Hayden Panettiere’s final project has been unveiled as a campaign she starred in for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).
The Heroes actress was found dead aged 36 of a suspected overdose on Sunday at an Airbnb in Greenville, South Carolina, where she had traveled with her on-off boyfriend Brian Hickerson, a native of the state.
Hickerson, who conducted a turbulent romance with Panettiere and once went to jail for abusing her, was on the scene along with his brother Zachary when she was pronounced dead, according to a newly released police report. Her autopsy found ‘no signs of trauma’ that ‘would have contributed to the death.’
Panettiere, who would have turned 37 on Friday, cut a PETA ad two weeks before she died denouncing the practice of keeping whales and dolphins in theme parks.
PETA released the clip on Tuesday, showing the actress posing in the bath as a comparison to the constrained lives that marine wildlife lead in captivity.
‘Imagine spending your entire life in a bathtub. That’s what it’s like for dolphins and whales in tiny tanks at marine amusement parks,’ said Panettiere, a longtime advocate of the rights of ocean animals. ‘We can end this, you and me.’
Hayden Panettiere’s final project has been unveiled as a campaign she starred in for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)
‘Imagine spending your entire life in a bathtub,’ said Panettiere: ‘That’s what it’s like for dolphins and whales in tiny tanks at marine amusement parks’
She added: ‘Can you imagine their frustration, their trauma, their depression? All that is important and crucial for their wellbeing is ripped away.’
When she was 18 years old, Panettiere participated in the Oscar-winning documentary The Cove, a condemnation of Japanese dolphin-hunting.
In her segment, filmed in 2007, she joined a group of anti-whaling activists riding surfboards into a killing cove in Taiji and mounting a standoff with the fishermen.
Amid disputed reports that a warrant had been issued for her arrest in Japan, Panettiere held firm to her convictions, inveighing against the ‘outdated, senseless cultural traditions and lazy, bad habits that are resulting in the annihilation of our planet’s resources and the extinction of our species,’ in a statement to VOA News.
‘I’d do it again,’ she told E! News after her return to Los Angeles. ‘I was very excited that people were interested in what we did. In this town, you tend to only get publicity for not wearing underwear or going to rehab.’
Panettiere died at the end of a long struggle with alcohol and opiates, spending eight months in rehab in 2020 after contracting jaundice and being informed by her doctor that ‘if I didn’t stop drinking, I’d be dead within five years,’ as she wrote in her memoir.
In 2018, in order to devote herself to her recovery from her personal demons, Panettiere voluntarily gave up custody of her now 11-year-old daughter Kaya.
Panettiere, who would have turned 37 on Friday, cut a PETA ad in the last weeks of her life denouncing the practice of keeping whales and dolphins in theme parks
PETA released the clip on Tuesday, showing the actress posing in the bath as a comparison to the constrained lives that marine wildlife lead in captivity
‘Not being under the same roof with her every day has been the most gut-wrenching experience of my life,’ Panettiere wrote in her book: ‘and it’s hard to describe the layers of emotion – including sadness, resentment, and anger – I’ve felt because of it.’
Released months before her death, the book also detailed her fraught equation with her mother Lesley Vogel, who used to be her manager as a child star but from whom she ultimately became estranged.
Panettiere’s PETA ad dropped just after Justin Chatwin, her co-star on her final movie Sleepwalker, reflected on how ‘lonely’ she seemed to him during filming last year.
‘We hit it off great and it was an awesome shoot, but it was about domestic abuse and it was subject matter that may have hit close to home, because she did mention it,’ Chatwin told People. ‘She opened up to me about a lot of things.’
He observed: ‘I could tell she was struggling, and I was like, “I don’t think it’s this movie.” There’s a handful of women that I’ve worked with that I really liked, and I really loved working with her, but I also know that she was really lonely.’
Panettiere is pictured in 2018 with her on-off boyfriend Brian HIckerson, who was on the scene in South Carolina when she was pronounced dead
The Daily Mail contacted Chatwin’s representatives for further comment.
Chatwin had met her during the height of her fame on Heroes, which she starred on from 2006 to 2010, but noticed a marked difference in her state of mind by the time they worked with one another on Sleepwalker.
‘Hayden seemed different when I met her this time than when I met her in the early years. I’ve been sober for 15 years, so I know this world of addiction, and Hollywood – it takes, and it takes from youth,’ he said.
‘“I’m sure that everyone else is going to say: “Oh, she’s amazing. She’s such a sweet person on set,” because she was,’ Chatwin noted.
‘But we’re trained to be actors, so we’re acting on set, you know? And she is sweet. She had a beautiful heart. But we’re trained to be on, and I really liked spending time with her because she took that off, and she was authentic with me about her life and she opened up about her struggles with addiction,’ he revealed.
‘And who knows where it comes from? Does it come from Hollywood? Does it come from home? And a lot of times, it’s both.’
