“I get word from the movie’s security team who picked her up from the airport that something was off,” Furst said.
He initially dismissed the concern and went to greet Panettiere and Hickerson. Furst referred to Hickerson as her boyfriend, although other accounts have described the pair as on-and-off partners or exes. Their relationship status at the time of her death had not been publicly confirmed.
“Hayden was incredibly sweet and gracious and excited to work, but she was not OK,” Furst said.
The director declined to provide details. He added that, after working on more than 100 movies, he believed the atmosphere around her was unusually troubling.
“She really was incredible,” he said. “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.”
Her final coworkers noticed a change
Justin Chatwin, who worked with Panettiere on her final movie, Sleepwalker, offered a similar account in an August 17 interview with People. He said she seemed different from the person he had known earlier in their careers.
Chatwin, who said he has been sober for 15 years, believed her difficulties extended beyond the pressures of that particular production.
“I could tell she was struggling, and I was like, ‘I don’t think it’s this movie,’” he said.
Neither Furst nor Chatwin claimed to know what caused Panettiere’s death. Their comments describe her condition on separate sets, not the medical circumstances of August 16. That distinction matters, particularly while the official investigation is unfinished.
The accounts do, however, echo subjects Panettiere addressed herself. Her 320-page memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, was released on May 19 and covered addiction, postpartum depression, domestic abuse and the effects of entering show business as a child.
Panettiere began modeling before she could walk and later received two Golden Globe nominations for Nashville. In a May interview with NPR, she said revisiting her history had reopened painful experiences, but added: “I’m healing, and I’m OK with my scars.”
Why Brian Hickerson is part of the scrutiny
The police report places Hickerson and his brother, Zach Hickerson, at the Greenville apartment where Panettiere died. Authorities have not accused either man of causing her death, and police reported no signs of foul play.
Hickerson’s presence has nevertheless drawn attention because of his history with Panettiere. The Associated Press reported that he previously pleaded no contest to two counts of injuring a spouse or partner. He served jail time and received four years of probation, along with requirements to attend anger-management classes and Alcoholics Anonymous sessions.
Three days before Panettiere died, a Los Angeles judge rejected Hickerson’s request to have those convictions reduced to misdemeanors.
Panettiere’s estranged mother, Lesley Vogel, later told NBC News that Hickerson had repeatedly “enabled” her daughter and was someone the family had long tried to remove from her life. That is Vogel’s allegation, not a police finding about the death. The redacted report has revealed little about Hickerson’s account or Panettiere’s medications, leaving a gap that cannot responsibly be filled with assumptions.
Her family focuses on what Kaya will remember
Panettiere shared an 11-year-old daughter, Kaya, with former fiancé Wladimir Klitschko. In an August 18 statement, the boxer acknowledged both her career and the personal difficulties she had described publicly.
“She built an incredible career through immense talent, while also facing the darker sides of a very demanding industry,” Klitschko wrote. “Nothing will erase the times we shared or the place she had in our lives.”
He also promised to preserve Panettiere’s memory for their daughter.
“To our daughter Kaya, I will always speak of her mother with respect,” he said, “and make sure she remembers the person she was.”
Her father, Skip Panettiere, called her “an incredible light and a force of nature.” Furst used strikingly similar language when remembering the performer he saw on set, saying her talent remained visible even when reaching it had become more difficult.
Those tributes sit beside unresolved medical and investigative questions. Until toxicology results and a formal cause of death are released, the clearest account is also the least dramatic one: Panettiere died unexpectedly, people close to her had seen her struggling, and officials have not yet explained why.
