Melissa Joan Hart "never trusted" herself to take on dramatic roles during her younger years

She told PEOPLE: "I love doing these true crime movies because I never trusted myself to do drama when I was younger.

"I did, when I was really young, I was actually in one of the episodes of 'The Equalizer', when I was about seven years old ... and did some other dramatic roles - that was easy for me when I was a child. But then, as I got more comfortable with comedy, it was harder for me to flip into drama."

Melissa actually changed her approach to acting as she looked to branch out into new genres.

She explained: "Comedy is so much about gesturing and big facial expressions, especially on Nickelodeon. When you learn Nickelodeon acting, it's like, do you want look number one, number two, or number three? You are trying to do the different looks and make it big.

"And then taking it down for drama was a real learning curve for me again. So it's been really interesting to dive more into the dramatic stuff and trust myself with it."

Meanwhile, Melissa recently revealed that she hasn't stayed in touch with any of her 'Clarissa Explains It All' co-stars.

The actress shot to fame on the hit TV sitcom in the early 90s, but Melissa has lost contact with her co-stars, as the show was "pre-cell phones, pre-email, pre-everything".

She told PEOPLE: "I don't talk to any of the 'Clarissa' cast.

"The cast just kind of all went in different directions and nobody kept in touch."