Hayden Panettiere: Save the Cheerleader!

The "cheerleader" is doing quite fine, thank you. Beautiful 17-year-old actress Hayden Panettiere is co-starring in the popular "Heroes" series on NBC and she's starting a recording career as well with tracks like "Your New Girlfriend", "I Fly" and "My Hero is You" playing regularly especially on Radio Disney. The blonde, blue-eyed actress has come a long way since her days as a kid star and playing a Zebra jockey in the family film Stripes or a figure skater in Ice Princess. As "Heroes'" invincible Claire Bennett, a Texas cheerleader who can regenerate from injury, Hayden has joined the ranks of teen fave TV stars. Her film career continues with roles in The Architect and Shanghai Kiss. You might have watched her in the recent DVD hit Bring It On: All or Nothing.

We caught up with the actress at an NBC all-star party where she was glowing in a hot red dress on a cool night. Read on for news of the show, Hayden's singing career, clashes with the paparazzi and upcoming projects...

TeenTelevision: Does the physical aspect of your role come easy for you?

Hayden: I think so. I hope so. Both my parents played a lot of sports. I played a lot of sports, when I was younger. I think the whole racing zebras, figure skating, and all that stuff paid off, in that case.

TeenTelevision: Are you not worried about being written out of the show knowing your character is indestructible?

Hayden: [laughs] No, 'cause they remind us every day that anyone could go. Anyone. It helps, probably, to be indestructible, but we've also realized that the key to people's powers lies in their brain. There was that scene, a few episodes ago, where Thomas Dekker's character, Zach, says to me, 'You could have died', after Sylar comes, and I say, 'I know'. The question really is, 'Can she die?' How long can her body survive enough to regenerate, before she really dies?

TeenTelevision: Claire just found her birth mother. Will that be a main theme for Claire?

Hayden: My character is definitely running down that road of trying to discover who she is, where she comes from, who her parents are, if she's alone. And, you realize that it's a very, very small world, and people have these very odd connections. There are a couple big, big surprise turns coming up.

TeenTelevision: You've been acting for years but what's it been like for you to suddenly become so famous?

Hayden: It's interesting. It's fun. It's a new thing. You know things are happening when you walk out of your apartment and there are two cars full of paparazzi who actually followed me home. It was sort of a scary feeling. I was by myself, I had a handful of things, and I said to one of them, 'Oh, my God, you just scared me to death,' and he was like, 'I'm sorry'. And, I turned to get in my car, and there was another person down the street who actually followed me all the way to work, and started running red lights. I was calling my parents, going, 'Oh, my God! I don't know what to do!' I didn't know whether to be completely flattered, which I was, or kind of nervous about it. Hopefully, no one really thinks I'm invincible and tries to do something rash.

TeenTelevision: Are you just as excited as the fans are to see what's going to happen when you get a new script?

Hayden: Oh, absolutely. One of our producers, Dennis Hammer, had #118, which we haven't read yet. It's the next script. And, I kept trying to get it from him, and he was relentless. He would not give it to me. As soon as he turned around, me, Sendhil and Masi said, 'Hey, take the script!' I took it and I hid it, but of course, I didn't read it because I felt too bad. But, they do it so that the scripts are really ready by the time we read them. And, even when we do read them, we get pink pages and blue pages and yellow pages [changes], and it turns into a rainbow, anyway.

TeenTelevision: The transition from child actor to adult actor can be hard. What is your secret?

Hayden: I think you have to surround yourself with good people. You just have to be smart about what you do. You only live once. Live it up, of course. I, personally, know how to party. I'm absolutely very good at partying. But, it's just about being smart about it and surrounding yourself with a certain type of people who influence you, in a good way.

TeenTelevision: Were you surprised by how quickly "Heroes" hit with the audience?

Hayden: It was actually really funny because we were sitting there and we had filmed it so long before it ever came out. We would go to Sunset-Gower Studios, where pigeons make noise during the takes and there's dirt everywhere, and we would think, 'Either this show is on the air and it's doing perfectly fine because we haven't heard about it and we're not off the air since we're still filming, or it's just never going to show at all and we're just doing it for giggles and it's all for a good laugh.' And then, when it came on, it was like, 'Oh, that episode? Oh, it's going to be so much better now. Hurry up and show the rest of them.' There was a long period of time there that we didn't air.

TeenTelevision: What was your first thought, when you realized your character was going to wake up on an autopsy table?

Hayden: I thought, 'D**n, that's fun.' Or, perhaps, 'I get to lie down. Yay!' It was good fun. It was a little cold, sitting in my bra and underwear on a freezing cold autopsy table. But, it was a funny scene. It was fun, it was gory, and we like grossing people out. I was like, 'Give me a little extra make-up, so I look cute 'cause people really need to get over this whole losing limbs thing. They're going to think I'm disgusting.'

TeenTelevision: Didn't you get notes, at the beginning of the show, to tone down the gore, especially with your character?

Hayden: Yeah. We had a little thing with a garbage disposal, in the beginning, but I think it was more the garbage disposal company that was having trouble with it. They weren't very happy. But, it's fun. We like to have fun. We like to gross people out a bit, but not too much. We want them to keep coming back.

TeenTelevision: How easy or hard is acting with make-up appliances for the gory injuries?

Hayden: It's not that bad. It can be distracting because you're usually concentrating on trying to pop something back in or wipe something back off or put something back together. But usually what the scene revolves around, it's quick and relatively easy for the most part.

TeenTelevision: How did you get involved in wildlife charity, World Conservation?

Hayden: I lived in South Africa for a while and I met a man who allowed me to become ambassador for the IUCN. I also do a thing called the Whale Band that protects whales from experiments and the dolphins and the marine life. There's a lot of stuff going on with that that people have no idea about.

TeenTelevision: How soon is your album coming out?

Hayden: It's being pushed, so it might be around August sort of.

TeenTelevision: What music are you listening to?

Hayden: Everyone from Panic at the Disco, My Chemical Romance, Eminem, Beyonce, Justin Timberlake, Dixie Chicks. I love the Dixie Chicks.

TeenTelevision: Do you have any tales from attending the Golden Globe awards?

Hayden: Oh, well, we're always late. The Golden Globe line was literally at a standstill. The after party, the IN Style party was ridiculous because the fire marshal came and shut it down when there were literally no people in there. I saw the biggest stars waiting in the line. I was looking down at Brad and Angelina, so that was pretty cool.

Hayden: I would say teleportation. It would be very convenient for what I do.

TeenTelevision: Were you hesitant at first to do a television series?

Hayden: I was. For a long time, I just wanted to do film. And it's tough putting yourself in that position of the TV series, especially when it's an ensemble cast like this. The potential of being in it for six years and missing out on movies because you're not available anymore. But I thought it was a good period, a time in my life. I didn't want to wait until I got too old to do it. And I needed to finish school so it helped me with that. I have a constant tutor. I'm in my last year.

TeenTelevision: What do you say to girls who look up to you?

Hayden: Beauty is what lies within, it's in your mind, it's in your heart. Beauty's an opinion, not a fact which I think is a really good thing to keep in mind always. They can do whatever they want to do as long as they put everything into it and they find their power within.

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.