Hayden Panettiere's Costar Says She Was "Struggling" on Final Movie

And while Chatwin remembered his costar as an "amazing" and "sweet" person on set, he also highlighted what made her so special to talk to person-to-person outside of her fame.

“I really liked spending time with her because she took that off," he added, "and she was authentic with me about her life and she opened up about her struggles with addiction."

Panettiere died Aug. 16 after appearing to suffer from an overdose, according to an Emergency Medical Service worker heard on 911 audio obtained by People and TMZ. Police in Greenville, S.C., were called to a residence around 1:51 p.m. and found the actress experiencing cardiac arrest, according to a Greenville County Coroner’s Office statement obtained by E! News. She was pronounced dead on the scene at 2:32 p.m.

Panettiere's father Alan “Skip” Panettiere publicly shared news her death later that evening.

"It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden," he said in a statement to ABC News. "She was an incredible light and a force of nature who brought immeasurable love and joy to all who knew her—and to the millions who watched her onscreen."

Her official cause of death has not been shared.

Throughout her time in the spotlight, Panettiere never shied away from discussing the difficulties she faced, including struggles with alcohol use, opioid addiction and postpartum depression following the 2014 birth of Kaya, her daughter with ex-fiancé Wladimir Klitschko.

Her postpartum depression was also why she gave up custody of Kaya in 2018, when the then-4-year-old went to live in Europe with Klitschko, a Ukrainian boxer.

"I don't ever want her to feel like the postpartum depression aspect was her fault in any way," Panettiere shared with E! News in May. "I want her to take away that it's OK to be imperfect and flawed, and you'll actually realize that you're not alone in any of your struggles and you don't have to stay quiet and be sick like I was."

Panettiere was hopeful that sharing her own experiences with postpartum depression and addiction would help others who were experiencing similar issues.

“I wish I knew about postpartum depression. I wish I knew to look out for it,” she admitted on E! News’ The Rundown in 2023. “I just thought there was something seriously wrong with me, so I thought, 'Fireball will fix this—duh!' And it didn't. It does for a moment, but then it makes everything worse."

Her experience also led to a four-year hiatus from acting after she wrapped Nashville in 2018—returning to the screen in 2023’s Scream VI.

“I had taken four years off. Didn’t know or plan to, but that’s just the way it panned out,” she recalled to Us Weekly in 2025. “And I desperately needed it.”

“It’s healthy to continue to keep evolving as a person, which I always try to do to keep reinventing ourselves, learning more things about ourselves, our wants, needs, dislikes and all the above,” Panettiere added. “But I’ve never been this version of me. I’ve never been as OK with being who I am without feeling the need to apologize for anything. I feel like I’ve finally earned the right to an opinion.”