Lesley Vogel, the mother of late actress Hayden Panettiere, has disclosed the intense acting tactics she used to turn her daughter into a child television star, including teaching her how to cry on command at just four years old. Panettiere died of a suspected drug overdose in Greenville, South Carolina, on August 16.
Vogel, an actress who served as her daughter's manager and private acting coach, spoke in an exclusive interview with the Daily Mail following public criticism over Panettiere's entry into show business. The former child star had previously detailed her upbringing in her memoir, This is Me: A Reckoning, published in May, three months before her death.
Vogel explained that drilling scripts and teaching emotional control were essential for a young performer facing up to 50 pages of dialogue a day. "I had already taught her, believe it or not, at four years old, she could trigger tears," Vogel told the Daily Mail. The training helped catapult Panettiere to child stardom in the 1990s, beginning at age four when she played Sarah Roberts on the long-running ABC soap opera One Life to Live.
In her memoir, Panettiere described working as a child actress as being a "little soldier." Following her death, media figures including Gayle King and Megyn Kelly criticized Vogel for pushing her daughter into acting at a young age. Vogel, who was estranged from Panettiere at the time of her death, defended her record and expressed hurt over the public backlash.
Breakthrough on Guiding Light
By the time she was eight years old, Panettiere landed the recurring role of Lizzie Spaulding on the CBS soap opera Guiding Light. Her mother's emotional coaching proved central during a pivotal scene in which her character's screen mother, played by Beth Chamberlin, was injured in a car accident.
Panettiere recalled the scene in her memoir, writing: "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."
Vogel said she coached Panettiere immediately before the cameras rolled. "I 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,'" Vogel recalled. The performance led producers to convert the role into a full-time contract position.
Chamberlin praised the young actress's rare ability to handle heavy dramatic material. "She was astonishing," Chamberlin told the Daily Mail. "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."
To produce tears during dramatic scenes, Panettiere relied on a personal visualization technique taught by her mother. In her memoir, she revealed that she conjured grief by imagining the death of her pet guinea pig, Christopher Robin the Third.
Mother's Coaching and Industry Jealousy
Panettiere wrote about the process in her book: "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."
She described managing her emotional output until the director called for action: "I felt the pressure inside me building and the tears welling up. Hold it in Hayden, hold it in. When I felt I was about to pop, I let loose and turned it on, just like Mom had taught me to do."
Vogel recalled that a prominent co-star on Guiding Light approached her after watching Panettiere perform, saying: "You know this child can act." When Vogel brushed off the comment, the star insisted: "No, Lesley, I'm serious."
Vogel noted that Panettiere's career, which began when she was entered into show business at 11 months old, stood out to other stage parents. Mothers of other child performers contacted Panettiere's talent agency, CESD, asking to speak with Vogel about her coaching methods, while some complained that Panettiere held an unfair advantage.
Memorizing Scripts Before Learning to Read
Vogel recounted an instance when Panettiere secured a role in a television pilot and flew to California for a table read despite being too young to read text. Half an hour before the reading, a producer panicked upon discovering the child's age and reading ability.
"Oh my God, oh my God! I just realized Hayden can't read. How's she going to do this?" Vogel recalled the producer saying. Vogel assured the production team: "Oh, we've got this."
Vogel used her finger to help Panettiere track lines on the script page, though her daughter had already memorized the entire text. "They were dumbfounded," Vogel said. "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."
Psychological Impact and Pep Pills Claim
Panettiere acknowledged that early praise for intense emotional acting created lasting psychological complications. "Directors, fans and Mom praised me endlessly for my over-the-top dramatic responses," she wrote. "Subconsciously I began to associate catastrophe with adoration; people loved me because make-believe bad things happened to me."
She added: "Grown-ups gave me positive attention when, as an actor, I failed, got sick, screamed and cried, grieved and suffered. Reality merged with my imagination and burrowed into my core memories, where all my shame and trauma lived. 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."
The memoir contained darker allegations, including Panettiere's claim that she was given "pep pills" at age 15 prior to red carpet appearances. Vogel denied knowing about any pills and questioned the claim.
"I have heard this before, and I know who her publicist was," Vogel said. "Her publicist was not perfect, but I never knew anything about her doing that." Vogel noted that Panettiere never raised the allegation with her directly: "She never said that to me, but she told others that that's what happened."
Family Bereavement and Co-Star Perspectives
The family has suffered multiple losses. Vogel and her ex-husband, Skip Panettiere, lost their 28-year-old son Jansen in 2023, prior to Hayden's death in August. Vogel rejected criticism of her parenting by commentators Gayle King and Megyn Kelly.
"I was very, very hurt and deeply disappointed in the lack of professionalism, the lack of compassion in slamming someone who's lost two children, without even a modicum of consideration," Vogel told the Daily Mail.
Laura Bonarrigo, who starred on One Life to Live alongside Panettiere in the mid-1990s, spoke about the heavy pressures facing young actors. Now working as a certified life and divorce coach counseling performers, Bonarrigo described the soap opera industry as relentless.
"She was little, very little," Bonarrigo said of Panettiere. "We would have known her on set as a beautiful little girl, been kind to her, all of them were very precocious. They were charming. They were lovely, all of them."
Bonarrigo expressed skepticism over claims that childhood acting is simple fun, noting that performance and approval become tied early in a child's life. "The pressure to perform, to do your role, to look a certain way and to behave a certain way," Bonarrigo said. "The thing is, for a little girl, she has to perform... It might be a genuine part of her, and we're going to give her credit. Let's say it's a genuine part of her. But no three-year-old knows that she wants to get on stage and perform unless somebody has shown her this. She got rewarded for that because, right, monkey see, monkey do. She's just a child. She got rewarded for that. So she did more of it, and that's the precociousness I'm talking about."
