Hayden Panettiere “couldn’t figure out” why she didn’t make friends with her Nashville co-stars.
Hayden Panettiere starred on the hit TV show
The 36-year-old actress played Juliette Barnes in Nashville, the musical drama series between 2012 and 2018, but Hayden didn’t become friends with many of her co-stars.
Hayden – who appeared on the TV show alongside the likes of Robert Ray Wisdom, Charles Esten, Eric Close, and Connie Britton – explains in her new memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning: “We were all new faces in a strange town, yet we weren’t growing into friends.”
Hayden remembers the dynamic being very different from her time on Heroes, the hit sci-fi show.
The blonde beauty remembered: “The entire cast and crew scattered. For example, Connie went home to her son, and Charles Esten, who played country musician Deacon Claybourne, drove away to spend the weekend with his wife and three kids.”
On the other hand, Hayden recalled spending some quality time with Jonathan Jackson, who played singer-songwriter Avery Barkley, and his family.
She said: “He lived with his wife, Lisa, and their kids about twenty miles south of Nashville in Franklin — a town that’s home to dozens of country music stars —and they sometimes invited me over for dinner. Not wanting to make the long drive home, I often crashed in their guest room, grateful for a warm bed and a good friend who’d offered it to me.”
Hayden ultimately spent a lot of time without her co-stars in the bars of Nashville.
The actress – who has previously been open about her struggles with addiction – shared: “There were hairdressers and bartenders and young lawyers, most of whom were single and all of whom were looking for a good time. I’d broken up with Scotty [McKnight], so I was right there with them. We had pool parties and nights out drinking and dancing, with an emphasis on the drinking part.
“Nashville was a drink all night, crash into bed, then take a nip of the hair-of-the-dog-that-bit-you in the morning kind of place. I was twenty-three, and I could roll with it. I also have the tolerance level of an elephant, so hard partying didn’t hurt me. Alcohol didn’t become my enemy till after [her daughter] Kaya was born.”
