Melora Hardin has only fond memories of her time on the Little House on the Prairie set working with series director Michael Landon.
“Michael Landon made everyone feel safe,” Hardin, 57, told Fox News Digital in an interview published on Saturday, March 15, adding that she had been working “for a long time already” in showbusiness before being cast in Prairie.
“He trusted in us, and we trusted in him,” she said of Landon’s relationship with the other “Prairie” kids. “He was protective of us. And I think that was one of the most important lessons I learned early on [in Hollywood] — surround yourself with the people who make you feel safe.”
The Office alum auditioned for the series when she was just 9 years old, and returned when she was 13 to portray a character named Belinda, a classmate of Matthew Labyorteaux’s character Albert Ingalls. According to Hardin, Landon, who directed the series and also starred as patriarch Charles “Pa” Ingalls, was “so warm” and “worked great with kids.” (Landon, who died in 1991, also executive produced the series and wrote several episodes.)
“I’ve always said that acting and making movies and TV are one of the greatest team sports around. And I believe Michael Landon was my first example of that,” Hardin continued. “I learned from him right away. And it just felt amazing to be around people who made you feel safe to be a fool in front of, to fail in front of. As a performer, especially that young, it felt good to not feel constantly judged or challenged.”
She added, “It’s about working with great collaborators and not tolerating a–holes. He didn’t have any a–holes on set. And I think that’s super important. If you feel safe, then you can do great work.” She explained, “He really knew how to make us feel comfortable. He would let us do our thing. He wasn’t a meddling director. He was very joyful.”
Hardin told the outlet that, by this point in her career, she had already “worked with people who weren’t quite as nice” as Landon, noting, “A lot of times I would be doing a movie or something, and I’d be the only [kid] in the room. I’d be the only one in the classroom with the set teacher.”
But while working on Little House on the Prairie, Hardin said the child actors “had school on the set, and it was just so much fun to have other kids in school with you, working with you.”
She added, “It was such a joy to have other kids when you got to be in class with them and then work with them. That was joyful. We would also play games. It was a really fun way to be a child, to be a child actor. It was certainly a highlight.”
The original Little House on the Prairie television series, based on Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books of the same name, ran from 1974 to 1984. The series also starred Melissa Gilbert, Karen Grassle and Melissa Sue Anderson as the rest of the pioneer Ingalls family.
“He had a longtime relationship with his crew and he surrounded people he really trusted,” Hardin said. “So it was seamless. He was just joyful. I never felt he was stressed. Maybe he was [working behind the scenes], but I never felt it as a kid. He just seemed to be having a great time… Everybody seemed to be smiling in my world as a young kid.”
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