After Hayden Panettiere died Aug. 16, director Griff Furst—who worked with her on A Breed Apart—recalled that the energy in her room on set was “pretty dark.”
Another of Hayden Panettiere’s former coworkers is reflecting on her final projects.
After the Heroes actress unexpectedly died Aug. 16 at the age of 36, her former director Griff Furst detailed how she seemed off while they worked on the 2025 movie A Breed Apart.
“When she signed on to do this picture that we were shooting, I was psyched,” Furst said in an Aug. 17 Instagram video. “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.”
Still, the director “didn’t think much about it” and went to say hello to Panettiere.
“I walked over to greet her and her boyfriend Brian,” he continued, seemingly referring to Brian Hickerson. “He opened the door. Hayden was incredibly sweet and gracious and excited to work, but she was not OK.”
Though he emphasized he was “not going to get into the details” of why Panettiere seemed off, Furst—who said he first met the Nashville star a decade ago—added, “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.”
In the end, Furst emphasized that Panettiere’s “light” still shone through on set, though it was noticeably dimmed.
“She really was incredible,” he concluded. “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.”
Prior to her death, Panettiere spoke candidly about her life’s struggles, including her battle with addiction and post-partum depression. In fact, she released her memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning earlier this year, in which she reflected on her early career and her relationship with her and ex-fiancé Wladimir Klitschko’s 11-year-old daughter Kaya.
Since her death, another one of the Bring It On: All or Nothing actress’ coworkers spoke about how she was “struggling” while filming her final movie Sleepwalker.
“Hayden seemed different when I met her this time than when I met her in the early years,” Justin Chatwin told People in an Aug. 17 interview. “I’ve been sober for 15 years, so I know this world of addiction, and Hollywood—it takes, and it takes from youth.”
He added, “I could tell she was struggling, and I was like, ‘I don’t think it’s this movie.’”
When Panettiere’s ex spoke out about her death, he also referenced the difficulties she faced throughout her life.
"She built an incredible career through immense talent, while also facing the darker sides of a very demanding industry,” Klitschko shared in an Aug. 18 statement on Instagram. “Nothing will erase the times we shared or the place she had in our lives."