Hayden Panettiere is taken aback by the fact that it has been two decades since she portrayed cheerleader Britney Allen in the third film of the Bring It On franchise—and since she met Rihanna. "Oh God, does it really?" she replied to Entertainment Weekly when informed about the film's anniversary this summer. "I was just with one of my dear friends, Evan Ross, and we were reminiscing about how long we've known each other. Remember the Titans came up and I thought in my head, 'Oh my God, it's been 26 years.' So now you're telling me Bring It On has been how many years? My head's in my hands."
Panettiere added, "I'm having a moment. I cannot believe I've been around—I still don't feel like a full-grown adult!" The 36-year-old actress starred in Bring It On: All or Nothing, six years after the original film starring Kirsten Dunst was released.
"I loved the passion that people had for Bring It On. When fans would come up who loved that movie, they would freak out—have a physical, visceral reaction to me that I had never seen before," Panettiere explained. "It's so satisfying as a performer, doing anything, anyone giving you that much love, it's incredible for your soul. And Rihanna! I met Rihanna when she was 17 and I was 16 on that."
Rihanna, then known for her debut single "Pon de Replay," made a cameo as herself to judge the cheerleading competition and perform. "I run to her all the time. And the first thing she asks is, 'Oh, how's your mom?'" Panettiere told EW. "I met a lot of very cool people on that project, plus anything having to do with sports or being athletic, I’m in."
Panettiere’s mother, Lesley Vogel, worked closely with her daughter during the first two decades of her career. The actress details the moment that she informed her mom that she would no longer like to have a professional relationship in her book, This Is Me: A Reckoning.
"All I wanted was to discover what it was like to have a 'normal' mother–daughter relationship, and that dynamic didn’t involve contracts, producers, boho tops, or drinking wine at industry parties," Panettiere wrote at the time she was starring on Heroes. "Mom picked up her purse, clenched her jaw, and looked straight at me. 'You owe me,' she answered. … I knew I’d done the right thing, but I sensed something in me had died."
The twosome are currently estranged, with Vogel making it clear to Page Six that she wasn’t happy with her daughter detailing their personal ups and downs in her book. "The craving of drama and punitive action is traditional and to be expected," she said in part.
Panettiere replied in a statement of her own. "When people ask me about the relationship, if there's any hope for the future, I always say that I leave that door cracked open in case because who doesn't want a relationship with their mother? You pray for it and you hope it eventually comes, but she slammed that door pretty hard in my face," Panettiere said. "She has very clearly prioritized herself, which I should not be shocked by. I can't imagine how she feels about doing what she did and saying what she said. I don't know how she lives with that."
