This week we chatted with rising star Ava Cantrell, who has gone from recurring roles in television and supporting roles in films to her first leading role in the new horror-thriller ABIGAIL where she stars as the titular character who has “an axe to grind” with some neighborhood bullies. Ava talks about the challenges of taking on a manipulative character and the physical challenges of nearly a month of night shoots working sundown to sun up, and also shares some advice for parents of child actors.

“Your parent’s support is so important as a child actor, it’s a very hard thing to do by yourself, so I would say [to parents] to be emotionally supportive of your kids,” she advises. “There’s a lot of rejection. You get so many no’s before you get a yes, [it’s important] to give your child the confidence to keep going and having that kind of grit you need to handle those no’s.”

You can see Ava Cantrell starring in ABIGAIL, now available to rent or stream on VOD.