Director Reflects on Hayden Panettiere’s Final Years and Last Film Projects

Film director Griff Furst is remembering Hayden Panettiere as a gifted actress who was still fighting personal struggles when they worked together on one of her final movies.

Furst directed Panettiere in A Breed Apart, a 2025 direct-to-video action-horror film. In an Instagram video, he said he had known of Panettiere’s talent for years and was excited when she joined the project.

“I knew that she was insanely talented,” Furst said. “I really wanted to work with her.”

But when Panettiere arrived for filming, Furst said members of the production team became concerned about her well-being. He said the movie’s security team, which picked her up from the airport, told him that something seemed wrong.

Furst later went to meet Panettiere at her room, where she was with her then-boyfriend Brian Hickerson.

“She was incredibly sweet and gracious and excited to work, but she was not okay,” Furst said. He did not explain what specifically concerned him, saying only that, based on his experience working on more than 100 movies, it was clear to him that Panettiere was struggling.

“The energy in her room was pretty dark,” he said.

Furst said he had recently hoped Panettiere was doing better after she began promoting her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning. He said the two had even discussed working together again, making her death particularly difficult for him.

“She really was incredible,” Furst said, describing Panettiere as “a force to be reckoned with.” He added that her talent and strength were still evident when they made the film, although he felt there was “something else in there too that made it a lot harder to reach.”

Panettiere died on Aug. 16 at the Judson Mill Lofts apartment complex in Greenville, South Carolina. She was 36.

According to reports from PEOPLE and NBC News, Hickerson was present at the scene following her death. Police have said the preliminary investigation has found no signs of foul play or suspicious circumstances.

Panettiere’s mother, Lesley Vogel, raised concerns about Hickerson in a statement following her daughter’s death. Vogel said Panettiere’s family had been worried about him for years and suggested that his presence in her life had enabled serious problems.

Panettiere and Hickerson had an on-and-off relationship from 2018 to 2021. Their relationship began after Panettiere ended her engagement to former professional boxer Wladimir Klitschko, with whom she shares an 11-year-old daughter, Kaya.

Panettiere previously said that Hickerson had physically and emotionally abused her. Speaking before the release of her memoir, she described the experience as deeply painful and humiliating.

“I’ve always seen myself as such a resilient and strong woman,” she said. “The idea that I could allow something like this to happen to me blew my mind.”

Hickerson pleaded no contest in 2021 to two counts involving injury to a spouse, cohabitant, girlfriend or the parent of his child. He served 33 days of a 45-day county jail sentence. Other charges connected to alleged incidents between 2019 and 2020 were later dropped.

In May, Hickerson acknowledged his abusive behavior in an interview with TMZ. He said he had not understood domestic violence when he was younger and suggested that learning about it earlier might have changed his actions.

Just three days before Panettiere’s death, a judge reportedly rejected Hickerson’s request to reduce or expunge his previous felony convictions. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office opposed the request during an Aug. 13 hearing, according to Page Six.

Panettiere’s death has brought renewed attention to the struggles she had spoken about publicly in the final years of her life. For Furst, however, her legacy is also defined by the extraordinary talent he saw firsthand.

“Rest easy, Hayden,” he said.