Hayden Panettiere details recent conversation with Kristen Stewart about “Panic Room ”recasting

Sarah HearonWed, May 13, 2026 at 12:00 PM UTC

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Hayden Panettiere; Kristen Stewart
Credit: Getty(2)Key Points -

Hayden Panettiere details meeting Kristen Stewart for the first time, two decades after the Twilight star replaced Panettiere in the 2002 movie Panic Room.

The casting change was made after Nicole Kidman dropped out of the David Fincher flick and Jodie Foster stepped in.

"[Stewart] could not have been nicer," Panettiere tells EW.

Hayden Panettiere and Kristen Stewart just reflected on their sliding doors moment for the first time.

“I don't think I've told anybody this, but I actually got to hang out with Kristen Stewart for the first time in my life the other night,” Panettiere tells Entertainment Weekly while chatting about her upcoming new book, This Is Me: A Reckoning. “I brought [2002 movie Panic Room] up and we talked about it and she could not have been nicer.”

Panic Room, directed by David Fincher, was originally set to star Nicole Kidman, with Panettiere playing her daughter. When Kidman dropped out of the film and was replaced with Jodie Foster, the part of Sarah was recast with Stewart.

Stewart in 'Panic Room'
Credit: Everett

Panettiere reveals to EW that the Twilight star was “aware that they had let me go and that she was coming in,” calling it “very sweet” to hear that she knew the lore.

“I don't think I told her that it was in the book, so it'll be a surprise for her, but I just thought that was so funny that I just have had that experience with her,” Panettiere adds.

In her memoir, Panettiere reflects on losing the role.

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“Every project that I've done, just like everything we do, every action has a reaction,” she tells EW. “Every project that I have done has led me to do other projects. And if even one project was different and I had done anything differently, who knows where I would be.”

A decade later, Panettiere did end up crossing paths with Kidman again — but not on screen — during the run of the ABC series Nashville.

“It's a small world. She lived with [now ex-husband] Keith [Urban] in Nashville and I teased them because they took my personal assistant, who was incredible, but they couldn't have been lovelier,” Panettiere says. “I got to see Keith live and just seeing Nicole watching him, she was in a completely different element. She was just genuinely dressed down and herself. So even though I haven't gotten a chance to work with her, I've at least gotten a chance to run into her a couple times.”

The cover for 'Hayden Panettiere: This is Me'

Panettiere’s book, out May 19, is filled with stories about her career, from Remember the Titans to Nashville, but also covers her personal ups and downs with depression, substance abuse, and domestic violence.

“I always hoped that I would write a book and I'd be able to share all my stories because truth is stranger than fiction. You couldn't write the things that have happened in my life,” she tells EW. “[But when] I got this opportunity, I was like, ‘Am I too young to do this?’ And then I thought through my life and I was like, ‘I might be young, but my life has been entertaining enough that I have plenty to share.’”

This Is Me: A Reckoning is available May 19.

on Entertainment Weekly

Original Article on Source

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