Hayden Panettiere is driven in her new film.
In Amber alarmplays actress Jaq, a young woman whose daily commute with others goes out of control when she gets a notification on her phone and sees what she thinks is the car wanted in a child abduction case. She is determined to make sure.
The role comes as Panettiere is making a career comeback after a four-year hiatus from acting. She tells Yahoo Entertainment that serving as an executive producer on the feature film, a first for her, has been “empowering.”
“After I read the script, I almost felt an obligation to do it because it’s also kind of a PSA,” Panettiere says.[Emergency alerts] pop-ups on my phone too — sometimes they’re weather-related, but sometimes they’re Amber alerts — and I will never again not look around and do my due diligence to see if there’s anything I can report. And if everyone did the same, we’d [help] so many children.”
Despite not having much information to go on other than the make and model of a popular car — not even a license plate — Panettiere’s character is guided by her intuition as she and the driver she’s just met, Shane, played by Abbott Elementary School‘s Tyler James Williams, race to save a missing child. The film features car chases, amateur detective work and a kidnapping house so creepy it’ll make the hairs on your arm stand on end.
Panettiere says she would 100 percent be as fearless as her character. “Especially as a mother” to her 9-year-old daughter, Kaya, with ex-fiancé Wladimir Klitschko, “I can say I would do exactly what Jaq does.”
The Nashville And Heroes actress has found her niche in the film world after putting her career on hold to prioritize her well-being and deal with personal loss following the death of her brother. Her life has come under scrutiny, prompting her to respond to social media chatter over the weekend.
But her professional comeback continues. Last year she appeared in Shout VI, in which she reprises her role as Kirby Reed, and will next appear in A breed apart, another thriller that brings together the worlds of social media and survival horror. Giving her an extra shot of “confidence” on her path back was her role as executive producer on Amber alarm.
“I would absolutely love to do more,” she says of her EP role. “It felt empowering. I felt like I was looked at more for an opinion, and it was easier for me to voice an opinion.”
Panettiere, who appeared in her first commercial before she was 1 year old and has been on soap operas since she was 5, continues: “Growing up in this industry, it was very much, ‘Just use the right character and write the right text.’ Nobody wants to hear from a 10-year-old, a child, what their opinion is. … Now I’m at an age where people do listen, and being an executive producer gave me the power and the confidence to do that.”
Panettiere says that because of her background, it is also important for her to pay close attention to the young children she works with.
“I always feel protective of children on set,” she says. “My experiences as a child were not always pleasant. Not everyone likes working with children or has the patience to work with children. … Because of that experience, I have the ability to protect them, emotionally and mentally.”
She did exactly that in Amber alarm for young actress Ducky Cash, who played the missing girl Charlotte. Cash “was really scared” when she filmed scenes in the kidnapper’s house, Panettiere says. “When we walked in, I think we were all shocked by how well they had built the set and how scary it was to be in there.”
Although it’s just a movie, Panettiere hopes the film will inspire viewers to “change their mindset” and be vigilant when an annoying alert goes off on their phone at an inopportune moment.
“You hear stories about children who are kidnapped and years later finally find a way to escape,” she says. “Those are the lucky ones who are alive to tell the story. There are many who are not.”
Amber alarm will be in select theaters and on-demand from September 27.
