Director Griff Furst, who worked with Hayden Panettiere before her death, sees parallels between the actress and late Uptown Girls star Brittany Murphy.
“[Hayden] made me think of the similarities to Brittany Murphy, just in the sense that I made a movie with her about a year before she passed, and she too was a brilliant, incredibly gifted woman who got sucked into a dark place,” Furst, 44, said in an Instagram video on Monday, August 24.
Murphy, who was best known for her breakout role as Tai Frasier in the 1995 teen comedy Clueless, died in her Los Angeles home at age 32 in December 2009 from untreated pneumonia combined with severe iron-deficiency anemia and multiple prescription and over-the-counter drug intoxication. Her death was ruled accidental. Five months later, in May 2010, Murphy’s husband, Simon Monjack, also died from acute pneumonia and severe anemia. (Furst was Murphy’s costar in the Lifetime movie Tribute, which aired in April 2009.)
“I’ve seen scores of people who have lost to substance, and on their way down, their loss was amplified by the company that they kept,” Furst continued on Monday, seemingly referring to Murphy’s husband, who denied that drug use had contributed to her death.
“These tragedies seem to always be preceded by an identifiable pattern, which is the reason that I’m talking about this right now, because it’s in the spotlight, and it’s a moment where people, I think, are willing to take an honest assessment of the people that they care about and maybe break through and help somebody that feels trapped,” Furst concluded.
In the caption, the filmmaker added, “Gone but never forgotten, Hayden♥️.”
Hayden’s father, Skip Panettiere, confirmed the Heroes alum’s death on August 16. She was 36.
“It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden. She was an incredible light and a force of nature who brought immeasurable love and joy to all who knew her — and to the millions who watched her onscreen,” Skip told Us in a statement at the time. “We ask for privacy as our family takes time to process this unimaginable loss.”
The Greenville Police Department and Greenville County Coroner’s Office in South Carolina confirmed that officers responded to reports of an “unresponsive female” at an apartment complex, later identified as Hayden, and a possible “drug overdose. (Hayden was open about her struggles with drug and alcohol addiction prior to her death.)
An autopsy found “no signs of trauma that would have contributed” to Hayden’s death, the coroner’s office told Us. The cause and manner of her death “remain pending further investigation and the completion of additional studies.”
Furst worked with Hayden on her 2025 horror-comedy film A Breed Apart. One day after her death, the director took to Instagram to claim that the Nashville alum was “not OK” on set.
“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,” he recalled in the August 17 video. “I didn’t think much about it, and so I left set, and I walked over to greet her and her boyfriend, Brian [Hickerson]. He opened the door. Hayden was incredibly sweet and gracious and excited to work, but she was not OK.”
Furst has also claimed that Hickerson, who had dated Hayden on and off since 2018 and admitted to domestic violence during their relationship, displayed controlling behavior while on set with the This Is Me: A Reckoning author. Hickerson was with Hayden when she died, leading to speculation about his potential involvement, though he has not been formally accused of wrongdoing.
“Hayden’s death remains under investigation, and it is important to allow that investigation to proceed,” Hickerson’s attorney Sloan Ellis told Us on Thursday, August 20. “As has been publicly reported, police confirmed there were no signs of foul play. Out of respect for Hayden’s loved ones and the ongoing investigation, there will be no further comment at this time.”
