Hayden
Panettiere:
Earning Her “Stripes”
by Lynn B.
 At
15, petite blonde actress Hayden Panettiere, has already done it all;
commercials, t.v., voice over and films. Panettiere was the voice of Princess
Dot in A Bug’s Life and Suri in Dinosaurs. You
might have caught her in the dramatic “Tiger Cruise”, a tale
of Sept 11th on The Disney Channel. She was the ideal lovable tomboy in
Remember the Titans and complains that she has often been cast
in roles requiring her to dress more boyishly. Even her role as Channing
Walsh in the new adventure comedy Racing Stripes, presents the
pretty actress in jeans and freshly scrubbed face.
When we interviewed
Hayden before the holidays in Beverly Hills, it was a far different story.
The teen looked very hot in make-up, mauve sweater, tank top and jeans.
There were diamond studs in her ears and her long blonde hair was swooped
back into a ponytail. No more boyish roles for this friendly gal! As she
sat down with us to talk about riding a zebra, working with “talking”
animals and hanging with the in-crowd while filming in South Africa, the
actress noticed our “moose munch” holiday candy and took us
up on the invitation to dive in.
Hayden: Hey,
you guys are lucky. You’ve got food.
AGW: It’s
cookies and moose munch.
Hayden: When
I came back from Canada I brought one of my friends moose droppings. And
then I brought him beaver droppings. And he loved me.
AGW: Have
you noticed that the roles for the cute little kids have stopped coming
and there are more hot young girl roles?
Hayden: You
know, it was funny, I was complaining a few years back. I’d say
‘Mom, I always play guys, these guy characters’. Like in Remember
the Titans. I loved the movie, don’t get me wrong, but I always
played these tomboys. I’m like, ‘I’m sick of being dressed
as a boy. I want to be a girl’. Now I’m a girl so it’s
fun. Yeah!
AGW: Stripes
is so cute. How hard was it to ride the zebra?
Hayden: It
was great. It was so fun because, you know, zebras are very different
than horses. They each have their own personalities and they’re
a little more temperamental. You’ve got your nice ones and you’ve
got your horrible ones and you’ve got your totally crazy ones. They’re
very slow animals actually unless you stick a lion behind them and even
then they won’t run in a straight line.
AGW: Guess
they are trying to ditch the lion. So what did you do?
Hayden: They’ve
got really tough mouths, so it was me sitting there and you would have
to tug, whereas with a horse you can just sort of guide them along. Zebras
walk in zigzag lines and you would have to tug to get them to stop, like
you would have to go like this (she demonstrates). Some of the ones that
we had were so sweet and so well trained it was amazing. Nobody ever expected
it.
AGW: Frankie
(Muniz, who is the voice of lead zebra Stripes) says he thought they were
supposed to be vicious.
Hayden: [laughs].
Frankie wasn’t even in South Africa! Frankie was in a booth with
a microphone. I was riding them. I raced four baby zebras and eight adults.
Some of them do bite, mind you. We had babies that did bite, but they
were just babies. That’s what they do. They kick and they bite,
you know. But they’re very sweet.
 AGW:
So, how did you get them to behave for you? Did they compete for your
attention?
Hayden: The
babies, Andrew, Zoey and Columbia bond with specific things, usually with
zebras but in this case it was a human. They were like a pack. I was supposed
to spend every day with them because they were supposed to bond with me,
and I tell you that was like a nightmare. If I would go stand next to
Andrew, Zoey would run in between us and turn around and kick me. And
she would keep me as far away from Andrew as possible. She would literally
put her head in and go (demonstrates) bam. She’d kick me and I’d
be running, screaming in the opposite direction. But, she learned to love
me.
AGW: You
did all the stunt riding. How cool.
Hayden: Yeah.
It was the biggest high ever. Riding as fast as you can. I was on set
and I was invited to be an Ambassador for the ICUN Red List Collection
with Nelson Mandela and Queen Noor (an endangered species organization)
and it’s amazing. I got this big red book of all the gorgeous pictures
of these animals that were in danger and it was so sad seeing them. They’re
just such gorgeous animals.
AGW: It’s
been tough for people in South Africa.
Hayden: Yeah.
People have no idea what is going on in that country. It’s only
been eleven years since Apartheid, and they’ve cleaned it up incredibly
well. And just going there and seeing it even in the condition that it’s
in, even better than it was, it’s a shocker. I really wanted to
be a part of South Africa forever because it was my home and I adored
it.
AGW: Was
living there while filming an adventure?
Hayden: I
was fourteen getting there and I had to drive through the boondocks, to
like nowhere. Like if your car broke down, that’s it. God knows
what would happen to you. And it was amazing. I was almost in tears the
first night I got there because Nottingham Road was like deep country.
I’m sitting there and it’s like, oh my God, there’s
nothing to do. It’s like our big high was going to Porky’s
Bar and Grill. We were there every night. That was what I loved to do.
‘Oh daddy, please can we go to Porky’s? Oh mommy I need to
go to Porky’s tonight.’
AGW: But
it grew on you, huh?
Hayden: Yeah.
I never wanted to leave. I went into Cape Town and Johannesburg and I
went on safari. I was crying looking out the window when I was taking
off in the plane with this forlorn face and I couldn’t believe that
I was leaving, because, you know, you leave there thinking this is South
Africa. This is a once in a lifetime thing. It’s not like I’m
going to be here tomorrow. It’s not like leaving LA or leaving New
York where you’re going ‘I can be here next week if I want
to.’ And it was so sad and I wanted to go back, and I miss it so
much because I had all my friends and stuff.
AGW: Are
teens different there? At least the ones you met?
Hayden: Not
at all. Their accents are different but that’s about it. They have
these two schools in Nottingham Road, one was called Hilton and one was
called Michael House, and these schools were known for the most gorgeous
guys in like all South Africa. You would go there and your jaw would go
(she opens her mouth). My mom would be (opened mouth). It was amazing.
I would like, go gaa gaa. Total eye candy. You were just sucking it all
in. And I remember going to Hilton and the girls, the sisters of the boys
there going ‘let’s go to Michael House.’ I thought ‘Oh
my God. You mean there’s more of them?
AGW: So plenty
of cute guys. Did you get to know any of them?
Hayden: We
went to this Italian restaurant called La Lampara and there was this long,
long group of guys and it was like total fate that we met them because
it was a birthday party. Somebody spilled their wine all over the table
so we moved a table closer to them. Wow. I wound up meeting all of these
gorgeous guys. Andreas was one of the guys I met and ended up becoming
the best of friends with. He invited me to the school and it was absolutely
amazing. They all speak about five different languages and it’s
like ‘I feel really dumb’. They say if you have the accents
you get more points. If you have an English accent you get more points
and less points if you’ve got like a New York accent so I’m
sitting there trying to talk like this (attempt at an English accent)
‘Nice to meet you’. It was quite an experience.
AGW: Are
you still in touch with Andreas or any of the kids?
Hayden: It’s
hard from here because from South Africa, you can use your cell phone
and call the states. Here you have to get a calling card too; a totally
different set-up on your cell phone to call there. So, I have to go out
and get a calling card and call him.
AGW: Is it
just a coincidence that you were on Frankie’s show “Malcolm
in the Middle”?
Hayden: Yeah
a total coincidence. It was the funniest thing when I first saw him after
I came back from South Africa. I was like ‘I rode you’! ‘For
five months!’ and the director is going (looks a bit disapproving).
(laughter). I’m like ‘no, no really I did’. My mom (over
in the corner) is going ‘that doesn’t sound right’.
But, no, no, no, when he was a zebra!
AGW: Is your
role (on Malcolm) going to be recurring now? She was a huge hit the first
time.
Hayden: Yeah.
It’s a fun show to do. It’s relatively quick in and out and
it’s a very different character because usually when you’re
blonde and that sort of thing they tend to categorize you. It’s
a great role to get out of that categorizing; frizzy hair and glasses.
My friends all see me and go‘you’re ugly! You’re hideous,
ewww’.
AGW: You
also filmed Ice Princess, about figure skaters. Talk about that.
Hayden: Yeah.
It’s coming out in March. I had to learn skating from scratch. It
was fun. It was like ‘okay, I just got off of horse riding. Now
I’m gonna fall again on the ice’. It was exciting. I could
make my way slowly across the ice. That’s about it. I hated ice
skating. I couldn’t stand it. You couldn’t get me on the ice.
My brother loves hockey and so he would sit there and say ‘hey come
on out’ and I’d go ‘no. It’s cold. I don’t
want go there. Are you crazy’?
AGW: Who
do you play in Ice Princess?(the film also stars Michelle Trachtenberg)
Hayden: I
play this girl Gen and I’m a figure skater. (Michelle) is a brain
who is very good at school who has dreams of becoming a figure skater
and I am a figure skater who has dreams of staying in school long enough
to pass Math so I can actually have a future. My mother, who is played
by Kim Cattrall, who is a sweetheart, sort of was living her dreams through
me because she was supposed to go to Calgary for the Olympics and something
happened. I overcome my fears of her and finally tell her and fulfill
all my dreams. Gen’s a very cool character because, in the beginning,
she gets to play sort of the nasty girl. And then she evolves and you
see all these layers. The audience gets to see that she’s not just
a stuck up snob. She’s actually a real girl who has real dreams.
AGW: Is your
bro an actor too?
Hayden: Yeah.
He’s ten. He plays the voice of young Stripes in this movie. I did
“Tiger Cruise” with him which was a Disney channel film that
came out in August. He doesn’t look like me. He’s got sort
of the same face but he’s dark. He’s got dark hair and dark,
dark brown eyes and dark skin. He didn’t play my brother and nobody
batted an eye because he didn’t look like me.
AGW: Do you
have pets at home?
Hayden: Yeah.
It’s kind of hard to have them when you’re traveling so much.
But I have three cats which I’m deathly allergic to. But, I still
love them. I had guinea pigs and I had a bird and hamsters and fish. I
really need to get back into riding seriously.
AGW: What
kind of music are you into?
Hayden: I’m
actually singing in a lot of the films that I’m doing. I’m
singing hopefully in Ice Princess. I sang in “Tiger Cruise”.
I did the theme song for it and I’m really enjoying that right now.
I’m not looking to follow in the steps of anybody but I do enjoy
singing. I’m not going to let people think I’m the next Hilary
Duff. But, I listen to Killers, I listen to Train, I listen to David Gray.
I listen to Linkin Park, I love them. I listen to Eminem and I listen
to things like Rachel Lampa. There are so many.
On her way
out she reaches for the Moose Mix. “I’m stealing more”.
pictures courtesy
of and copyright 2005 Warner Bros. |
