Filmmaker Griff Furst, who worked with Hayden Panettiere on the film A Breed Apart, said Brian Hickerson bragged to him that he could make the late actress “do anything” during the making of the film.
First, 44, went to Instagram on Monday, sharing a story about a disturbing interaction he claimed he had with Hickerson during the filmmaking process.
“In the first scene where I direct Hayden, we’re in the middle of a camera rehearsal, and I’m sitting behind the monitor and he’s about 15 feet away on set,” Furst said. “And I feel Brian hanging on my shoulder, and he leans in, and he says to me, ‘Let me know what you need from her, I can make her do anything.’
Furst said his “immediate reaction to that was, ‘What the fuck?’
“But what I said was okay, because what else do you say? Because you’re in the middle of a rehearsal, and someone you didn’t hire says that to you.”
The Daily Mail has contacted representatives of Furst and Hickerson’s attorneys for comment.
Filmmaker Griff Furst, who worked with Hayden Panettiere on the film A Breed Apart, said Brian Hickerson bragged to him that he could make the late actress “do anything” during the making of the film. Panettiere and Hickerson pictured in December 2018
Furst took to Instagram on Monday and shared a story about a disturbing interaction he claimed he had with Hickerson during the filmmaking process; Pictured in 2024
The comments came more than a week after the Heroes actress was found dead on August 16 at the age of 36 of a suspected overdose at an Airbnb in Greenville, South Carolina, where she had been traveling with her short-term boyfriend Hickerson, a resident of the state.
Hickerson, who had a turbulent romance with Panettiere and once went to prison for abusing her, was at the scene with his brother Zachary when she was pronounced dead, according to a police report. Her autopsy found “no signs of trauma” that “would have contributed to death.”
In Monday’s clip, Furst described Hickerson’s alleged comment as “a direct attempt at control,” adding that it was “presented as this bizarre power flex.”
He added: “We could all see it and we all wanted to help, but noticing a red flag and then physically removing someone from a toxic situation are very different things.”
Furst said he doesn’t believe Hickerson “completely wanted this tragedy to happen, but the dynamic they found themselves in was noticeably destructive.”
He said Hickerson “is just not the kind of person you would want directing the life of a colleague, or a friend, or a mother, or a daughter.”
Furst drew parallels between Panettiere and the late actress Brittany Murphy, with whom he worked on the 2009 film Tribute prior to her death at age 32 in December 2009.
“It reminded me of the similarities with Brittany Murphy, just in the sense that I made a movie with her about a year before she passed away,” Furst said.
Furst drew parallels between Panettiere and the late actress Brittany Murphy, with whom he worked on the 2009 film Tribute prior to her death at age 32. Pictured weeks before her untimely death in December 2009 in LA
The director of one of Hayden Panettiere’s last films claimed that her entourage asked him to participate in an intervention for her that ultimately fell through; Panettiere pictured in 2022
He called Murphy a “brilliant, incredibly gifted woman who was sucked into a dark place with the partner she chose,” referring to the late Simon Monjack, who died at age 40, about five months after Murphy passed away.
Furst said he’s seen “dozens of people who have done that.” [been] lost in content [abuse]and on the way down their loss was increased by the company they kept.
‘These tragedies always seem to be preceded by a recognizable pattern, and that’s why I’m talking about this now, because it’s in the spotlight.
The filmmaker said Panettiere’s passing traces are “a moment when people … are willing to make an honest assessment of the people they care about, and maybe break through and help someone who feels trapped.”
Furst claimed last week that Panettiere’s team asked him to participate in an intervention for her, which ultimately failed to materialize.
Furst, who helmed A Breed Apart with his brother Nathan, said she “fought to stay sober” while he worked with her.
Panettiere died at the end of a long battle with alcohol and opiates. She spent eight months in rehab in 2020 after contracting jaundice and being informed by her doctor that “if I didn’t stop drinking, I would be dead in five years,” as she wrote in her memoir.
To dedicate herself to recovering from her personal demons, Panettiere voluntarily gave up custody of her now 11-year-old daughter Kaya in 2018.
Panettiere’s death marks “a moment when people … are willing to make an honest assessment of the people they care about, and perhaps break through and help someone who feels trapped.” Pictured in 2022 in LA
Kaya was handed over to the care of her father, Ukrainian boxer Wladimir Klitschko, with whom Panettiere maintained an amicable co-parenting relationship.
In an Instagram video posted Wednesday, Furst said he “advocated for Hayden” to triumph over her addictions, but that as a “producer or director” on the set of their film, “no matter how certain you are that an actor or crew member is in a bad situation, you don’t have the evidence or the time to verify it.”
He argued that he was left with the measures to “adjust planning, collect internal reports and appoint a person responsible to ensure that the person receives the best possible care.”
Furst then claimed that he stayed in touch with “her team” after filming ended “and what was ultimately determined was that she might need an intervention, and I was asked to get involved and I said yes.”
But “that intervention did not take place, at least not that I know of,” Furst said. “And I wasn’t in charge of that. It wouldn’t have been appropriate for me.”
He recalled that Panettiere “brought” Hickerson to the set of A Breed Apart, adding that “the only thing I know about that is what we observed and wrote down at the time it happened with her boyfriend Brian Hickerson.”
Furst added, “I wasn’t in South Carolina. “I don’t know what happened, but I will say it’s my opinion and it’s only about what I saw on my own set: someone who fought to stay sober and who deserved better company than what I saw.”
On Monday, the day after Panettiere’s death, Furst had posted an Instagram video with a more detailed account of Hickerson’s on-set appearance.
The actor and filmmaker explained that he met Panettiere “about ten years” before they made A Breed Apart “and I knew she was insanely talented, so when she signed on to do this picture we were filming, I was excited.”
He recalled hearing from the film’s security team, who picked her up from the airport, that something was wrong. And I didn’t think much of it, so I left and walked over to greet her and her boyfriend Brian. He opened the door and Hayden was incredibly sweet and friendly and excited to work, but she wasn’t doing well.”
Panettiere is depicted in A Breed Apart, a horror comedy that Furst co-starred with his brother Nathan
Furst declined “to go into the details of why that was, but after working on over 100 films and seeing just about everything, it was pretty clear that she wasn’t doing well, and the energy in her room was quite dark.”
Panettiere first spoke to Hickerson in 2018, when she was deep in her struggle with alcohol and opioids and had recently split from Klitschko.
Over the course of their turbulent relationship, Hickerson had to deal with several domestic violence charges, and in 2021 he spent 13 days in custody for wounding her.
After she was pronounced dead Sunday, Hickerson allegedly handed authorities a “bag of medications” she had taken, the police report said.
Although his brother was “very emotional” during attempts to revive Panettiere, Hickerson allegedly remained unmoved until she was pronounced dead, according to the police report.
The Daily Mail exclusively revealed that Panettiere was also the subject of romance rumors with Zach, a pastor, for a brief period in 2019.
Zach and Panettiere were spotted walking hand-in-hand in New York in September, after which a witness described them as looking like a “real couple.”
Panettiere’s memoir provides a searing account of her history with Brian Hickerson and also details her fraught equation with her mother Lesley Vogel, who was her manager as a child star but from whom she eventually became estranged.
Vogel characterized their split as a “recent event” dating back to “around mid-September” last year, while speaking to the Daily Mail in May.
“We all have the right to choose our path in life,” Panettiere’s mother said at the time, adding: “After twenty years of trauma, chaos and addiction [and] accusations, I felt like I had no choice but to choose no contact.’
Panettiere’s memoir provided a searing account of her past with Hickerson, and also detailed her fraught equation with her mother Lesley Vogel; Vogel and Panettiere pictured 2007
Furst’s revelations came as Justin Chatwin, her co-star in her latest film Sleepwalker, reflected on how “lonely” she seemed to him during filming last year.
“We hit it off and it was a great shoot, but it was about domestic violence and it was a topic that maybe hit close to home because she mentioned it,” Chatwin said. People. “She told me about a lot of things.”
He commented, “I could tell she was having a hard time, and I thought, ‘I don’t think it’s this movie.’ There’s a handful of women I’ve worked with that I really liked, and I really enjoyed working with her, but I also know that she was very lonely.”
The Daily Mail contacted Chatwin’s representatives for further comment.
Chatwin had met her at the height of her fame on Heroes, which she starred in from 2006 to 2010, but noticed a distinct difference in her state of mind by the time they worked together on Sleepwalker.
“Hayden seemed different when I met her this time than when I met her in the early years. I have been sober for 15 years, so I know this world of addiction, and Hollywood – that is necessary, and that is necessary from childhood,” he said.
“I’m sure everyone else will say, ‘Oh, she’s great.’ She’s such a sweet person on set, “because she was,” Chatwin noted.
“But we’re trained to be actors, so we act on set, you know? And she is sweet. She had a beautiful heart. But we were trained to keep going, and I really enjoyed spending time with her because she expressed that, and she was authentic with me about her life and she opened up about her struggles with addiction,” he revealed.
‘And who knows where it comes from? Is it from Hollywood? Does it come from home? And often it is both.’
