Hayden Panettiere. [Photo Credit: CNN Entertainment]
It’s been 20 years since Hayden Panettiere uttered one of the most memorable lines in the first-ever episode of “Heroes,” in which she played indestructible cheerleader Claire. When asked how her day was, she deadpans: “I walked through fire, and I didn’t get burned.”
It wasn’t a metaphor. The character had saved a man from dying in an inferno and walked away unscathed. Her mother, unaware of the literal nature of the comment, compliments her daughter for what she interpreted to be a profound comment about life. The moment lands with equal parts heaviness and humor, because then-16-year-old Panettiere nailed her delivery.
Executive producer Tim Kring recalled that Panettiere, whose shocking death last month at age 36 spurred an outpouring of tributes, had an “extraordinary gift” for landing emotional beats.
Kring recalled that her costars would often stop to watch her film her scenes and “marvel” at her ability to turn extreme emotions on and off like a light switch.
In many ways, the pilot, which aired on NBC on September 26, 2006, is a time capsule for genre television, proving at the time that network TV could keep pace with the audience’s calls for more ambitious storytelling. For Kring, the episode is also a rich bank of fond memories, all of which have taken on a deeper meaning since Panettiere’s death, which was ruled accidental earlier this week by the Greenville County Coroner’s Office in South Carolina.
In a stacked cast that included Zachary Quinto, Masi Oka and Milo Ventimiglia, all playing ordinary people from different parts of the world whose lives intertwine after they discover they have superpowers, it was obvious from the early days of the show that Panettiere’s real-life abilities were something special, Kring said.
Like many have recalled in the weeks since her death, Panettiere had a gift, even if, like her “Heroes” character, it at times came with isolating pressures.
