Hayden Panettiere Opens Up About Lack of Support from Nashville Co-Stars During Difficult Period

Hayden Panettiere has given a candid account of her experience working on Nashville, revealing that her co-stars largely failed to check in on her during a challenging time in her life.

The actress played Juliette Barnes on the ABC series, which ran for several seasons beginning in 2012. Her character's struggles with substance abuse mirrored Panettiere's own personal battles, creating an emotionally complex situation on set.

In an interview with Us Weekly published Wednesday, Panettiere addressed how deeply her character's storyline affected her. "No. That was the shocking part, that very few people seemed to care," she said when asked if her co-stars recognized how difficult it might be to relive her trauma through her work. "They cared if the way it was affecting me had a negative impact on filming or on the show. But there was very little concern about my mental and emotional state."

Panettiere explained that she had developed a coping mechanism that may have masked her struggles from those around her. "I was also very good at hiding my feelings. One of the things I was really good at when I was younger was jumping in and out of the character between action and cut," she reflected. "But with this character, I turned into Juliette Barnes. Juliette Barnes was me. I didn't know where Hayden started and Juliette ended. Very few people took the time to come up to me and ask if I was OK. I don't know that they wanted to know."

The Nashville cast included Connie Britton, Clare Bowen, Charles Esten, Jonathan Jackson, and Sam Palladio, among others. Panettiere has previously described the overall experience of making the series as "traumatizing."