Co-Star Praises Hayden Panettiere

Hayden Panettiere’s co-star on Heroes, Jack Coleman, recently opened up to Entertainment Weekly about what makes Hayden a great actress.

Pointing to one scene from the episode “Company Man” as well as Hayden’s hard work and positive demeanor, here’s what Jack Coleman had to say…

Entertainment Weekly: You have great chemistry with Hayden Panettiere — was it easy for you to develop a rapport with her?

Jack Coleman: The scene that we did in the pilot where I come home and she comes running into my arms, we’d known each other for about 45 seconds when we shot that. I was the guest star. I come out of my trailer, we’re about to shoot, she comes out with “Daddy!” I thought, “Wow, this is a very open actor.” I was really kind of blown away.

Hayden Panettiere has chemistry with everybody. She’s invested in whoever she is looking at and acting with, and I think that’s something that’s really special about her. She’s very savvy about the camera, but she’s not giving it to the camera, she’s giving it to the actor. We had a scene right before “Company Man” where, in the hospital, she finally blows up and yells at me. We had to do a lot of coverage of her, and she’s crying throughout, for several hours, and it’s exhausting.

And we did all her coverage, and then the camera came around and shot me, and all the tears came, and she’s off-camera. Hayden Panettiere invests. It’s funny, all this talk in the media about her being another “teenage starlet” wondering if she’ll go the way of other young celebrities.

People need to pay attention to her work. Her work is really good. It’d be nice if people talked about that sometime instead of just everywhere she’s going, or who she’s dating, and whether or not she’s going to run off the rails.

And by the way? I don’t see that happening.