Director says he was asked to join intervention before Hayden Panettiere's death

Director Griff Furst has revealed he was "asked to participate" in an "intervention" for Hayden Panettiere months before her death on Sunday.

Furst, who directed one of Panettiere's final films, A Breed Apart, has reflected on the actress's struggles with addiction and revealed that her team asked him to take part in an intervention after they wrapped filming on the 2025 movie.

Taking to Instagram on Wednesday, Furst reflected on the impact growing up in the entertainment industry can have on child actors.

"When I think about this, it's not just a Hayden story," he began in the video. "I grew up on movie sets and I know a whole lot of child actors very well, and I understand what it does to somebody to grow up in front of a camera before they're old enough to consent."

The director continued, "And Hayden started acting when she was 11 months old, so I was rooting for Hayden to beat the addiction that she spoke about openly and publicly in her memoir."

Furst added that he remained in contact with Panettiere's team after filming on A Breed Apart had wrapped and became involved in conversations about staging an intervention, although it ultimately never took place.

"What eventually got determined was that she might need an intervention and I got asked to participate," he stated. "I said yes, and that intervention did not happen, at least not that I'm aware of, and I wasn't leading the charge on that and it wouldn't have been appropriate for me."

Panettiere was found unresponsive at an apartment in Greenville, South Carolina, on Sunday afternoon. She was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency services after resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful. She was 36.

The Nashville star's death is currently under investigation, although police said there were "not any signs of foul play or suspicious circumstances".

It has since been reported that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is "assisting" with the investigation.

Previously, editors at TMZ claimed that Naloxone, a drug used to reverse an opioid overdose, was found at the apartment where Panettiere died.