Hayden Panettiere didn’t ever think she’d be taking a four-year break from acting, but it ended up being a blessing in disguise.
“I had taken four years off. Didn’t know or plan to, but that’s just the way it panned out,” Panettiere, 35, exclusively told Us Weekly while discussing her upcoming film A Breed Apart. “And I desperately needed it.”
Panettiere confessed that the decision to step out of the spotlight was “never” in her mind but instead “happened organically.” She credited the impromptu hiatus for allowing her to come back at a “different place in life.”
“The things that I’ve done before … it was just different enough that I felt like it was a blank canvas that I could paint onto anything I wanted on,” she explained. “And now try to take my career in a direction that I wasn’t able to go in before.”
Panettiere was partly able to “jump back in” because she’s surrounded herself with people she can count on by her side.
“I feel much more solid and grounded in this world, the crazy world that we live in,” she said of her new chapter, adding that this new “version” of herself is still constantly “evolving and changing.”
“It’s healthy to continue to keep evolving as a person. Which I always try to do to keep reinventing ourselves and learning more things about ourselves and our wants and needs and dislikes and all the above,” she shared. “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.”
That means making sure she’s not getting brushed “aside” like she’s a “young kid” who “doesn’t know what they’re talking about.” (The Scream star has been in the acting game since the age of 4.)
With a new mindset, Panettiere is “hopeful for the future” as she continues to take on new projects. Up next is the horror-comedy A Breed Apart. Panettiere stars in the film alongside Virginia Gardner and Grace Caroline Currey.
“The biggest thing that drew me to this character was the action part of it. It’s fun. You get to be physical. I get to use my athleticism,” she told Us. “And also working with cameras and at the same time, and it’s just like this perfect dance that has to be created. It adds a whole other element to what we do.”
Panettiere, who plays a rebellious Hollywood actress referenced as Hayden in the film, teased that she “definitely” sees similarities between herself and her character.
“I think for me … it’s just about finding that character within us [and] how we can relate to them,” she explained. “Even though people don’t necessarily see me in that light right off the top of their heads, but it’s very me. It’s very much me. I mean, I got to fly a helicopter and do some fighting with non-existent animals that weren’t there and there was humor in it too.”
A Breed Apart hits theaters and streaming on Friday, May 16.
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