Hayden Panettiere’s mom didn’t just take her to castings: she managed her career with a level of pressure that now sounds almost brutal. The actress said in her book This Is Me: A Reckoning that, when she was a child, she lost a baby tooth right before an important job and her mother didn’t want to risk that costing her the role.
The solution? Even though a dentist had recommended using a safe dental adhesive, her mom allegedly used super glue anyway.
Hayden recalled that she told her: “Give me the tooth you lost. And cross your fingers”. And well… she was a child, so she simply obeyed. “I just opened my mouth”, she said later, remembering the moment with a mix of humor and trauma.
The worst part is that while her mom was trying to glue the tooth back in, Hayden was terrified thinking the glue wouldn’t dry properly and she’d end up with her mouth stuck shut “for all eternity”.
In the end she got the job, although she was left speaking with a slight lisp. And yes, today the anecdote may sound funny because of how absurd it is, but it also left many people shocked by the level of pressure some child stars were living under from such a young age.