Hayden Panettiere's Director Recalls She Was “Not OK” on A Breed Apart Set.
One of Hayden Panettiere's former colleagues is thinking back on her last endeavors. Griff Furst, the Heroes actor's previous director, described how she acted strange during their work on the 2025 film A Breed Apart. The actress passed away abruptly on August 16 at the age of 36.
“When she signed on to do this picture that we were shooting, I was psyched,” Furst stated in an Instagram video posted on August 17. “I really wanted to work with her. So, I’m on set, and I get word from the movie’s security team who picked her up from the airport that something was off.”
Nevertheless, the director "didn't think much about it" and proceeded to greet Panettiere.
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“I walked over to greet her and her boyfriend Brian,” he went on, perhaps alluding to Brian Hickerson. “He opened the door. Hayden was incredibly sweet and gracious and excited to work, but she was not OK.”
Furst, who claimed to have first seen the Nashville singer ten years ago, stressed that he was "not going to get into the details" of why Panettiere appeared strange. “Having worked on over 100 movies and seen just about everything, it was pretty clear that she wasn’t OK and the energy in her room was pretty dark.”
Furst concluded by emphasizing that, although being visibly muted, Panettiere's "light" continued to shine on set.
“She really was incredible,” he came to the conclusion. “She was a force to be reckoned with, and when we did this movie, that was definitely still in there. But there was something else in there, too, that made it a lot harder to reach.”
Following her death, Panettiere spoke freely about her life’s problems, including her fight with addiction and post-partum depression. In fact, earlier this year, she published her biography This Is Me: A Reckoning, in which she discussed her early career and her connection with Kaya, the 11-year-old daughter of her ex-fiance Wladimir Klitschko.
One of the Bring It On: All or Nothing actress's coworkers has since talked about how she was "struggling" during the production of her last picture, Sleepwalker.
“Hayden seemed different when I met her this time than when I met her in the early years,” in an interview with People on August 17, Justin Chatwin said. “I’ve been sober for 15 years, so I know this world of addiction, and Hollywood—it takes, and it takes from youth.”
He continued, “I could tell she was struggling, and I was like, ‘I don’t think it’s this movie.’”
While Panettiere's former partner discussed her passing, he also brought up the challenges she encountered during her lifetime.
"She built an incredible career through immense talent, while also facing the darker sides of a very demanding industry,” Klitschko sent a message on Instagram on August 18. “Nothing will erase the times we shared or the place she had in our lives."
The boxer recently promised to pay tribute to Panettiere. "To our daughter Kaya, I will always speak of her mother with respect,” he said, “and make sure she remembers the person she was."
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