‘Nashville’ Star Hayden Panettiere Says Show Was ‘Very Traumatizing’

Hayden Panettiere scored a huge success in her professional life as one of the stars of Nashville, but in a new interview, she says the show was "very traumatizing" for her to film.

Panettiere starred as country star Juliette Barnes on Nashville, which ran from 2012-2018. The actor has been open about her struggles with alcohol, opioids and post-partum depression, and in a new interview, she tells the Messenger that the writers on the show borrowed heavily from her personal life for her character's storylines, which made filming especially difficult.

"Straight from the beginning, it was like, I'm dating a football player, [and then] Juliette dates a football player," Panettiere says. "And then they turned her into an alcoholic. Then they turned to her leaving her daughter and going to this crazy [place] in Europe, and it was very obvious … They weren't doing their homework. They weren't creating new storylines. They were just looking at my life and going, 'Oh, let's just take what she's going through and put our little spin on it.' And then, ta-da! It's done and done."

Though the years she spent on Nashville were very rewarding, career-wise, Panettiere says the show was 'very traumatizing, because I felt like I was acting out my own life."

Panettiere is set to embark on a three-city tour titled "A Conversation With Hayden Panettiere," which she hopes will encourage others who are struggling in the same way she has.