Whether she was saving the world as a cheerleader or kicking Ghostface’s arse, Hayden Panettiere was always the hero to root for, both on screen and off.
Her death at the age of 36 is the epitome of a tragedy; a talented actress gone far too soon while reminding us all of the promise she had always shown and the perpetual hope we had for her career, always willing her to bounce back and enjoy a renaissance, similar to that of Lindsay Lohan’s.
While she did enjoy a brief return a few years ago, its longevity wasn’t to be.
For many of us millennials, apocalyptic sci-fi Heroes was one of the last shows before the streaming boom that captured our hearts. Hayden was probably unfamiliar to most (despite childhood roles such as The Object of My Affection with Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd, and hit animation A Bug’s Life), but the fierceness and warmth she brought to the role quickly made her a strong favourite.
In Heroes, she starred as high school cheerleader Claire Bennet, who had the superpower of regeneration, sharing the screen with the likes of Milo Ventimiglia and Ali Larter.
Her character Claire was the protagonist you loved, the girl you wanted to be friends with and the hero you trusted to save you.
I distinctly remember doing whatever I could to watch episodes of Heroes not long after it aired in the US – the means by which I did this will remain a mystery, of course. In 2006, Netflix didn’t exist as a streaming platform, and terrestrial TV in the UK was what felt like years behind America. Waiting to watch the big three – Lost, Desperate Housewives and Heroes – on Channel 4 and Sky was punishing, but it was really the latter show that I went to the lengths of the Earth to watch as soon as possible.
Everything about Heroes felt cool to me as a 16-year-old, but my desperation to watch what happened next with the group of gifted superheroes was largely because of Hayden’s performance.
During and after Heroes, Hayden was Hollywood’s new sweetheart IT girl, and it seemed like the offers were steadily coming in once her breakout show wrapped in 2010. Appearances included the Scooby Doo! And the Goblin King film in 2008, classic sitcom Malcolm in the Middle and teen rom-com I Love You, Beth Cooper.
However, it was in 2012 when she landed a starring role in another TV series, Nashville, a wholesome show chronicling the lives of local country singers. Hayden was one of its lead stars alongside Connie Britton, playing Juliette Barnes, a former teen country pop sensation on a mission to replace Rayna (Britton) as the genre’s foremost superstar.
Over the course of six seasons, Nashville soared in popularity as did Hayden’s stardom.
In that time, she tapped into a new audience in the horror genre with her iconic role in Scream 4 as the badass Kirby Reed. Like Kirby, I see myself as a clued-on horror nut who could easily outsmart the knife-wielding Ghostface, so it was entirely satisfying when Hayden’s character survived the latest killing spree in Woodsboro. Kirby gained a cult following and longtime fans of the franchise begged producers for years for the character to return to Scream.
They eventually caved in to our pleas and Hayden reprised the role in 2023’s Scream VI, still with the same vim of the younger Kirby and ability to outsmart Ghostface once again.
Her return to Scream was even more momentous for reasons other than her simply being a fan-favourite.
In the later years of her life, Hayden’s personal life had been turbulent.
She notably battled addiction and postpartum depression, which eventually resulted in her relinquishing full custody of her daughter Kaya to former partner and boxer Wladimir Klitschko. While she had faced public scrutiny for doing so previously, Hayden opening up about her post-pregnancy struggles in her autobiography, released just a few months before her death in May, and it humanised her.
Celebrities are often so quickly judged in times of hardship, but critics always fail to recognise they can experience real-life troubles too.
Adding to Hayden’s heartbreak, she also experienced the sudden death of her brother Jansen, whom she was close with, at the age of 28 in 2023.
While her personal struggles put an abrupt stop to her career for some years, she overcame the odds to rise to the top like many of her on-screen characters.
It’s devastating that we will never see Hayden reach her full potential again. Whatever the circumstances around her desperately sad death, it’s unfortunately put a permanent end to an actress who was always so promising.
We were always rooting for Hayden.