What To Know
- Rose McGowan mourned Hayden Panettiere and called for an end to child stardom.
- Anna Paquin and other former child actors highlighted the lack of protection and the negative impact of early fame.
- Daveigh’s Law, supported by former child actors, is advocating for legislation in California to provide trauma-informed support for current and former child performers.
Following Hayden Panettiere’s death at age 36 last week, fellow Scream franchise star Rose McGowan is calling for Hollywood to stop employing children and for parents to stop putting their children in the limelight.
“Rest in power, Hayden Panettiere,” McGowan wrote on Instagram on Friday, memorializing the Heroes and Nashville star who started out in soap operas as a child.
Then McGowan wrote, “Don’t put kids in show business. None of this is normal. May her spirit be free of those who orchestrated.”
Anna Paquin, the X-Men and True Blood actor who won an Oscar for her childhood work in The Piano, also highlighted the issues around young stardom in an Instagram post on Friday. “It’s not a coincidence that so many former, specifically pre-sexualized female, child ‘stars’ have profoundly sad lives and untimely ends,” she wrote. “We were not as protected by the ‘systems’ that look great on paper as we are supposed to be.”
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Paquin added: “RIP HP, MT, and DC [the initials of Panettiere and Michelle Trachtenberg and Daveigh Chase, other former child stars who died in their 30s recently] and too many others. It’s a strange, small club we belong to, and you are worthy of support, no matter how our industry made us feel. Literally DM me. I believe you, and I will stand by your side. Let’s have each other’s backs. It might make public disclosure less terrifying.”
In a comment on Paquin’s follow-up post, Matilda actor Mara Wilson wrote, “I mostly had good experiences on sets. I consider myself very fortunate that I had strong, wonderful people looking out for me on those sets. But the stories I heard from and about other child actors were horrifying.”
Both McGowan and Paquin’s posts got supportive comments from Amy Castle, the former child star known for her work on Ally McBeal. Castle is also the founder of Daveigh’s Law, an organization seeking to “[transform] remembrance into prevention, connection, and care for every child performer who deserves a supported future,” according to its website. Daveigh’s Law is proposing legislation for framework “connecting child performers and former child performers with independent, confidential, trauma-informed support before, during, and after their careers” in the state of California.