It’s been 20 years since Hayden Panettiere uttered one of the most memorable lines in the first-ever episode of “Heroes,” in which she played indestructible cheerleader Claire. When asked how her day was, she deadpans: “I walked through fire, and I didn’t get burned.”

It wasn’t a metaphor. The character had saved a man from dying in an inferno and walked away unscathed. Her mother, unaware of the literal nature of the comment, compliments her daughter for what she interpreted to be a profound comment about life. The moment lands with equal parts heaviness and humor, because then-16-year-old Panettiere nailed her delivery.

Executive producer Tim Kring recalled that Panettiere, whose shocking death last month at age 36 spurred an outpouring of tributes, had an “extraordinary gift” for landing emotional beats.

“She could toggle between doing these very emotional scenes and whatever was going on in her personal life,” Kring said. Between the takes, “she would be texting somebody and then the second that they’re ready to roll camera, the phone would go back into her pocket and she’d be sobbing in the scene over and over again.”

Kring recalled that her costars would often stop to watch her film her scenes and “marvel” at her ability to turn extreme emotions on and off like a light switch.

In many ways, the pilot, which aired on NBC on September 26, 2006, is a time capsule for genre television, proving at the time that network TV could keep pace with the audience’s calls for more ambitious storytelling. For Kring, the episode is also a rich bank of fond memories, all of which have taken on a deeper meaning since Panettiere’s death, which was ruled accidental earlier this week by the Greenville County Coroner’s Office in South Carolina.

In a stacked cast that included Zachary Quinto, Masi Oka and Milo Ventimiglia, all playing ordinary people from different parts of the world whose lives intertwine after they discover they have superpowers, it was obvious from the early days of the show that Panettiere’s real-life abilities were something special, Kring said.

Like many have recalled in the weeks since her death, Panettiere had a gift, even if, like her “Heroes” character, it at times came with isolating pressures.

Pivotal support

The first season of “Heroes” was a hit, bringing in over 14 million viewers on average, a towering number for the pre-streaming era when network TV ruled the airwaves.

The series catapulted Panettiere to household name status as the show’s success took hold, and the pressures of being NBC’s most sought after new star came with heavy baggage. She may have been playing someone unbreakable, but, she said in 2006, “at the end of the day, I am still a normal teenage girl who’s making mistakes still in her life and trying to find where I am as a person and growing into an adult.”

Later, she would remember the “Heroes” set as a safe haven from the turmoil she was facing in her personal life, including a fractured relationship with her mother.

“My saving grace is that I couldn’t be messy while on-set and working,” she said in 2022. But, off-set, she said “things just kept getting out of control. And as I got older, the drugs and alcohol became something I almost couldn’t live without.”

Panettiere developed some pivotal relationships with her costars, forming one of the strongest bonds with her on-screen dad played by Jack Coleman. Their real-life chemistry quickly became apparent to Kring, who came to realize that Claire’s relationship with her father would become the central touchstone of the entire show, a sentiment he stands by two decades later.

Kring said the cast collectively felt a certain “responsibility” to look out for Panettiere. The actress acknowledged this herself in an interview just a few months before her death, saying that the cast “really kept me grounded at a very pivotal time in my life.”

“Child actors have often troubled relationships at home, and I don’t think it’s any secret that there was some of that with Hayden,” Kring said. “I think we all naturally kind of built a little bit of a wall around her and felt very protective of her.”

Panettiere died last month in South Carolina from a toxic mix of fentanyl and other drugs, authorities said earlier this week.

Dozens of her former castmates shared tributes in the days after and several of those who worked with her on “Heroes” even came together for a “deeply emotional” reunion to celebrate Panettiere’s life. In a poignant tribute he posted on Instagram when Panettiere died, Coleman touched on witnessing the challenges that she faced, all while serving as a source of joy on set and being a role model for his own daughter who is close in age to Panettiere.

“I’ve loved Hayden since day one of the pilot of Heroes,” he wrote. “We laughed a lot. That shining face, that megawatt smile, that wasn’t just for the camera. That was her. She glowed.”

It’s typical to audition several actors for each available role during the casting process, but Kring struggled to remember if anyone else had been in contention to play Claire. “In my mind, there’s nobody. I can’t remember a single other person auditioning,” he said.

It was “undeniable from the minute that you met her,” Kring recalled, that she was meant for that role.