An Interview With Hayden Panettiere

Recently, Crave Online caught up with the pivotal Hero, Hayden Panettiere, just after she’d been saved in the fall finale. We can only imagine what’s in store for her in the second half of the amazing show’s first year. Here’s the interview:

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Crave Online: Does the physical aspect of your role come easy for you?

Hayden Panettiere: I think so.  I hope so.  Both my parents played a lot of sports.  I played a lot of sports, when I was younger. I think the whole racing zebras [in Racing Stripes], figure skating [in Ice Princess] and all that stuff paid off, in that case.

Crave Online: Is there more job security for you, knowing your character is indestructible?

Hayden Panettiere: No, because they remind us every day that anyone could go.  Anyone.  It helps, probably, to be indestructible, but we’ve also realized that the key to people’s powers lies in their brain.  There was that scene, a few episodes ago, where Thomas Dekker’s character, Zach, says to me, “You could have died,” after Sylar comes, and I say, “I know.” The question really is, “Can she die?”  Let’s say she got that stick stuck in her head and they never pulled it out.  How long can her body survive enough to regenerates, before she really dies?

Crave Online: But they saved you, so everything’s okay now?

Hayden Panettiere: I’m not so sure about that.

Crave Online: How central will Claire be now that the save the cheerleader thing is resolved?

Hayden Panettiere: I don’t know if it’s so resolved yet. I mean, Save the Cheerleader, Save the World, there are two parts to that. There is always the fear of getting lost in an ensemble piece but this show does an incredible job of giving everyone their time in the spotlight.

Crave Online: Will the next few episodes deal with Claire’s search for her birth parents?

Hayden Panettiere: It feels like we’re starting a new season.  It’s been so incredible.  In these episodes, the writing, the acting, the characters have made this huge leap and it’s amazing.  My character is definitely running down that road of trying to discover who she is, where she comes from, who here parents are, if she’s alone.  And, you realize that it’s a very, very small world, and people have these very odd connections.  There are a couple big, big turns coming up.

Crave Online: Do you finally get out of the cheerleader outfit?

Hayden Panettiere: Sometimes, if I’m lucky.

Crave Online: What’s it been like for you to suddenly become so famous?

Hayden Panettiere: It’s interesting.  It’s fun.  It’s a new thing.  You know things are happening when you walk out of your apartment and there are two cars full of paparazzi who actually followed me home.  It was sort of a scary feeling.  I was by myself, I had a handful of things, and I said to one of them, “Oh, my God, you just scared me to death,” and he was like, “I’m sorry.”  And, I turned to get in my car, and there was another person down the street who actually followed me all the way to work, and started running red lights.  I was calling my parents, going, “Oh, my God!  I don’t know what to do!”  I didn’t know whether to be completely flattered, which I was, or kind of nervous about it.

Crave Online: Do you have a bodyguard with you?

Hayden Panettiere: No. I think it was Muhammad Ali who used to say that, when you have bodyguards, it’s almost like people want to get to you more, they fight harder, and it becomes really dangerous.  If you give yourself to the public, it’s almost like they become your protection.  I don’t think bodyguards are very necessary.  It’s not like I go wandering down dark alleys at night, by myself.  I usually have friends with me, and people are usually very courteous.  Hopefully, no one really thinks I’m invincible and tries to do something rash.

Crave Online: Are you just as excited as the fans are to see what’s going to happen, when you get a new script?

Hayden Panettiere: Oh, absolutely.  We went to Las Vegas for, literally, 12 hours yesterday, on a little jet, and we were sitting in the airport and one of our producers, Dennis Hammer, had 118, which we haven’t read yet.  It’s the next script.  And, I kept trying to get it from him, and he was relentless.  He would not give it to me.  As soon as he turned around, me, Sendhil and Masi said, “Hey, take the script!”  I took it and I hid it, but of course, I didn’t read it because I felt too bad.  But they do it so that the scripts are really ready by the time we read them.  And, even when we do read them, we get pink pages and blue pages and yellow pages, and it turns into a rainbow, anyway.

Crave Online: Do you give the writers of Heroes any suggestions about what you’d like to see happen with Claire?

Hayden Panettiere: No.  They have it way under control.  I think they’re really great with bending towards our characters and really learning about us and how certain people react to each other.  I’ve been in this business for 17 years and I could not tell them anything to do.

Crave Online: You’ve been in this business for 17 years?

Hayden Panettiere: Eight months old, I started in this nutty business.  Actually, they filmed me coming out.  No, I’m kidding.  I’m joking.

Crave Online: What was your first big break?

Hayden Panettiere: Remember the Titans was pretty big for me.  Remember the Titans was a while ago.  But, it was a bunch of things, from Ice Princess to Racing Stripes to things like Normal and Lies My Mother Told Me.  It was a bunch of things.  But, this has really been the thing that got me over that hump, which you often catch yourself on, no matter how long you’re in this business.

Crave Online: The transition from child actor to adult actor can be hard.  What is your secret?

Hayden Panettiere: I think you have to surround yourself with good people.  You just have to be smart about what you do.  You only live once.  Live it up, of course.  I, personally, know how to party.  I’m absolutely very good at partying.  But, it’s just about being smart about it and surrounding yourself with a certain type of people who influence you, in a good way.

Crave Online: Were you surprised by how quickly this show hit with the audience?

Hayden Panettiere: Not too much.  It was actually really funny because we were sitting there and we had filmed it so long before it ever came out.  We would go to Sunset-Gower Studios, where pigeons make noise during the takes and there’s dirt everywhere, and we would think, “Either this show is on the air and it’s doing perfectly fine because we haven’t heard about it and we’re not off the air since we’re still filming, or it’s just never going to show at all and we’re just doing it for sh*ts and giggles and it’s all for a good laugh.”  And then, when it came on, it was like, “Oh, that episode?  Oh, it’s going to be so much better now.  Hurry up and show the rest of them.”  There was a long period of time there that we didn’t air.

Crave Online: What about when Save the Cheerleader became a catch phrase?

Hayden Panettiere: I was surprised. I was completely taken aback. I had no idea. It was flattering, it was very cool, it was a catch phrase and it involved a lot of people.

Crave Online: What was your first thought, when you realized your character was going to wake up on an autopsy table?

Hayden Panettiere: I thought, “Damn, that’s fun.”  Or, perhaps, “I get to lie down.  Yay!”  It was good fun.  It was a little cold, sitting in my bra and underwear on a freezing cold autopsy table. But, it was a funny scene.  It was fun, it was gory, and we like grossing people out.  I was like, “Give me a little extra make-up, so I look cute because people really need to get over this whole losing limbs thing.  They’re going to think I’m disgusting.”

Crave Online: How easy or hard is acting with makeup appliances for the gory injuries?

Hayden Panettiere: It’s not that bad. It can be distracting because you’re usually concentrating on trying to pop something back in or wipe something back off or put something back together. But usually what the scene revolves around, it’s quick and relatively easy for the most part.

Crave Online: Did you see the finished product in the episode?

Hayden Panettiere: Oh, yeah.  It was very cool.  It was surreal.  I didn’t look very pretty.  I was like, “Thank God, when I’m dead, I won’t be the one looking at myself.”

Crave Online: Was it creepy to watch that scene with you lying on the table in the morgue?

Hayden Panettiere: It wasn’t as creepy when you’re there and you’re actually wearing it.  It’s like seeing a horror film.  When you’ve done it, you’re just like, “Yeah, well, whatever.”

Crave Online: What are your favorite TV shows?

Hayden Panettiere: I have a bunch. I don’t get time to watch all that much TV. I love my show to be completely honest. I only read my stuff so that I can sit down every Monday night and watch. I’ve gotten over the whole watching myself part. It’s more watching my peers and what they’re doing and then following their storyline which I don’t know about.

Crave Online: What music are you listening to?

Hayden Panettiere: Everyone from Panic at the Disco, My Chemical Romance, Eminem, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, Dixie Chicks. I love the Dixie Chicks.

Crave Online: Are you getting free designer stuff now?

Hayden Panettiere: These swag things for the Golden Globes are incredible. It’s been a lot easier, but of course, no one in this business really owns anything themselves.  Most of their clothes are either loaners, or they’re given to them.  But, yeah, it’s always fun.  I’m a girl and I like getting clothes.  I don’t usually get to keep any of them, like my Golden Globes dress, but its fun.  You don’t really want to keep gowns that are $40,000 either.  That’s too much.

Crave Online: Who were you excited to meet at the Globes?

Hayden Panettiere: Well, I was looking down at Brangelina so that was pretty cool. That was very cool.