Hayden Panettiere Takes on Horror in "Scream4" – TeenHollywood.com
Not that she didn’t have some horrible experiences as the un-killable cheerleader on TV’s “Heroes”, but handling Ghost Face with a feisty ‘tude was both fun and challenging for the young, blonde actress. At one point, in Scream4, her horror buff character Kirby spouts off a long litany of fright film sequel titles like she was born to it.
We’re at a trendy hotel on the Sunset Strip to hang with the cast of the comeback horror thriller that mixes two generations of actors and fans. Emma Roberts and Hayden are the “newbies” to David Arquette and Courteney Cox’s veterans of the long-loved Scream series. We’ve learned how Emma feels about the challenge. Let’s check in with Hayden who, today, wears her shorter blonde hair slicked back and is trendy in a black and white dress.
TeenHollywood: Your character Kirby is spunky and fearless. How similar to her are you?
Hayden: Well, I’d like to think of myself as 
those things, but it goes both ways. I was drawn to her because she’s not like anything that I’ve ever played before. She’s very dry and sarcastic. She’s got that tomboy aspect to her which I can relate to, but she’s a horror movie buff under it all which is not what you’d expect from her.
Then it’s a really cool element to her personality that’s unexpected and kind of clever. I can’t say that I’m the same in that way, but it’s a fun character to play.
TeenHollywood: What was it like working with the original cast of this film series and had you seen the original Scream movie before you did this film?
Hayden: I was seven when it came out and so I waited until a little bit later in life to experience Scream. It was something that I was a big fan of. It’s got that Halloween aspect with the masked person, but at the same time it’s got that very realistic aspect; the fear of somebody breaking into your house. That’s a terrifying thing.
But it was a great experience. (Working on this one), it’s always a little bit nerve wracking when you come into a family; something that was already established. They’d been through so much together. You really have to tread lightly on that and have respect for that and find your way into that group and where you fit in. But they were always great with that. They really had an interest in knowing us and including us and really 
made that effort and it made it a great experience.
TeenHollywood: In the film, you kiss a so-called Geek. How do you feel about that?
Hayden: But he’s cute geek. You see more geeks now with very pretty ladies. Why not?
TeenHollywood: You see Ghost Face on screen and it’s scary but how was it to work with the guy in the mask and costume on set where he is chasing you?
Hayden: It’s scary! You’ve got the horror masks nowadays and a lot of them are very gruesome and blood and scabs and this and that, but there’s something so scary about that mask. It’s so simple and even the painting that it’s based off of (The Scream by Edvard Munch) is just eerie. It just gets you in a simplistic, non-exaggerated way that can really scare you.
TeenHollywood: We hear that director Wes Craven Tweeted that he had Ghost Face scare you off camera. True?
Hayden: Yes he did! Well, we were doing a scene in the bedroom and we think he might be in the closet and we open the closet. He’s not there. Then all of a sudden he was there, but he wasn’t supposed to be there. There was this prop guy who scared me half to death and he disappeared and I didn’t see him until the next day.
He said, ‘Dude, I wanted to come back, but I felt so bad. You were so scared.’ So he definitely got me. You try to front like you’re all tough and then something jumps out of the closet and that was the end of the story.
TeenHollywood: Sounds kinda fun though. Have you ever scared anyone just for fun?
Hayden: I have a little brother. So, that’s a given and vice versa. I got it back from him as he got taller than me but it’s dangerous to scare someone. You see on ‘America’s Funniest Home Videos’, this guy pops up on the porch and another guy just nails him on the face. He’s apologizing afterwards, but never a good idea to scare people…. except in movies.