Hilary Duff "went through big frustrations" as producers attempted to typecast her following her success as Lizzie McGuire.
The actress, 33, starred in the lead role in the hit Disney Channel series from 2001 to 2004 but, after exiting the show, she tells Cosmopolitan U.K. magazine "from age 21 to 25, before I became a mom, there was a lot of frustration" as she struggled to land roles.
"I definitely went through big frustrations of being like, "Why can I not get a shot at being someone else?'" Hilary shared. "Not that I want to dog every casting director out there, but there's a very small handful of people who are character actors and can be hired for roles that are truly different from one another.
"I would get to producer callback and they'd be like, "She's so great and she gave us the best reading and blah blah blah, but she's Hilary Duff"'," the star added.
However, things changed when her comedy-drama series Younger came around, with Hilary sharing: "I'm at such a different place in my life now, being a mother and a wife " it doesn't weigh on me any more.
"I don't feel like people only see me that way, but (even) when they do, I feel appreciative of it because she was very impactful on so many people's lives."
Hilary had been set to return for a planned Lizzie McGuire reboot, but the project ground to a halt as the show's original creator, Terri Minsky, stepped down in January amid creative differences with Disney bosses.
Duff subsequently hinted the issue at the center of the dispute had to do with the more grown-up themes of the revamped series, which she was fighting network bosses to keep "real and relatable".