 'would have naturally gravitated towards' and also revealed her plans for her daughter in case she ends up going down the same path.
'I will say, please go to college, please try things out. And if you really love it, then I will support you wholeheartedly. And if she doesn't like it, she can get out. Her world doesn't have to revolve around that."
Topics: Parenting
James Moorhouse