Filmmaker Griff Furst, who directed Hayden Panettiere in one of her final films, revealed that her team discussed staging an intervention before her tragic death.
The director claimed the actress was “fighting to stay sober” while filming “A Breed Apart,” released in 2025, and that she brought her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Brian Hickerson, on set.
“When we wrapped, I stayed in touch with her team, and what eventually got determined was that she might need an intervention, and I was asked to participate. I said yes,” Furst claimed to his Instagram followersWednesday.
“That intervention did not happen, at least that I’m aware of,” he admitted. “I wasn’t leading the charge on it, it wouldn’t have been appropriate of me.”
The director said that since Panettiere’s death, people have been asking him about Hickerson, who was with the late star at the time of her death in Greenville, South Carolina.
“All I know about that is what we observed and wrote down at the time that it happened, with her boyfriend Brian Hickerson,” Furst shared. “Hayden’s mom said there was someone they had been trying to get out of her life for a long time and that he was with her the day that she died.
“I wasn’t in South Carolina, I don’t know what happened, but what I will say is my opinion, and it’s about what I saw on my own set, somebody fighting to stay sober and who deserved better company around them than what I observed.”
Furst directed the 2025 film “A Breed Apart,” in which Panettiere played a fictionalized version of herself, an actress caught in a deadly survival game on an island overrun by killer dogs.
“I was very lucky to work with Hayden. I wish she was still here,” he concluded.
On Sunday, paramedics responded to a call regarding a victim in “cardiac arrest,” and performed CPR for an “overdose,” according to a 911 dispatch call obtained by Page Six.
Emergency responders also tried to resuscitate the actress with “advanced cardiac life support,” but she was ultimately pronounced dead at 2:32 p.m. local time. She was 36 years old.
According to a police report obtained by Page Six, Brian, who was accompanied by his brother, Zach Hickerson, had shown officers a “bag of medication” she had been taking.
While it’s unclear what the substances were, the “Nashville” star’s hairdresser and good friend, Erick Orellana, exclusively told Page Six that Panettiere suffered from intense back pain in the months leading up to her death.
She’d also been candid in the past about her battle with addiction, previously telling People in 2022 that she “couldn’t live without” alcohol and opioids at one point.
Panettiere’s cause of death has yet to be revealed. As Page Six previously reported, her autopsy showed she had no “signs of trauma.”
The “Heroes” alum and Brian had flown from California to the south the day before she died.
The duo have been involved in an on-and-off relationship since 2018 and reconnected a few weeks before her tragic passing.
An insider told Page Six that Brian — who’s been arrested multiple times for domestic violence against her — “would always find a way to work his way back into Hayden’s life as ‘a friend,’” describing him as “a real jerk.”
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or text START to 88788.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).
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