‘Heroes’ at 20: How Hayden Panettiere’s castmates became her real-life protectors

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It’s been 20 years since Hayden Panettiere uttered one of the most memorable lines in the first-ever episode of “Heroes,” in which she played indestructible cheerleader Claire. When asked how her day was, she deadpans: “I walked through fire, and I didn’t get burned.”

It wasn’t a metaphor. The character had saved a man from dying in an inferno and walked away unscathed. Her mother, unaware of the literal nature of the comment, compliments her daughter for what she interpreted to be a profound comment about life. The moment lands with equal parts heaviness and humor, because then-16-year-old Panettiere nailed her delivery.

Executive producer Tim Kring recalled that Panettiere, whose shocking death last month at age 36 spurred an outpouring of tributes, had an “extraordinary gift” for landing emotional beats.

“She could toggle between doing these very emotional scenes and whatever was going on in her personal life,” Kring said. Between the takes, “she would be texting somebody and then the second that they’re ready to roll camera, the phone would go back into her pocket and she’d be sobbing in the scene over and over again.”

Kring recalled that her costars would often stop to watch her film her scenes and “marvel” at her ability to turn extreme emotions on and off like a light switch.

In many ways, the pilot, which aired on NBC on September 26, 2006, is a time capsule for genre television, proving at the time that network TV could keep pace with the audience’s calls for more ambitious storytelling. For Kring, the episode is also a rich bank of fond memories, all of which have taken on a deeper meaning since Panettiere’s death, which was ruled accidental earlier this week by the Greenville County Coroner’s Office in South Carolina.

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In a stacked cast that included Zachary Quinto, Masi Oka and Milo Ventimiglia, all playing ordinary people from different parts of the world whose lives intertwine after they discover they have superpowers, it was obvious from the early days of the show that Panettiere’s real-life abilities were something special, Kring said.

Like many have recalled in the weeks since her death, Panettiere had a gift, even if, like her “Heroes” character, it at times came with isolating pressures.

The first season of “Heroes” was a hit, bringing in over 14 million viewers on average, a towering number for the pre-streaming era when network TV ruled the airwaves.

The series catapulted Panettiere to household name status as the show’s success took hold, and the pressures of being NBC’s most sought after new star came with heavy baggage. She may have been playing someone unbreakable, but, she said in 2006, “at the end of the day, I am still a normal teenage girl who’s making mistakes still in her life and trying to find where I am as a person and growing into an adult.”

Later, she would remember the “Heroes” set as a safe haven from the turmoil she was facing in her personal life, including a fractured relationship with her mother.

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“My saving grace is that I couldn’t be messy while on-set and working,” she said in 2022. But, off-set, she said “things just kept getting out of control. And as I got older, the drugs and alcohol became something I almost couldn’t live without.”

Panettiere developed some pivotal relationships with her costars, forming one of the strongest bonds with her on-screen dad played by Jack Coleman. Their real-life chemistry quickly became apparent to Kring, who came to realize that Claire’s relationship with her father would become the central touchstone of the entire show, a sentiment he stands by two decades later.

Kring said the cast collectively felt a certain “responsibility” to look out for Panettiere. The actress acknowledged this herself in an interview just a few months before her death, saying that the cast “really kept me grounded at a very pivotal time in my life.”

“Child actors have often troubled relationships at home, and I don’t think it’s any secret that there was some of that with Hayden,” Kring said. “I think we all naturally kind of built a little bit of a wall around her and felt very protective of her.”

18-year-old Hayden Panettiere sat down with CNN in 2007 to discuss her insecurities, and how the behavior of paparazzi changed once she turned 18. Panettiere was pronounced dead on Sunday afternoon after being found unresponsive at an apartment complex in South Carolina. She was 36.

Panettiere died last month in South Carolina from a toxic mix of fentanyl and other drugs, authorities said earlier this week.

Dozens of her former castmates shared tributes in the days after and several of those who worked with her on “Heroes” even came together for a “deeply emotional” reunion to celebrate Panettiere’s life. In a poignant tribute he posted on Instagram when Panettiere died, Coleman touched on witnessing the challenges that she faced, all while serving as a source of joy on set and being a role model for his own daughter who is close in age to Panettiere.

“I’ve loved Hayden since day one of the pilot of Heroes,” he wrote. “We laughed a lot. That shining face, that megawatt smile, that wasn’t just for the camera. That was her. She glowed.”

It’s typical to audition several actors for each available role during the casting process, but Kring struggled to remember if anyone else had been in contention to play Claire. “In my mind, there’s nobody. I can’t remember a single other person auditioning,” he said.

It was “undeniable from the minute that you met her,” Kring recalled, that she was meant for that role.

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距离海顿·潘妮蒂尔在《英雄》第一集中说出那句令人难忘的台词已经过去20年了。她在剧中饰演坚不可摧的啦啦队长克莱尔。当被问及她今天过得怎么样时，她一本正经地说：“我走过了火海，却毫发无损。”

这并非比喻。剧中人物从烈火中救下一名男子，自己却毫发无损地离开了。她的母亲并不知道这句话的字面意思，反而称赞女儿，认为她对人生有深刻的见解。这一幕既沉重又幽默，因为当时年仅16岁的帕内蒂尔将这段表演演绎得淋漓尽致。

执行制片人蒂姆·克林回忆说，帕内蒂尔上个月去世，年仅 36 岁，她的离世引发了各界的悼念，她“拥有非凡的天赋”，能够把握情感的节奏。

克林格说：“她能在拍摄这些非常感人的场景和处理她个人生活中的事情之间切换自如。”拍摄间隙，“她会给别人发短信，然后一旦准备开拍，她就会立刻把手机放回口袋，一遍又一遍地在镜头前哭泣。”

克林回忆说，她的搭档们经常会停下来观看她拍摄场景，并“惊叹”她能够像开关灯一样轻松地控制极端情绪。

从很多方面来看，这部于2006年9月26日在NBC播出的试播集，堪称类型剧的时代缩影，它证明了当时的电视网能够跟上观众对更具野心故事的呼声。对克林格而言，这集也承载着许多美好的回忆，而自从帕内蒂尔去世后，这些回忆更添了一层深意。本周早些时候，南卡罗来纳州格林维尔县验尸官办公室裁定帕内蒂尔的死因是意外。

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克林格说，这部剧的演员阵容强大，包括扎克瑞·昆图、冈政伟和米洛·文提米利亚，他们都扮演来自世界各地的普通人，在发现自己拥有超能力后，他们的生活交织在一起。从剧集一开始，帕内蒂尔在现实生活中的能力就显得非同寻常。

自从她去世后的几周里，许多人回忆说，帕内蒂尔很有天赋，即使像她在《英雄》中扮演的角色一样，这种天赋有时也带来了孤立的压力。

《英雄》第一季大获成功，平均每季吸引了超过 1400 万观众，这在流媒体时代之前，电视网主导电视荧屏的年代，是一个惊人的数字。

随着该剧的成功，帕内蒂尔迅速成为家喻户晓的人物，但作为NBC最炙手可热的新星，她也承受着巨大的压力。尽管她扮演的是一个坚不可摧的角色，但她在2006年表示：“归根结底，我仍然是一个普通的十几岁女孩，生活中仍然会犯错，仍然在努力寻找自我，并成长为一个成年人。”

后来，她回忆起《英雄》剧组，认为那是她个人生活中面临的动荡的避风港，包括与母亲破裂的关系。

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“我的幸运之处在于，在片场工作时我不能胡闹，”她在2022年说道。但她说，在片场之外，“事情就越来越失控。随着年龄的增长，毒品和酒精几乎成了我生活中不可或缺的一部分。”

帕内蒂尔与她的几位合作演员建立了至关重要的关系，其中与饰演她剧中父亲的杰克·科尔曼更是建立了最牢固的联系。他们现实生活中的默契很快就被克林格注意到，克林格意识到克莱尔与父亲的关系将成为整部剧的核心，而二十年后，他依然坚持这一观点。

克林格表示，剧组全体成员都感到有某种“责任”去照顾帕内蒂尔。这位女演员在去世前几个月的一次采访中也承认了这一点，她说剧组“在我人生的一个关键时期真的让我脚踏实地”。

“童星的家庭关系往往不太好，海顿的情况也并非秘密，”克林说道。“我想我们所有人都自然而然地在她周围筑起了一道墙，非常保护她。”

2007年，18岁的海顿·潘妮蒂尔接受CNN采访，谈到了她的不安全感，以及在她年满18岁后狗仔队的行为发生了怎样的变化。周日下午，潘妮蒂尔被发现昏迷在南卡罗来纳州的一处公寓楼内，随后被宣布死亡。她享年36岁。

当局本周早些时候表示，帕内蒂埃上个月在南卡罗来纳州死于芬太尼和其他药物的混合中毒。

在她去世后的几天里，数十位昔日的剧组成员纷纷发文悼念，几位曾与她合作拍摄《英雄》的演员甚至举行了一场“感人至深”的重聚，共同缅怀帕内蒂尔的一生。在帕内蒂尔去世后，科尔曼在Instagram上发布了一篇感人至深的悼文，讲述了他亲眼目睹她所面临的种种挑战，以及她如何在片场带给人们欢乐，并成为与她年龄相仿的女儿的榜样。

“从《英雄》试播集的第一天起，我就喜欢上了海顿，”他写道。“我们经常一起欢笑。她那张闪亮的脸庞，她那灿烂的笑容，不仅仅是为了镜头。那就是她自己。她光芒四射。”

通常情况下，每个角色都会试镜几位演员，但克林格努力回想是否还有其他人曾参与过克莱尔这个角色的角逐。“我印象中没有其他人。我记不起有其他人来试镜过。”他说。

克林回忆说：“从你见到她的那一刻起，你就会毫不怀疑，她天生就是为那个角色而生的。”