Why Hayden Panettiere’s Sudden Death Is So Devastating
Slate · L · trust 41/100
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On Sunday evening, just before midnight on the East Coast, the world heard the shocking announcement of the death of 36-year-old actress Hayden Panettiere from what is now being reported as an “ apparent overdose .”
To say that my generation—younger millennials and elder Gen Zers—grew up watching Panettiere feels like an understatement. She was on our screens as our vicarious youthful representation at every step of the way to adulthood. She was only 10 years old when she stole the hearts of audiences by playing Sheryl Yoast, the football-obsessed daughter of a white football coach, in the beloved Denzel Washington–led 2000 film Remember the Titans . She was 12 years old when she appeared in the final season of the revered Y2K legal dramedy Ally McBeal as the titular character’s long-lost daughter . If you’re in the Disney Channel Original Movie generation, you might have first seen Panettiere playing Bill Pullman’s daughter in 2004’s Tiger Cruise , a DCOM that navigates 9/11 from aboard a naval ship.
Panettiere’s teen years on screen were just as prolific. It was her co-leading role in the 2005 cult-classic ice skating movie Ice Princess , where she stars opposite the late Michelle Trachtenberg (who died of natural causes suddenly last year at 39), that cemented her as a star in the eyes of young girls everywhere. It was her performance in the third film of the cheerleading franchise Bring It On , 2006’s Bring It On: All or Nothing , that endeared her to my generation, but especially Black viewers. In All or Nothing , which is largely considered the second-best installment of the franchise, after the iconic first movie, Panettiere plays a teenager who is forced to relinquish her title as cheer captain at her predominantly white school when she moves from her 90210-coded affluent neighborhood to an inner-city, predominantly Black and Latino one. At her new school, where she’s a Barbie-esque fish out of water , Panettiere’s character ends up working with the captain of their cheerleading squad (played by a young Solange) to combine Black dance styles, like krumping and hip-hop , into their routines to give them an edge on the better-endowed competition. The narrative setup of All or Nothing could feel trite and even offensive, but, instead, it was refreshing to see Panettiere have the maturity to understand that, in order to make the story work, she would have to start out by being the butt of a few jokes.
Even if you weren’t part of the generation that grew up identifying with Panettiere, it’s likely you came across her work elsewhere. Making the jump from child and teen star, she would become known as a standout part of the NBC superhero drama Heroes , which aired in the back half of the 2000s. Her role in the show—as Claire Bennet, yet another high-school cheerleader, but this time with regenerative powers—was the center of the show’s mantra: “Save the cheerleader, save the world.” As she adjusted to her powers , hid from the villains trying to experiment on or kill her, and learned that she was the key to saving the world, Claire was the audience’s proxy to the show’s heightened setting. A few years later, Panettiere would come to find her footing again on screen as Juliette Barnes in ABC’s musical drama Nashville , a character Panettiere would play for most of her 20s. Nashville , which dramatized the troubling life of fictional country music stars, gave Panettiere more to work with as an actress than ever before. Of course, she had to sing as Juliette , a Carrie Underwood–type country-pop sensation who would arrive to take the crown of reigning country music queen from Connie Britton’s character, Rayna James. But Juliette was more like a star burning so bright it was constantly on the verge of imploding. The character was a troubled young woman who was suffering from growing up with a drug-addicted mother, and from experiencing eventual sexual exploitation, grief, postpartum depression, and even a turn as a cult member when the show’s narrative eventually jumped the shark, as many soaps do.
Panettiere’s role in Nashville was significant, both because it gave her meaty material to chew on as an actress and because it seemingly best mirrored the dark sides of her real life. In her memoir released just this May, This Is Me: A Reckoning , Panettiere recounted a great number of struggles and incidents of abuse that are reminiscent of the many stories told by child actors whose early introduction to stardom and the pressures of Hollywood created a difficult path to adulthood. In her memoir, Panettiere confronted her battle with severe postpartum depression, intense alcohol abuse used as a vice to quiet her trauma and depression, and an addiction to Klonopin . She also detailed some deeply traumatic instances of abuse she faced in the industry, like being introduced to “happy pills” by her management team at the age of 15 , network executives kissing her without her consent, and a deeply upsetting allegation about being taken onto a yacht when she was 18 years old by someone she trusted, only for that person to purportedly place her in bed with an unnamed older male celebrity . She bared a lot about her personal hardships as well, like the devastating but necessary decision she made to give up full custody of her daughter to her ex-fiancé in 2018, the pain of going through withdrawal while in treatment in 2020, how understandably difficult her younger brother’s untimely death in 2023 was for her, and how she experienced abuse from her ex-boyfriend .
For most of my life, Panettiere was the wondergirl who could do anything. On screen, she was a top-tier ice skater, a country music star, a cheerleader, a…
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