Hayden Panettiere: The Cheerleader Saves the World?

The mega-popular series "Heroes" on NBC had a really catchy "selling" phrase: "Save the cheerleader: Save the world!" Now, as the show launches its final episodes of the season, it's beginning to look like it's up to the cheerleader to stop an exploding man who will destroy most of New York! Cast members join the show and wonder when they'll die. There is even an R.I.P. wall of pictures of the "dead" on set. Hayden's character Claire is supposedly indestructible. It's been a wild ride for the talented and beautiful teen actress and we wanted to know more about the experience. She's just graduated high school and sang at her graduation.

Hayden joined us for a phone interview that progressed from sitting still to her driving to an appointment while talking to us and having to merge on the freeway! We don't recommend this. Claire may be indestructible but Hayden isn't! Check out the latest buzz on the star, her show and her recording career:

TeenHollywood: How has your life changed since you are now the iconic cheerleader character on a hit show? A lot of teens think of you as a role model.

Hayden: It's always great to be a good role model and especially to have people look up to you, and I'm big into charities and foundations. I have a handful that I've been working with. I hope that I can get people to maybe back up a little bit and see what I'm doing with charities and maybe participate in things like that and things that they believe in. Celebrity sounds like the worst word in the world but [I want to] be in the spotlight for a good reason.

A lot of the media doesn't want to hear about the good things and they just want to hear about bad. But there's only so much you could do about that.

A minus is, you know, you're constantly being watched. At the end of the day, I am still a normal teenage girl who's making mistakes still in her life in trying to find where I am as a person and going into an adult and, you know, it's hard when you get that pressure of being a role model.

TeenHollywood: Okay, is Claire really totally indestructible? It's a big debate.

Hayden: I think that that's a question that was never really answered for me but I think that she is indestructible. She can jump off the highest building. She can go through a (wood) chopper and she'd be fine.

But I do think that there is a reason why she was so scared when Sylar comes along. There's a reason why Peter Petrelli had to face her. I think, in general, yes, she is indestructible, but there is one spot in the back of your head where, if it gets destroyed, then I think we do have the ability to die. But how long can we regenerate? I'm trying to figure that out.

TeenHollywood: Any weird fan encounters so far?

Hayden: I usually just get screamed at like 'cheerleader!'. I've almost gotten into a couple of car accidents because I'll be driving and people screamed at me from their passing cars. I'm not quite used to it, yeah. But I haven't had too many weird ones.

TeenHollywood: The show drops some big surprises, like that Nathan is your real dad. Are you just as surprised as the viewers?

Hayden: Yeah. I don't know. I didn't at all. We all kind of stopped guessing. We started guessing in the beginning like what would happen the next episode, but the show is completely unpredictable. The writers, too, are really unpredictable, and they like to leave us in the dark a lot of the times. So, no, I had no idea, but I was very excited. She's got kind of mixed feelings about Nathan. She wants to love him because he is her dad, but at the same time, she knows that the election is worth more to him than his own daughter, which she might find questionable. But I think that there's always room for building in more understanding.

TeenHollywood: Would you like to see Claire do more exciting rescue work to save people? More superhero stuff?

Hayden: I love doing that stuff. I'm kind of getting jealous of Milo a little bit because he's starting to shed more blood than me but I think we have to keep in mind though that the series is about ordinary people who have extraordinary abilities who are still trying to keep in touch with their lives. I don't want her to be like Kenny on 'South Park' (dying every week). Got to keep it fresh. I think at the moment we're really concentrating on the human stories that are going on with the show. There's more to concentrate on because it's not just about our powers. It's about mankind. It's about the world. It's about helping it before it's [too late]. If we don't do this, the world will be completely changed and it's not for the good.

TeenHollywood: Do you have a stunt double on the show? We hear you do many of your own stunts.

Hayden: I have - actually the same stunt double I had way back in the day on "Ally McBeal." She's the best. She's fun. She's very, very cool. And she's taught me a lot. She's kind of my coach and she leads me as well as teaches me, as well as our stunt coordinator but I do as much as they will let me do. They couldn't afford to break me so I'm thinking that they're going to be pretty careful. I did a tumble through a window.

TeenHollywood: Corny question but fun. Of all the other characters on the show, which superpower would you like to have?

Hayden: Well I'd like to be able to teleport. I would be at the meeting that I have to be at right now and then right after I'd be on a beach somewhere in a deserted island of the tropics. But [one power I don't want], I would hate to know what people are thinking. You could never have a relationship. It would go down the drain.

TeenHollywood: That's for sure. Not always good to know. Can you explain exactly what the bond is between Claire and Peter Petrelli other than the fact that obviously he saved Claire's life?

Hayden: Well he's my uncle. Uncle Peter. The people who discovered his ability, most of them want to push it aside. They don't want to do anything with it. When Claire and Peter met, it was kind of a weird sixth sense that they just knew each other and they knew that they felt safe around each other and like they belonged in a way. But, other than that, I have no idea, you know, they can do anything in the world. He's my uncle and we have this bond because we've kind of had this sixth sense about each other.

TeenHollywood: Can you talk about what is going on with your singing career and how you balance that with doing the show?

Hayden: Well hopefully, I'll be releasing an album in August and how do I balance? Actually, I'm on my way to go write a song right now with Matthew Wilder, so it's not a question of can you do this or can you do that. You can do it. You have to do it. You just do it but it's difficult trying to be a normal human being and balancing work and personal life and school. Thank God I'm done with school right now. It's time management. I've got some incredible people working with me on my schedule and stuff. So they make it pretty easy.

TeenHollywood: Your character has drawn more attention to cheerleading. More teens want to be cheerleaders. How do you feel about that?

Hayden: It's fun. It's very cool. I definitely have a new found respect for cheerleading after doing Bring It On: All or Nothing. It's a really tough job. Of all the people on the show, I'm kind of the cheerleader. It could be fun for them to incorporate it at some point because I can do a back (flip?). I'm very proud of it. I think the reason why they made Claire the cheerleader is because you needed her to be a normal teenage girl. You needed her to be down to earth in a way because our powers are so farfetched that you needed to ground it and by making her the cheerleader, it made her very relatable to girls and to teenagers. And I think she has become a really amazing role model and I think our show has become a really great metaphor for people. So I'm proud of it.

TeenHollywood: Do you plan on continuing your education now that you are out of high school?

Hayden: I do plan on continuing to learn. I believe in learning. I believe in expanding your mind. Do I see a whole four-year college in my future? I'm not sure. I'm more interested in really going in and taking classes and learning about things that I'm really excited to learn about. Things that really interest me like psychology or anthropology. If I wasn't on the show, I would 100% be going to a four-year college. I would 100% be throwing myself in there, and it's always been a dream of mine to go to college. But yes, I do plan on continuing to learn.

TeenHollywood: Do you have any other upcoming projects during the hiatus movie-wise?

Hayden: I just finished the movie with Julia Roberts and Willem Dafoe and Emily Watson, Ryan Reynolds called Fireflies in the Garden, which is an independent film that is directed by Dennis Lee and hopefully will be at Sundance. I think it's going to be an incredible film.

TeenHollywood: When Claire was hiding undercover, she had a boyfriend. Any chance of Claire getting a new boyfriend now?

Hayden: It's possibly in the future. They won't promise me anything, and I haven't heard or seen anything from this upcoming season so I can't tell. I think people want to see her being a normal teenage girl. They want to see her have boyfriends. They want to see the human side of her which is what normal teenage girls do. They date. They like boys. They kiss boys.

TeenHollywood: Speaking of boys, how is it being part of a celebrity couple? (Hayden dates "Laguna Beach" star Stephen Coletti). Can you have a private life?

Hayden: It's difficult, but it's sort of like having any other relationship. Being in the spotlight is difficult. We try not to take pictures. We try not to talk about it much because I feel when you put something like that out there, then you give people the right to formulate their own opinions about you. You give people the right to judge. So if you don't put it out there, if you keep it to yourself, then they have nothing to judge.

TeenHollywood: Does he ever visit your set to watch you work?

Hayden: Actually, when I go to work, it's kind of a work thing. It's not playtime, although it's fun for me. He's out doing his thing. I'm going to work. He'll come once in a while but, you know, it's not a frequent thing. I'm here to do my job.

TeenHollywood: Do you feel Claire has grown as the show goes on and do you identify with that?

Hayden: I really feel like I've really grown up with her in a way because the show is not like a movie where you have to do this huge character arc within two hours. It's a show that we've been working on for the past year and it's held a lot of growth for me as a person. She was more of a little girl in the beginning and it has now found her footing a little bit and is becoming less naive and more of a strong human being, a strong girl who's not scared to stand up for herself. I think in that way, she's definitely like me. I'm a Leo and I think I've been able to bring that into her, a little fire into her and so that's been pretty fun. She'll continue to grow. So we'll see what happens to her this next season.

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