Hayden Panettiere’s mom reveals how she trained late actress for relentless world of TV soaps

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Hayden Panettiere’s mother has revealed in a new interview how she trained her late daughter for the entertainment industry after she began her acting career as a child.

Lesley Vogel, an actress herself, served as the late actress’ manager when she was very young.

Lesley Vogel trained Hayden Panettiere to cry

Days after Panettiere’s untimely death at age 36, Vogel spoke with the Daily Mail, where she shared, “I had already taught her, believe it or not, at four years old, she could trigger tears.”

The ‘Nashville’ star had also mentioned it in her memoir, ‘This Is Me: A Reckoning,’ where she wrote about her experience working on the CBS soap opera ‘Guiding Light’ at a young age.

She described one important scene in the show in which she was required to cry after her onscreen mother, played by Beth Chamberlin, was injured in a car accident.

“This was my big moment. A bloody suicidal mom in a cold, sterile place about to be wheeled off to God knows where… that was enough to make any kid upset,” Panettiere had stated.

Hayden Panettiere used pet memories to trigger tears

She also noted that she often thought about her beloved pet guinea pig, Christopher Robin the Third, before any crying scene.

“I adored Christopher Robin the Third. I held in my tears and imagined his funeral. I'd make a little headstone for him and bury him under a tree in our yard. I felt the pressure inside me building and the tears welling up. Hold it in Hayden, hold it in,” she shared.

The ‘Heroes’ actress had added, “When I felt I was about to pop, I let loose and turned it on, just like Mom had taught me to do.”

Vogel, however, claimed that she “coached her before that scene, and boy, she came in, did an amazing job to the point where not just the cast came over to me, but the producers came down on set and said, ‘Oh my God, oh my God.’”

During the interview, Vogel also acknowledged that, apart from her training, Panettiere was naturally gifted.

Recalling an incident, she shared that her late daughter landed a television pilot years ago, but at the time, she could not read, which made a producer anxious.

“I just looked at the producer. I said, ‘Oh, we've got this,’ because we had studied it and she had memorized it. They were dumbfounded. When you have a four-year-old who can deliver lines, hit all her spots, hit all her cues, and then come off and be a normal four-year-old - that's a gift,” Vogel added.

Hayden Panettiere linked catastrophe with adoration

Chamberlin also said, “Panettiere was astonishing. Memorizing all those lines was the least of it. She knew how to bring those words to life in an emotional arc that adult actors often struggle with. I don't think I even remember her forgetting a line.”

However, Panettiere wrote in her memoir that her acting career came at a cost.

“Directors, fans and Mom praised me endlessly for my over-the-top dramatic responses. Subconsciously I began to associate catastrophe with adoration; people loved me because make-believe bad things happened to me,” she noted.

Panettiere further added that "is it any wonder why I've faced so many real struggles in my life? I've often wondered whether - unintentionally - I've brought on traumas because I'm wired to think they're good for me.”