Guest writer R.M. Bundridge pays tribute to Hayden Panettiere, the late Scream and Heroes star
I was twelve years old when I first watched Hayden Panettiere’s character, Kirby Reed, flip horror trivia on its head in Scream 4. Her ability to convey such emotion in a scene that demanded nothing less stuck like flies to a trap in my mind, only these flies never died; it is safe to say I did not let them.
Hayden Panettiere passed away on August 16, 2026. She was 36.
I starkly remember my grandma sitting me down in her living room one night with the words, “You’re going to love this. The villain is one of the most evil men I’ve ever seen, and the girl he’s after is amazing.” She could not have been more right. Hayden’s performance as Claire Bennett in Heroes demanded attention. An indestructible teenager in the center of a world ending plot, you couldn’t have been anything else. Hayden and Zachary Quinto’s screen presence left me with a pillow to my face during many episodes, and when it all boiled down to that finale (sorry, even if it ended in 2010, I am NOT one for spoilers) I remember looking over to my grandma and going “Again?” It’s no surprise whenever the series is discussed, in my circles anyway, the question “is that the one with cheerleader” is posed because they know her. They can picture her face in the role. Hayden won three major awards for Heroes and was nominated for a fourth. A surprise to no one.
This could be a list of every influential piece of media I’ve encountered with Hayden, but it wouldn’t be enough to encapsulate what she meant to the genre community. From Kingdom Hearts, Scooby-Doo! and the Goblin King, Alpha & Omega, Racing Stripes, Ice Princess, Bring it On: All or Nothing, she brought so much to every role she was a part of. Her talent, her range, and the smile which showed liquid white in interviews are going to shine well into the future.
I waited so long for her return to the Scream franchise, unaware if she had been killed off or not. When she appeared as an Easter egg in Scream 5, I had to clamp my hand over my mouth in the theater so fast to keep from squealing. It was time. She had expressed her willingness to return to the franchise — and she did in 2023’s Scream 6 — along with her love for Wes Craven and what the community meant to her. When I tell you I couldn’t believe it. This was an opportunity for her to expand and grapple with her character’s rage, to show us if Kirby had healed from the betrayal she experienced. Aside from the wig they had her wear, I was sold.
Hayden began acting at just 11 months old, her first role being a commercial. From there she starred in feature films and received recognition immediately. Her voice work in A Bug’s Life as Dot won her a nomination for the Young Artist Awards in the Best Performance in a Voice Over in a Feature or TV – Best Young Actress (I know, believe me, a tongue-twister) category. It was only a couple years later, in 2000, when Hayden won her first award for Remember the Titans.
While a member of the acting world, Hayden was a passionate activist. She had a seat on the Ronald McDonald House board, Friends of Ronald McDonald. Hayden fought valiantly for dolphins and whales as a member of the Whaleman Foundation; She worked to prevent teen pregnancy with the Candie Foundation and advocated for victims of domestic violence. She wanted to help a lot of people, and she did.
In late May of this year, Hayden’s memoir, This is Me: A Reckoning, was released. This unapologetic work of non-fiction delves into her experience as a new mom struggling with postpartum depression, alcoholism, with being a survivor of domestic violence, how she grieved her rather recently deceased brother, and overcoming the trauma of the human experience. If you have the opportunity to read it, I highly recommend it. While I have only read snippets, I have slowly moved up the hold list at my local library. With a voice as strong as hers, there is no doubt it is going to make me cry more than I already am while writing this. This is the last piece she offered to her fans, the people who have followed her career for years. It would feel wrong not to read it.
The admiration for an actor starts out slowly. You see them in one or two things, and you’re like, “Oh, they’re good.” You see them again, but now it’s in interviews, and that allows you to get a glimpse at who they are off screen. You make it a point to watch, play, read all of the art you can even though it’s unlikely they’ll be ripped from you anytime soon. The reality is a slow burn in your gut, an ember fresh from the pit and placed delicately on your tongue. You can’t predict what will go wrong twenty minutes from now in your own life let alone someone else’s.
My thoughts go out to Hayden’s family, her friends. She touched the hearts of many horror lovers, of many genre fans in general, of underrepresented voices, of advocates striving for a better world. We’re a dedicated bunch. She didn’t know what she was capable of doing to somebody like me: an early twenties, queer, aspiring author from small town Iowa, but, to put it simply, “She’s the reason I love horror movies.”
