“She was definitely one of my inspirations growing up and she was definitely somebody I looked up to,” the 18-year-old Heroes star says.
Hayden recently made headlines for her work to Save the Whales. An arrest warrant was issued for Panettiere in Japan after she and other activists paddled on surfboards into a cove in an attempt to protect dolphins facing slaughter from local fishermen.
“I grew up near the Hudson River in New York. I didn’t grow up in the water; I don’t surf. People think I surf because of the footage. I was just in a panic and happened to paddle really fast ? I was hauling butt!” she said.
Reflecting on the experience, she later told PEOPLE, “It caused a great amount of stir.” In a town where “people like to see young girls in Hollywood get arrested,” Panettiere said there’s been discussion of returning to Japan, but “we don’t have a reason why we would, and we don’t know of any good that could come of it at the moment… [but] I don’t mind getting arrested.”
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