As the world continues to mourn the loss of Hayden Panettiere, director Griff Furst is speaking out about working with the late actress on the set of his film A Breed Apart.
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In a video shared on Instagram, Furst said things were off with Panettiere the moment she stepped onto the film set with her on-and-off boyfriend, Brian Hickerson.
“I had met Hayden about 10 years before that, and I knew that she was insanely talented,” he explained. “So when she signed on to do this picture that we were shooting, I was psyched. 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.”
The filmmaker then recalled noticing that Panettiere was not okay when he greeted both her and Hickerson. “I’m not going to get into the details of why that was,” he pointed out. “But having worked on over 100 movies and seeing just about everything, it was pretty clear that she wasn’t okay, and the energy in her room was pretty dark.”
Furst further shared that he believed Panettiere was “getting better” following the release of her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning.
“We even talked about doing another picture together recently, which is what makes this sh— news hit even harder,” he said. “I see all these tributes online about the light that Hayden was, and she really was incredible. 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.”
Panettiere was first romantically linked to Hickerson in 2018. In 2019 and 2020, Hickerson was arrested for domestic violence. He ended up having eight charges following his 2020 arrest.
Panettiere and Hickerson Had a Tumultuous Relationship
In 2021, Hickerson pleaded no contest to two felony counts of injuring a partner. The counts were related to his 2020 arrest. He was sentenced to 45 days in jail, four years of formal probation, and 52 domestic violence classes. He was also forced to pay $500 in restitution. Panettiere was granted a five-year protective order against him.
Despite the order, the actress revealed in 2022 that she and Hickerson had reconnected as friends.
“None of it is OK, and I want to make sure that everybody knows that,” she acknowledged regarding Hickerson’s past behavior. “But I am open to people who are willing to get help and make amends. He’s gone to treatment and done his time. And I’m trying to live in a place of forgiveness.”
Panettiere also said, “I think [Brian] has done his time and was willing to get help. I think about the things I have done in my life that people forgave me for. Making amends is a really important thing that you learn in treatment. And it gives you a lot of inner peace.”
Hickerson and his brother were with Panettiere when she died on August 16.
If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence, you can reach the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233. You can also chat with a representative at thehotline.org or by texting “START” to 88788.