The relationship between Rayna James and Juliette Barnes on “Nashville” had Hayden Panettiere making off-screen apologies to her scene partner, Connie Britton.
Panettiere, who played Juliette, opened up to Entertainment Weekly during a September interview about the aftermath of the first scene she filmed with Britton, who portrayed Rayna, for the musical drama series.
“I remember the first scene that I ever did with her,” Panettiere said of Britton. “It was in (Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium), the backstage of the Ryman, and Rayna comes in and says something nice to me, and I am just so passive-aggressive to her.”
During the pilot, rising country music star Juliette is brought to the dressing room of Rayna, a veteran in the industry. Though she’s described as a fan of Rayna, Juliette brushes the singer off to introduce herself to Rayna’s producer. With Juliette and Rayna continuing to take jabs at each other’s age, appearance and relevance in country music, the scene sets the stage for a series-long feud.
After filming the scene, Panettiere said she “kept apologizing” to Britton “because that was our first experience together, and I didn’t want to step on toes,” adding, “Sometimes it gets real, very real, you know?”
In the same interview, Panettiere reflected on portraying the rivalry between Juliette and Rayna for six seasons.
“It was difficult to play that sometimes, that competitiveness, where we were in opposition and against each other,” Panettiere said. “And it’s not what we thought it was going to be, so it was very difficult to step in.”
Despite their on-screen tension, Panettiere called her “Nashville” co-star “amazing” and “so supportive” off set.
“Connie is just a class act,” she said. “She is so smart and so wise, and just being able to be on screen with her, I was honored. I think we kept each other grounded throughout the whole thing.”
“Nashville,” which made its Netflix debut Sept. 15, ran from 2012 to 2018 on ABC and CMT.
Panettiere previously opened up about another plot line on the series that was difficult for her to manage, given her own experience with the topic.
The actor spoke to Women’s Health in March 2023 about her character Juliette going through postpartum depression and struggles with motherhood on the series.
Panettiere welcomed her daughter Kaya in 2014 with her then-fiancé, Wladamir Klitschko. The couple later split in 2018. That year, Kaya went to live with her father in Ukraine after Panettiere signed custody papers amid struggles with alcohol addiction.
“They wrote that (Juliette) abandoned her child and went to a different country,” Panettiere explained. “And it was very difficult to go on set and to act out these feelings about these things that I was truly going through in my real life.”