Hayden Panettiere and Brian Hickerson had ‘dark’ energy on movie set last year, director recalls

Hayden Panettiere and on-again, off-again boyfriend Brian Hickerson had a “dark energy” on the set of one of her final movies, according to the director.

Director Griff Furst said in an Instagram video Monday that the actress, who died on Sunday at 36, was “not OK” during her time filming “A Breed Apart” in 2025.

“When she signed on to do this picture that we were shooting, I was psyched,” he recalled. “I really wanted to work with her. So I’m on set, and I get word from the movie’s security team who picked her up from the airport that something was off.”

Furst, not “think[ing] much about” this, went to greet Panettiere — and found her with Hickerson.

“I walked over to greet her and her boyfriend Brian,” he remembered, seemingly referencing Hickerson, whom Panettiere has been linked to since 2018. “He opened the door. Hayden was incredibly sweet and gracious and excited to work, but she was not OK.” 

Furst did not want to “get into the details” with his social media followers but said, “Having worked on over 100 movies and seen just about everything, it was pretty clear that she wasn’t OK.”

He described “the energy in her room” as “pretty dark.”

Furst added, “She really was incredible. She was a force to be reckoned with, and when we did this movie, that was definitely still in there. But there was something else in there, too, that made it a lot harder to reach.”

Panettiere was with her partner and his brother, Zack Hickerson, when she died of an apparent overdose in South Carolina.

Zack told police the Golden Globe nominee was his sibling’s “girlfriend,” according to the police report.

We hear the “Nashville” alum kept her friends “in the dark” about her reconciliation with Brian two weeks ahead of her passing.

“If you’ve gone through some dark times with people, and spoken about it, then there can be shame if you get back together with that same person,” a source told Page Six.

Brian, notably, was arrested multiple times for domestic violence during his relationship with the former child star and pleaded no contest to two felony counts of injuring a spouse or girlfriend in 2021.

An insider shared, “Brian would always find a way to work his way back into Hayden’s life as ‘a friend.’”

Another of Panettiere’s past colleagues — Justin Chatwin from her last movie, “Sleepwalker” — made headlines for noticing her “struggling” on set in 2025.

The actor claimed he could tell the former soap star was “lonely,” noting she “seemed different.”

Gayle King, who interviewed Panettiere in May about the addiction struggles documented in her “This Is Me: A Reckoning” memoir, said the same on Monday.

“It was hard when she was here that day,,” the “CBS Mornings” host recalled. “She was clearly still struggling.”

If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or text START to 88788.

If you or someone you care about is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).