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Hayden Panettiere didn’t want to undermine Connie Britton IRL.
While her Nashville character Juliette Barnes’ rising country music career threatened that of Connie’s Rayna Jaymes, Hayden was admittedly concerned life would imitate art after her own billing on the series had “gone way up” following the pilot’s success.
“My character wasn’t intended to be the show’s star—not even close,” Hayden wrote in her memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning, out now. “That honor went to Connie, whose Rayna Jaymes was in the twilight of her career, facing a dramatic turning point thanks to yours truly. Juliette wasn’t necessarily Rayna’s enemy, but she was the antagonist.”
However, Hayden noted how she soon “went from maybe number five in terms of importance to nipping at Connie’s heels” on set, leaving her “deeply uncomfortable with this development.”
“I was 23 years old, and Connie was in her 40s with three Emmy nominations under her belt,” the Heroes alum continued. “This should have been her time to shine, and while it was in many respects, I was terrified of making Connie worry that I—not my character—was trying to compete with her.”