Hayden Panettiere's daughter Kaya may be a fire sign, but she was born a water baby.
"When I was pregnant I spent every hour not on set in the pool in my backyard in Nashville swimming around," the actress told E! News' Francesca Amiker in an exclusive interview. So when her little Sagittarius arrived in December 2014, "she came out loving the water."
And that's just one of the interests Panettiere shares with her 9-year-old mini-me—"But tall," the 5-foot Leo noted—adding that Kaya, whose dad is 6-foot-6 former world heavyweight boxer Wladimir Klitschko, also inherited her love of horseback riding.
So much so that she was ready to gallop from a very young age, climbing aboard her big stuffed hippo and pretending she was in the race while watching (and rewatching, over and over) her mom's 2005 film Racing Stripes, in which Panettiere played a plucky teen determined to ride a trained zebra voiced by Frankie Muniz to victory.
"She's knows what's going to happen," Panettiere said, marveling over Kaya's ability to maintain suspense, but, "she's going to town, got the hippo by the ears. We're like, 'She's going to ride off one day!'"
Kaya has since graduated to jumping competitively (on horses, not hippos) and, though obviously she's got a creative gene, Panettiere doesn't see signs of an aspiring actor in their midst.
"I get asked all the time, 'If she wanted to be a singer or actor, what would you say?'" the Heroes alum said. "I look at her, that's not her thing. She's not into performing. She's all into horses."
In that respect, Panettiere continued, "she's so me. But she's also a little bit more reserved. She's very independent, she loves to do her own thing, loves to be normal."
In fact, one of Kaya's biggest beefs at the moment with her father is that she doesn't get to go to school in a car or on the bus with other kids, but has to go by boat.
"'Not just any boat, it is a big boat, this amazing boat!'" Panettiere said, slipping into her ex's Ukrainian accent as she recounted how he described the situation to her. "'And not just any captain, like the best toughest captain there is!'" Meanwhile, Kaya sat stonily nearby while her parents talked, Panettiere miming the child's arms crossed, in full pout mode.
But Panettiere chalks up Kaya's aversion to that routine—they suggested she invite friends to sleep over so they could all take the boat to school one morning—to her desire to be "treated like everyone else."
And she admitted that she found it "soothing" that her child would prefer to be "like every other kid."
Because having been in show business since her start as a baby model at 8 months old, Panettiere knows all too well the stresses of the spotlight. She recalled how, as a child actress, she thought it would be the work that was hard, but really it was going back to school feeling out of the loop and removed from her peers.
And she did face some bullying, which she dealt with in an unusual fashion: Kids would pass her mean notes, and she didn't throw them away. Instead, she stashed them under her mattress. And when curiosity kicked in and she read them, she didn't understand why they'd write such nasty stuff.
"It's so confusing what girls come up with," Panettiere said. "It was hard to be not included."
Asked if her own school experience influenced what she was teaching her daughter about being her best self, she replied, "Absolutely."
But while Kaya is happy as a budding equestrienne, and mother and daughter love riding and swimming together whenever they can (Klitschko has had full custody since 2018 and lives overseas), acting and delving into new characters is also Panettiere's happy place.
After her six-season run on Nashville ended in 2018, Panettiere took a long break before returning to the big screen last year in Scream VI, her reprisal of the role of Kirby Reed having been teased in 2022's Scream with a photo revealing her character survived the bloody events of 2011's Scream IV.
As much as anything, however, she missed engaging with fans during her hiatus from acting. And after hearing from people who have appreciated her candor about the issues she's faced over the years, she was inspired to sit down for "A Conversation with Hayden Panettiere," public events she'll be hosting Feb. 22 in Glenside, Pa., Feb. 23 in New York and Feb. 24 in Washington, D.C.
The idea, she said, is to have an "intimate, uplifting, encouraging and motivational" discussion about her career, overcoming challenges, activism and the entertainment business as she gears up for more acting in the near future.
And yet, while she's excited for the various irons she has in the fire, there's also another form of expression she hasn't been able to get out of her mind.
Inspired by artists such as all-around "badass" Pink and storyteller extraordinaire Taylor Swift, Panettiere is sure she's got at least an album's worth of songs in her based on her own highs and lows.
"I will always regret if I don't give singing a shot," she said. "I feel like singers have this beautiful way of getting to tell their truth and not getting in trouble for it. They can write a song and vent through that song."
Even in the deepest of interviews, she explained, there are some things you just can't say. But in song form, she continued, you can not only spill your guts, but listeners will hear what they want—whether it was written about a bad breakup or parents or a school bully—and connect to a song however it suits them.
Suffice it to say, she found the Eras Tour most enlightening. And Panettiere—who did her own singing on Nashville—has the material.
"I would love an album where I would sing about what I've been through up until now in my life," she said. "If I do an autobiography, then there might be some things I can't talk about or would be better off for me not to touch on there. But I can sing the s--t out of it." She laughed, adding, "I can sing it to death."
And Panettiere would be in esteemed company. Scroll on to see more actors who've made the jump from set to the recording studio:
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