Hayley Mills Talks Navigating Adulthood After Growing Up as a Child Star: ‘I Didn’t Know Who I Was’

Hayley Mills is looking back at a challenging time in her career.

The former child star, 80, appeared on Gyles Brandreth’s The Rosebud Podcast last month and was asked by the host if acting was “more difficult” for her as an adult.

“I did go through a period of it being more difficult, and I wasn’t very good,” she confessed. “And I went through a period of not knowing what kind of parts I ought to be playing.”

Mills famously starred in multiple Disney movies as a teenager, including Pollyanna and The Parent Trap. 

“When the contract for Disney ended, he very generously offered to renegotiate, you know, and sign another contract,” she recalled. “And I didn’t have a sensible enough sense of my career and what I ought to be doing, but I didn’t want to do more Disney movies. I wanted to spread my wings and have a greater choice and not be limited by that.”

While the Whistle Down the Wind star knew making Disney movies was no longer the right path, she explained she felt lost about where to go from there as she “didn’t know what to look for” and admitted, “I didn’t know who I was.”

“You know, there was this moment when we’re growing up where we’re really on that uncomfortable seesaw of being still one foot in childhood and the other foot in being a woman,” she remarked. “I found it awfully difficult to get both feet into womanhood because there was a part of me that didn’t want to disappoint people that, ‘Oh, she’s not that cute little girl anymore, she’s what?’ I didn’t know.”

“I made some crashingly stupid mistakes,” Mills added.