Hayden Panettiere Reveals the Lesson Wes Craven Taught Her on Scream 4: 'He Was So Spectacular'

Hayden Panettiere is revealing what it was like working with the late Wes Craven on Scream 4.

via: EW

Hayden Panettiere takes a little piece of her Scream 4 director, Wes Craven, with her everywhere she goes.

"I love the fact that I got to work with Wes Craven. He is amazing," Panettiere tells Entertainment Weekly in an interview conducted in September. "I'm so sad that he left us far before his time. But he had an incredible impact on my life and on me as an actor, which I now utilize when I go into other projects."

Panettiere made her entrée into Craven's cinematic meta-slasher universe in 2011, over a decade after the release of the last entry in the franchise that the horror maven kicked off in 1996. She would return in the flesh for 2023's Scream 6, after providing a voice cameo to the previous year's fifth franchise entry, simply titled Scream. Craven died in 2015, but Panettiere says his memory endures in everything she does, thanks to the impact of some sage advice.

When asked about the biggest pearl of wisdom Craven passed along, Panettiere recalls "memories of the timing of things. So, when you're sitting, he would be like, 'This is going to feel very slow. It's gonna feel like you're moving in slow motion, but when you put the music in and you edit it together, you have to build up that anticipation and you have to hit it right on the nail on the head. You can't be a moment over. You gotta be right on the nose.'"

The director behind not only the Scream films but the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise would tell Panettiere to "'Move slow, or move slower,' and I would be like, 'Geez, this feels like I'm moving at the pace of a snail.' But watching it afterwards," she remembers, "after he put it together and edited everything, he was so right."

Panettiere speaks of Craven with the highest esteem. "He was so spectacular. I mean, he taught me also how to be on set. I would love to direct at some point in my life, and he was such a fabulous — his spirit, the person that he was, how kind he was. He really was an amazing example. He set an amazing example for how I would like to be as a director, as anybody on set, but as a director if I hopefully direct in the future," she says, adding with a mischievous smirk, "You don't have to be an ass!"

Panettiere's career began in childhood; her first role, in the 1998 Jennifer Aniston-led romantic comedy The Object of My Affection, came when she was just 9 years old. Despite being only 36, she has nearly three decades of acting experience to her name, and in that time, has landed numerous memorable parts, from the indestructible cheerleader Claire Bennet on Heroes, to the rebellious country star Juliette Barnes on Nashville.

Still, Scream's tough and snarky Kirby Reed holds a special place in her heart.

"I love that character. She is so powerful, and she is such a tomboy," she says. "I felt like I got to take the parts of me that people didn't know existed and put them into her. Like, I am that edgy tomboy who sticks to her guns."

To Panettiere, "you can't really define" Kirby, who plays a major role in saving the day in Scream 6. "You can't put your finger on on her. She loves guys, she loves girls, she loves the world that she lives in. She is sassy. And I got to bring all of those parts of me that I felt like I had to hide for years, I think, out in her, because I was so terrified that I was going to offend somebody."

Scream 7 is just around the corner, though Panettiere's participation hasn't yet been confirmed.

Last month gave fans their first look at franchise star Neve Campbell's return to the series after she sat Scream 6 out amid a contractural dispute. In the official synopsis released by studio Paramount Pictures, the latest entry sees "a new Ghostface killer emerges in the quiet town where Sidney Prescott has built a new life. Her darkest fears are realized as her daughter becomes the next target. Determined to protect her family, Sidney must face the horrors of her past to put an end to the bloodshed once and for all."