I am creating a BP component to add to actors in my level. When an actor with the component is selected, the component has a function that looks at the actors components for static meshes to do various things (change material, set mesh, etc.) [Screenshot 2022-06-14 143335] The root of each actor …

It doesn’t understand hierarchy. If the root component is what you’re after, you could call GetRootComponent and then cast it to a static mesh component.