source: canada.com

Hayden Panettiere would like to point out that her currently filming movie role doesn’t exactly make for three cheers.

Sure, the 18-year-old became a household name as an indestructible baton-twirler in NBC’s paranormal ensemble drama Heroes, and before that, she was the lead cheerleader in the 2006 sequel Bring It On: All or Nothing.

But as the title character in the high-school comedy I Love You Beth Cooper, Panettiere notes that her character’s cheers are all in the back story.

“When somebody asked me if I was playing a cheerleader again, I was like, ‘No, I’m not — I’m not getting in the outfit,’” she says during a break at a Vancouver soundstage. “Pfft, they got me in the outfit and they got a still picture.”

Director Chris Columbus’s movie takes five classmates from different backgrounds through the day and the night after their graduation. Newcomer Paul Rust plays the gangly valedictorian who turns his speech into a declaration of love for the popular girl who doesn’t know he exists, launching them and some classmates on a series of misadventures.

Panettiere, Rust and three co-stars have most of their scenes together, meaning the past six weeks have been spent mostly on locations together.

The petite actress, who has long been active in the international campaign to change the Japanese fishing practices that threaten dolphins, has been a familiar face during off-work visits to Stanley Park’s Vancouver Aquarium, many of whose dolphins have been rescued from Japanese nets.

“I’ve spent quite a lot of time at the Vancouver Aquarium,” she says, adding she arranged to meet visiting Heroes co-star Jack Coleman and his family there on one visit. Aquarium staff recognized her and took her on a behind-the-scenes tour.

“With the dolphins, they actually let me go down and play with them,” she says.

That visit also included a close encounter with a sea lion. “They took her out of the cage. She’s huge. She’s probably 1,000 pounds. She got on my lap, but she was very aware of the fact that she was much bigger than me, so she would get on my lap and she wrapped her head around my neck. It was the most incredible experience.”

On the job as Beth Cooper, Panettiere sports a strapless purple prom gown that must have her wishing she was back in a cheerleader costume as she hikes the top up. The one-day, one-night plot means no costume changes for any of the cast.

“Uggh, I want to burn this dress now — I used to like it,” she says, giving it another hike. “When you’ve been wearing the same outfit for three months . . . my friends make fun of me, ‘In the beginning you were like, “Look at my dress, isn’t it so pretty.”‘”

She’ll finally gets out of that purple frock by late May, when she’s due back on a California set for the third season of Heroes. The show took some shots from critics for its meandering second season, but Panettiere’s pumped.

“Oh my gosh, I just read the first episode and it is phenomenal,” she says. “I think it’s better than the pilot for the first season . . . it’s back to that action.

“They’ve figured out how to do it, they figured out how to go back to the first season. They’ve learned the concoction.”

Posted Hayden, Press |