Hayden Panettiere Explains Why Filming ‘Nashville’ Was ‘Traumatizing’ For Her

Hayden Panettiere opened up to The Messenger in a recent interview about how much she related to her character on the TV series Nashville. The Heroes actor said filming the show was “very traumatizing because I felt like I was acting out my own life.”

“Straight from the beginning, it was like, I’m dating a football player, and then Juliette dates a football player,” Panettiere said. “And then they turned her into an alcoholic.”

She continued, “Then they turned to her leaving her daughter and going to this crazy place in Europe, and it was very obvious … They weren’t doing their homework. They weren’t creating new storylines. They were just looking at my life and going, ‘Oh, let’s just take what she’s going through and put our little spin on it.’ And then, ta-da! It’s done and done.”

Panettiere has been open about her struggles with addiction over the years. She also relinquished custody of her daughter, Kaya, to her ex, Wladimir Klitschko, in 2018—something that she said on Red Table Talk in 2022 “wasn't fully her decision.”

In the interview with The Messenger, Panettiere also commented on her Scream costar Melissa Barrera being fired from the franchise for supporting Palestine on social media. That was “very unfair and upsetting,” the Remember the Titans actor said.

“After she spoke out, then a whole bunch of other actors and people in the industry started to do the same thing, right?” she added. “It was almost like she just did it earlier than everyone else.”