Melissa Joan Hart reveals the Hollywood star who unexpectedly became her mentor

Before Melissa Joan Hart played the supernatural student in "Sabrina the Teenage Witch," she starred opposite Calista Flockhart in the off-Broadway production "Beside Herself."

While starring in the 1989 production, a young Hart found an unexpected mentor in the "Ally McBeal" star, she tells USA TODAY.

"I was about 10, 11, and she was young. She was like 18," Hart says. "She used to have me come over to her house and do sleepovers and she'd give me her hand-me-down clothes. I watched the way she prepped for work."

Joe Pintauro's play "Beside Herself" follows a woman named Mary from four different stages of her life. Hart played a pre-teen Mary, while Flockhart played the role in her post-teen years.

In between shows, Hart and Flockhart would stop at New York's Bleecker Street Pizza for a slice. Hart also remembers taking notes on Flockhart's stretching routine and breathing exercises ahead of shows.

"She was sort of my acting class [instructor] plus just [a] cool older chick that I wanted to be like," Hart continues. "I just have this fond place in my heart for her, someone that I really looked up to."

Having that kind of mentor is rare in…

Original source: https://www.usatoday.com/entertainment/