[IMG:L]She’s just turned 18, she’s beautiful, and she’s the star of one of the hottest shows on TV–could you blame Hayden Panettiere for feeling as indestructible as her Heroes character Claire Bennett? And with her hit series picking up even more steam with the release of the Season 1 DVD and the hugely anticipated second season just a few weeks away, her Hollywood career is certain to prove as hard to destroy as her Texas cheerleader.
Hollywood.com dialed up the now-legal actress while she had the discs in her DVD player and got her thoughts on the super-powered first season, some teases on what Season Two has in store for Claire, and why she’s desperate to become a bad girl–on screen, at least.
Hollywood.com: What special extras did you get involved with for the DVD release?
Hayden Panettiere: There are commentaries and there’s a ton of deleted scenes, which I didn’t knowingly participate in. There’s 50 deleted scenes. And it’s incredible looking back at it now, and actually–I’m not going to lie, I’m watching it right now, and it’s incredible how many scenes you just totally forget were deleted. And you’re like “Oh, that’s where that scene went.” But it’s really fun to watch because we really had limited time. It’s only an hour show, and especially with the pilot and stuff you have such limited time to explain all this information that you need to know before you can really get into the gut of this show. Which is why we have the two-hour pilot [on the DVD]–it really explains other characters.
HW: When you said you’re watching it right now–does that mean it’s running on your TV set right now as we speak?
HP: It’s running on my TV set right now, and I’m yelling at my brother as he’s turning the volume up.
HW: The DVD’s loaded with a ton of bonus features. What would you recommend people starting with? What’s your favorite?
HP: I would say it would depend if they’ve seen the show or not. If they haven’t seen the show, I would say watch the pilot, the two-hour pilot. I would say watch that first and then maybe the deleted scenes. I’m having fun watching the deleted scenes, but that’s probably only because I know what was deleted and what wasn’t. There’s some great stuff. There’s some goofy commentary. Like, I’m talking goofy commentary. I mean, I think I remember my commentary and I think they probably edited it, but everything on it is great. I love DVDs when you get to go and look at the extras and find certain things, but people have fun with it.
HW: When you first signed on for this show, what were your expectations? Is it surreal now to know the show and your work on it has had such an impact?
HP: Absolutely. I had absolutely no idea what to expect. I’ve never been on a show from beginning to end and I’ve never been in the pilot and then full series and especially not one like this. You never really know–no matter how good the show is or how many incredible actors are involved with it, you never really know what’s going to happen with it or how the audience is going to take it…We were shooting for so long before the show actually aired that we started thinking either it’s on the air already and it’s doing obviously well because we’re still here, or we’re just doing this for shits and giggles and it’s never airing ever.
[IMG:R]HW: What would you describe as the biggest changes in Claire’s character that have occurred in the first season?
HP: I think she really grew up. I definitely for a while there was getting sick of crying. I don’t know about anyone else who was watching the show but I was tired of seeing her cry. And she just kind of went from that naïve teenage girl who only wanted, if you guys don’t have kids or haven’t noticed, teenagers are selfish and I will vouch for that and she wanted what any teenager would want. She wanted to be normal, she wanted to be popular, she wanted to date the quarterback of the football team. And over the time she realized that by dismissing her power like that, that she was risking a lot of people’s lives, that there was so much more she could do if she just came to terms with that and so she just really evolved. She just really grew up. She learned to stand her own and stick up for herself and so yeah, I mean she matured and hopefully she will keep doing that.
HW: Did the critical response and the overwhelming popularity of the show take you by surprise?
HP: As I always say you never really expect that kind of success for yourself or to be a part of anything like that, but at the same time we knew it would do great–we thought it would do great, at least. Anything is possible in this business. We thought it would do wonderful by word of mouth and what we were hearing the producers and the writers say that we had some confidence in it, but at the same time the night before it premiered it was like “Oh, God, we could not do well, and blah, blah, blah….” Everything in this business is kind of a toss up.
HW: When Season 2 picks up, where will we find Claire, and how do we build up to this new relationship with the new love interest, West (Nick D’Agosto)?
HP: It’s four months from where we left off last season and Claire’s really trying to be, just trying to get in touch with her inner teen self once again. She hasn’t given that up and I think it’d be a sad thing if she did. And she’s struggling to fit in, but not stand out and obviously they’re still hiding and running from these people. And West–you know, I think the funny thing about Claire is that, as much as she has that beautiful naivety about her and as sweet as she is, she does have a spitfire. She has that sass about her so it’s fun to watch her, but I think when she meets West…I mean, you guys will see.
HW: Anything else in terms of her growth?
HP: I think this season she’s really looking to figure out more about her powers, more about what she can do, how far she can push it, what happens when she does it. And there’s still some unanswered questions for her about her ability, how far her pain tolerance can go or if she can actually die, if something happened. I think we’ve actually figured that one out by now…We saw Peter in the first season: He had a shard of glass in the back of his head and not until we pulled it out did he come back to life but the question is how long can they survive with that piece of glass in his head before he can’t regenerate anymore. So I think she’s really pushing to find answers. She’s just trying to figure out who she is and what she’s doing and what she wants to do with her life and her ability.
HW: Jack Coleman says your TV dad HRG is back up to some of his old tricks in Season Two–how do you feel about that dynamic coming back?
HP: Well, I think we all have proven that in this show we all have our dirty little secrets. I think him becoming the house dad wouldn’t be very exciting, the good dad. People like watching good bad people, and you sometimes want to hate Jack‘s character and sometimes love him. It was kind of a toss-up depending on what side you’re on. But how do I feel about that? I think it’s exciting. I think it’s exciting for him. I’m not sure if that’s exactly what’s going to happen. As I said, everyone always has their dirty little secrets. But I’m excited to see what happens with everyone. I wish I could turn bad. I would turn bad in a second. I’d like yeah. I’d be the villain.
[IMG:L]HW: What about playing a villain would you enjoy the most?
HP: I think because I’ve always been very categorized and sometimes typecast because of the fact that I’m blonde, and people look at me as either the popular cheerleader type or just the blonde–you don’t play villains unless you’re Sharon Stone when you’re blonde and you look like that. And it would be just exciting for me. People look at me as sweet sometimes, and I say I would never in a million years describe myself as sweet. Never. I think it would be a blast. I think it’s more fun to be bad. Or at least I could play and pretend to be bad on screen.
HW: We’ve seen some photos that hint that Claire’s still a cheerleader?
HP: Well, not in Odessa anymore. I wouldn’t say goodbye to the cheerleading outfit quite yet, but she’s not in that one anymore.
HW: Your character is virtually indestructible. How do you as an actress make her also appear so vulnerable?
HP: She is vulnerable. That’s the interesting thing about her is the fact that she’s this indestructible–physically indestructible–girl but she’s not emotionally or mentally indestructible. And that vulnerability is what makes people like her. When you approach it as an actress, it’s just like playing any other character, are they vulnerable? Are they mean? Are they nice? Are they disturbed or happy? You make her like a normal teenage girl. And I actually am a teenage girl so I kind of just approach it the way you would any other character, and kind of when I’m acting I forget about my abilities. That’s not something that takes a toll in it because she has no idea to how to handle them. And that’s the honest truth. So neither do I.
HW: During Season One, Claire got into some pretty gory predicaments. What was it like working with all that makeup and fake blood?
HP: It was sticky. It was very sticky. It’s actually corn syrup, basically made out of the same thing with red dye, and so you can imagine what that does to your hair and your body after ten and a half hours working…It was fun in the beginning, but then we have directors like Greg Beeman who liked to go a little over the top with the blood. I just remember the look on his face when he got that blood bottle in his hand and he just looked at me like he was going to attack. I was like “Oh no!” Then he poured it over my head. But it looks great at the end of the day. It’s not always the most fun or comfortable thing to do, but that’s my job.
HW: What happens to the rest of Claire’s family? Have her mother and brother just been left behind?
HP: No, of course not. Where would [the family dog] Mr. Muggles be then? We love Mr. Muggles! I think that you might see them this season.
[IMG:R]HW: Despite the fantastic premise, Heroes focuses on character development and uses the powers to illustrate and symbolize some of the characters’ internal issues–what, in your eyes, are Claire’s issues?
HP: Well, she is a teenager and it’s almost like a metaphor, an odd metaphor, in the way that teenagers are constantly trying to push their parents away. They’re constantly trying to test the limits of their freedom and how far they can push things. And it’s sort of the same thing with Claire. She’s just doing it in a different way, not really to have her freedom quite yet. Well, it is to have her freedom, but not to go to the mall with her friends or not to go on vacations. It’s more to learn more about herself and this ability in what she can do. I think in that way it’s definitely a teenage universal message. All teenagers will understand that one..
HW: What’s your approach to handling the pressures on screen and off that come with being an actress–how you would say that your approach is unique as compared to other actresses in your generation?
HP: I think that I approach acting because it’s something that I love. It’s something that I respect, and something that makes me want to be respected for what I do. And that’s what I’m working towards, working to be a respected actress, and in order to be a respected actress there are certain things you just can’t do. And I think unfortunately in this business when people start getting all those perks and they just head down the wrong road, they can lose track of what’s important. And the business and their jobs become more about that then about their craft. They forget about their craft and they forget about their love of it and sometimes it causes people to slack off and they lose focus. It’s not about that all of a sudden. So I’m approaching it in the fact that I love my craft. I love what I do. I want to mature in it and get better at it every time I do it.
HW: The cast has regular dinner get-togethers during the season. What are those like, and what are the personalities like behind the scenes?
HP: Yes, we do have our dinners. We actually haven’t had one in quite a while, but we need to. We’ve all been going crazy and busy and we’re shooting like three episodes at a time right now. It’s intense…They’re all so different. Adrian [Pasdar] we always said was like the big brother. He’s the funniest thing and he always just wants to take it here, take it there. He’s usually the leader where he’s going. He already I think planned a dinner in Paris at one of the top restaurants in the world. And we’re like “Oh, great –Who’s footing that bill? Thanks, A.” And then Greg [Grunberg]‘s the goofball. And Milo [Ventimiglia]‘s more the flirt and Sendhil [Ramamurthy]‘s great and Masi [Oka]–there’s just so many different personalities. Everyone’s so different, everyone’s so great. Everyone has a crush on either Milo or Sendhil, but then I looked at Greg and Adrian and Masi and everyone has a crush on them, too. We’ve got a cast full of heartthrobs. What can you say? And you know, Ali [Larter] – we’re girls, so we got to stick together. It’s a group of guys. And Jack, Jack Coleman I’m very close to. I get to work with him a lot and he’s so much fun. He’s so much fun and he’s so funny and he’s such a bright man. It’s fun to be around somebody like that who’s bright, but he’s fun at the same time..and Zach [Quinto], who plays Sylar, is fun, funny as anything and he’s a good friend, too. They all just have their own individual personalities and it’s such a hoot when you get together.
[IMG:L]HW: You’re off to Europe for the Heroes World Tour, traveling with Milo, Jack and Adrian. What are you most looking forward to about visiting London, Paris and Munich?
HP: Getting out of this country–and I’m SO serious, at least out of California. I think it’ll be exciting. It’ll be fun just to get away and just be with my cast members. It’s going to be so much fun. I can’t even imagine. And just seeing those beautiful countries and just being able to be there and staying at the top hotels in Paris and London and Munich–I mean, what more could you ask for, honestly? I’m excited to be with my cast mates. I’m excited to have time with them like that. We haven’t really spent that kind of time together. We see each other all the time and we do spend a ton of time together, but not days consecutively. We’ll see who’s mad at each other by the end of the trip! How many fights there have been, how many people are cranky.
HW: Is there a superpower that you think would benefit you as a young Hollywood star or other Hollywood stars.
HP: The ability to be invisible…Because I think obviously we can blame most of it on the people who are doing the bad things that they’re not supposed to be doing, but at the same time when you’ve got cameras in your face all the time, it leaves you no room to mess up even slightly. And things get turned around on you. So if I could walk out my door or drive my car out my door and not be followed by paparazzi, I’d be a very happy person.
