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Portraying burn victim turned Julianne Hough into a worried aunt

Written by . Published: November 01 2013

Julianne Hough became a worried aunt while researching her role as a burn victim in her latest movie, after learning how easily fires around the home break out.


The Rock of Ages star spent time with blaze survivors while she was preparing for her role in Paradise - and many of the people she turned to for advice were kids left scarred by mistakes made around the house.


She says, "Most of them were in accidents from household fires like cooking or tea falling and getting third degree burns; putting a turkey in the deep fryer and having it (the oil) spill.


"I was calling all my sisters and my nieces and nephews saying, 'Make sure you put this away and that away. This is way more dangerous than you think'. You take for granted that it could happen to anybody."


She admits that a lot of the research she did was tough: "It's literally like the survivors have been barbecued and they can't move. Their skin will tear or their joints were really sore.


"I got to walk around with just the burn bandages on to see how people reacted and responded and they don't want to make eye contact and they get uncomfortable. A lot of these burn survivors said, 'I would rather someone say, hey what happened, rather than make me feel like I'm scary or I'm ugly'.


"It completely changes who they are on the inside and nobody really knows that. People are so obsessed with the outside that they don't fully understand what's going on on the inside."

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