#Hayden Panettiere Claims ‘Nashville’ Writers Pulled From Her Real Life for Storylines: “Very Traumatizing”

Hayden Panettiere has opened up about filming Nashville, saying it was “very traumatizing, because I felt like I was acting out my own life.”

The actress-singer, who has previously spoken about her battles with addiction, alcoholism and postpartum depression, played Juliette Barnes on the ABC series. Her character was a country music star who struggled with substance abuse.

Now, in a recent interview with The Messenger, Panettiere claimed that the writers for Nashville used elements and experiences from her personal life when creating Juliette’s storylines.

“Straight from the beginning, it was like, I’m dating a football player, [and then] Juliette dates a football player,” she said. “And then they turned her into an alcoholic. Then they turned to her leaving her daughter and going to this crazy [place] in Europe, and it was very obvious…”

The Scream VI actress continued, “They weren’t doing their homework. They weren’t creating new storylines. They were just looking at my life and going, ‘Oh, let’s just take what she’s going through and put our little spin on it.’ And then, ta-da! It’s done and done.”

Panettiere proceeded to explain how working 12- to 20-hour days on set started to take a toll on her mental health and overall wellbeing.

“I didn’t have time to take care of myself [and] to think about and go through the pain I was experiencing physically [and] emotionally. I just wanted to drum it out and watch mindless television and great shows,” she recalled. “Anything to keep my mind off of that because I knew that next day I was going to be back at it again. I was like, tear central. I don’t even think on a soap opera that I cried as much [as I did] on Nashville.”

The show ran for six seasons from 2012 and 2018.