Strapless dress, Max Mara ($1,290). The Shoppes at The Palazzo; maxmara.com. Necklace, Vhernier ($38,700). vhernier.it. Gold and gemstone bangles ($695–$3,650) and turquoise ring ($2,400), Ippolita. Neiman Marcus, Fashion Show; neimanmarcus.com  

Hayden Panettiere may have turned 21 just a few short months ago, but she’s not wasting any time showing the world that she’s ready to be a grown-up. “I’m getting to the age where I don’t want to play high school anymore,” says Panettiere, one of the stars of the sequel-slash-franchise-reboot Scream 4, as well as February’s Lifetime docudrama Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy. “I feel like I’m finally getting to that place where I can play those in-their-early-20s roles, which are the ones you can really sink your teeth into.”

After playing a number of perky pompom bearers in films and on television, the young star of Heroes is well aware of the public’s perception of her, and she’s eager to offer a lot more than an ear-catching cheer. “I still have to get over that hump of being seen as the cheerleader,” she says, “and as very, very young.”

Her first step toward that goal was taking a highprofile role in Scream 4, out April 15, in which she plays a decidedly different sort of teenager. The film relaunches the popular horror franchise that originated 15 years ago. About her character, Panettiere says, “She’s kind of dry. She’s got that sarcastic edge to her, but underneath she’s this horror-movie buff, which you don’t expect. She’s cool; she’s a cool character. I keep coming back to the word ‘cool,’ because even though it’s such a simple word, it kind of embodies her.” Not surprisingly, her Scream 4 director, Wes Craven, characterizes Panettiere as a lot more like her character than some might expect. “She’s definitely not an introvert, but not a cheerleader, either,” Craven says. “Hayden grabs the screen. She has tremendous energy, and radiates fun and intelligence in equal measures.”

 
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Craven also says that her considerable experience made it easy for her to integrate herself into an ensemble packed with newcomers like herself and franchise veterans like Neve Campbell and Courteney Cox. “Hayden is supremely professional and extremely well prepared,” he says. “Technically, she is on top of everything. She was never anything but a joy to work with.”

Stretching Beyond
Despite the urge to appear more mature onscreen, the kid in Panettiere can’t help but come out when she describes the communal atmosphere of the production. “It was like summer camp,” she says. “Neve [Campbell] had this cottage that she rented, and she would invite everyone over. We’d spend the weekend there all together and barbecue, that kind of stuff.” The close-knit collaboration of the cast paid off. “It’s like a giant game of Clue, where you have to sit there and guess who the killer is,” she says. “There are all these twists and turns, and you think you know who it is, and then you find out it’s not them.”

In spite of her fearlessness about jumping into the fourth installment in a hallowed horror franchise, she admits that it isn’t as easy to take risks with her career as it used to be. “To be honest, I think it’s gotten harder,” she says. “There’s a certain comfort and carelessness that you have when you’re younger that makes things so easy, and it comes so naturally. Especially getting off Heroes, where I played the same character for four years. You have to try not to doubt yourself so you can play another character again. But I still enjoy it so much, and I know that when you’re nervous, that’s when the amazing things happen.”