With all six seasons of her iconic show Nashville dropping on Netflix, a new film, and her upcoming memoir, the 36-year-old actor is ready to reenter the zeitgeist.
Hayden Panettiere is one of those actors who everyone seems to have an anecdote about; specifically, about how her filmography has resonated in their life. For me, it’s Remember the Titans, the now-iconic 2000 football tearjerker in which she played the precocious daughter of the team’s coach. When I tell Panettiere, now 36, that my younger brothers wore out our VHS tape of the film and still quote it (a lot) to this day, she immediately joins me in my nostalgia.
“That is one of my favorite movies of all time, and the fact that I got to be a part of it is crazy,” she says. “Usually when you’re in something, you don’t really say that it’s one of your favorites…and it’s one of my favorite experiences I’ve ever had. If I could go back to that moment and be 10 again on that set, I would in the blink of an eye.”
Panettiere is doing more reminiscing these days about another of her best-known roles: as Juliette Barnes in the 2012 series Nashville, the massively popular ABC soap about rival country stars in Music City. All six seasons just dropped on Netflix this week, so she won’t be alone in her nostalgia for long as veteran fans embark on a binge and new viewers discover it.
“People really, really loved that show,” says Panettiere. “They loved the human stories, the fact that it gives you kind of a peek into this Hollywood life. It was a show that resonated with so many people, and I love hearing about how my character impacted people in general, but especially women and young women going through the tumultuous stuff that Juliet constantly had to deal with.”
Nashville nostalgia may be top of mind, but Panettiere is also looking toward the future a lot these days. The actor first appeared on screen at 11 months old and worked consistently until Nashville wrapped in 2018. It was only then that she took time off for a few years—her first real break in well, ever—and focused on herself. At times, she worried she’d never be able to fully return to the career she loved.
“I didn’t plan on taking the amount of time off that I did,” she says. “I took the time off that I felt I needed. The longer you stay away from something, it becomes a much bigger deal when you do decide to step back into it. I was very nervous stepping back into it. I was nervous that I had lost my mojo, if you will, and that I wouldn’t be able to do things like memorize lines as quickly as I did before. It’s a muscle, just like anything else, and I spent years strengthening it. I was surprised to find out how quickly that muscle atrophied when I wasn’t using it.”
It wasn’t until she began filming a starring role more than five years later, for the upcoming psychological thriller film Sleepwalker, that she began to, as she says, feel as if she got her mojo back.
“It was the first time in years that I felt my confidence had completely come back,” she says of the film, which she also serves as a producer on.
With an exciting mix of watching her older roles get new life and new projects on the horizon, it seems the Hayden Panettiere renaissance is firmly on the way. She chatted with Glamour about which of her projects she’d be down to reboot, how Nashville was ahead of the country wave, and her upcoming memoir.
Glamour: I feel like Nashville is primed to have a renaissance with Gen Z now that it’s on Netflix. What are you most looking forward to with the release?
Hayden Panettiere: I’m really excited that Netflix has picked it up—I’d be thrilled for a younger generation to be able to see it. There are certain people that were a little bit too young when it first started, but it’s a really fun show with amazing human stories. So I’m hoping that it’s really successful and that even people who were fans before get to come back and rewatch it. I’d even like to rewatch it.
I was doing some research before our chat and found that there’s a Nashville subreddit that is surprisingly active, nearly 10 years after the show ended. So clearly there’s a very engaged audience even now.
Yeah, I’ve heard from a lot of fans who are bummed the show didn’t even go longer. We had six great years, but people really, really loved that show…I feel like it definitely resonated with people. So I get a lot of love from that. I would love for Nashville to eventually come back.
That was going to be one of my next questions: Are you down for a reboot?
Absolutely. I’m not sure what I would want it to look like. I’d have to sit with that question for a second, but if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I’ve been on shows where the first season was amazing and then the second season really wasn’t up to snuff. I feel like Nashville stayed very steady throughout the entire six years, and the storylines just continued to get juicier and juicier. They never ran out of material.
I played a character that had gone through very similar things to what I’ve gone through in my life. In my life, there’s never a dull moment. So in Juliet’s life, I expect there to never be a dull moment either. I think it’d be really fun to be able to get back into the music too. I mean, it was a dream job in that way. I got to do more than acting. I need to explore my love for music and specifically country music. So yeah, fingers crossed. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.
The show ran before there was this huge resurgence in country music—even Beyoncé has gone country. So it may be even more popular now.
I think it’s the biggest genre of music in the world, and it goes back to people. The fans are incredibly loyal. They’re ride or die for entire careers. Another thing I love about country music is that it tells stories. Most of the songs have these incredible stories behind them, and they go for the heart. There’s a song for every mood that you’re in. It’s an incredible genre of music with very loyal fans.
Speaking of reboots, I saw an interview with Kirsten Dunst the other day where she said she wouldn’t do a sequel to Bring It On, and a lot of fans were up in arms about the erasure of the iconic 2006 sequel Bring It On: All or Nothing, which of course you starred in.
Those movies really impacted the lives of a lot of young people, especially young girls, is what I’ve found. I mean, if I were asked the same, I would say a hundred percent yes. I never thought I’d say I’d love to be back in a cheerleading outfit again because I’ve spent a lot of time in them between Heroes and Bring It On. I’ve spent a lot of time being the cheerleader, but I would go back in a heartbeat.
You mentioned how your upcoming film, Sleepwalker, helped you regain your confidence as an actor after your extended break. What about that experience specifically helped?
I got to participate in so many things. Everything from the blocking to the dialogue—I got to use all of the tools in my arsenal. I got to use my years of experience in the industry, and I got to put them to work. I feel like I actually made a difference in the film and the entire process of it. And so having that experience really solidified that I want to be able to be more than just an actress on sets.
What do you want to do next? Produce? Direct? And what genre?
I would love to eventually direct. I mean, that’s a dream.… I truly love every genre, and there are so many that I haven’t been able to be a part of yet. I have not done nearly as much comedy as I would like to do. I think doing comedies is good for the soul. I would love to do action and go out and represent all those petite girls out there who can still kick ass.
Your break after wrapping Nashville was the first time you hadn’t worked in Hollywood since you were a toddler. Did you ever consider moving on and never coming back to acting?
No, it was never on my mind that I would not come back to acting, as worn down as I was by the time I took the break. It’s so much a part of who I am as a person. It’s part of my soul. As great as it was to take a break after a certain period of time, I really missed it. I wanted to be on set. I wanted to be working. I realized how important work is because they have that saying, an idle mind is the devil’s playground. And that’s very true for me.
Without the outlet of acting in a therapeutic sense, I felt a little lost. I mean, I had never taken time off to truly only focus on myself before. That was an odd feeling, and I had to relearn that it was okay to be selfish—that being selfish in certain senses is not a bad thing; it’s an incredibly healthy thing. I did need it, but I missed acting. And when I came back, I was nervous. I was worried I wasn’t going to be the same and wouldn’t feel the same about it. But that break allowed me to appreciate my job so much more.
You’re also going to release a memoir, which I know you’re very excited about. The details are still under wraps, but what can you say?
All I’ll say is this book has been an incredible opportunity for me because my entire life has been in the public eye, but there’s so much people don’t know about me. I’ve always felt like that when these stories come out about you, and you don’t tell people what was really going on and answer certain questions around it, your life kind of becomes this giant mad lib where people get to fill in the blanks. Even with my whole life pretty much on Google, I’ve tried to keep my personal life as private as possible. Maybe because of that, there are a lot of people out there who don’t know me and don’t know the things I’ve been through.
I’ve done a lot of therapy. I’ve been through the ringer, I’ve been through a lot of trauma. And the best thing I can do with that, in my opinion, is to share my knowledge with other people in hopes that they don’t feel so alone. I think people will be really surprised when they read all about my life and maybe the picture they painted of me in their heads is not quite accurate. I’m really excited about it. I’m also, of course, terrified. It’s my whole life on a silver platter, but I’m happy about it and I pray that it’s going to help a lot of people.
INICIO > PHOTOSHOOTS > 2025 > FAR OUT MAGAZINE UK | STORM SANTOS
