When you look at Hayden Panettiere, you could easily think she was just another Hollywood actress, attending award shows in designer dresses and posting selfies on Instagram, but she really isn’t your normal Hollywood starlet, as becomes very apparent in the new issue of Cosmopolitan.
When the April cover star isn’t busy shooting her hit TV show Nashville (on which she plays the tough-but-vulnerable country singer Juliette Barnes), she can often be found campaigning in Ukraine with her fiancé Wladimir Klitschko and his brother Vitali, who is running for presidency.
“I spend a lot of time in Ukraine and I completely agree with what Wladimir and Vitali are fighting for; we want justice and democracy for Ukrainians,” she tells Cosmo.
Before Nashville, Hayden was best known for her role as cheerleader Claire in Heroes. However, when the series finished she admits the year gap between acting jobs made her nervous and question whether or not she would be able to continue. “Now I’m glad I had that time where I wasn’t cast,” she says. “It allowed that cheerleader image to dissipate. But it wasn’t just about being on TV; it was my personal life too – paparazzi followed me everywhere; I was under a microscope. One day you wake up and you’re known more for who you are outside of your career than what you do as an actor.”
Despite women around the world envying her looked, Panettiere confesses that she has body hang-ups, too. “There is a certain body image people perceive as ‘perfect’ – the tall, skinny, model types,” she says. “I don’t have that kind of body so I got criticised a lot for it. As a young girl, when I was already so harsh on myself, it made all my insecurities feel vindicated.”
Read the full interview in the April issue of Cosmopolitan.
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Posted by Claire Sharp.