‘Something was off’: Hayden Panettiere’s former director says she was ‘not ok’ on a 2025 film set

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Late Hayden Panettiere's former director Griff Furst has opened up about working with her on the 2025 movie ‘A Breed Apart’ following her untimely passing.

Panettiere was only 36 when she died on Sunday, August 16, in Greenville, South Carolina.

Griff Furst recalls Hayden Panettiere’s struggles on set

In an August 17 Instagram video, Furst claimed that the ‘Nashville’ star was “not okay” on the film’s set.

“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,” he shared.

Continuing, the 44-year-old said that he went on to greet Panettiere and her boyfriend, Brian, who “opened the door. Hayden was incredibly sweet and gracious and excited to work, but she was not OK.”

Griff Furst calls Hayden Panettiere ‘a force to be reckoned with'

Furst refused to give details about why he thought the late former child star was not fine. However, he added, “Having worked on over 100 movies and seen just about everything, it was pretty clear that she wasn’t OK and the energy in her room was pretty dark.”

The film producer then went on to mention the online tributes for the ‘Heroes’ actress, stating, “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,” Furst added.

Hayden Panettiere opened up about struggles before death

Panettiere had previously talked about her hardships in her memoir, ‘This Is Me: A Reckoning,’ which was released in May this year. In an interview with Us Weekly, she said that “people will be surprised by what they learn.”

In the same interview, she also spoke frankly about her postpartum depression and claimed that she “never heard anybody talk about it” in her life and “that’s why it took such a long time for me to put the pieces together.”

The late actress gave birth to a daughter in 2014. She shared her child with her ex, Wladimir Klitschko.

“My mom didn’t experience it. I never had a single friend that mentioned it. And that doesn’t necessarily mean that people around me hadn’t gone through it. There was just so much stigma around it that they weren’t willing to talk about it or address it,” Panettiere had added.