Hayden Panettiere Called the ‘Scream’ Team Herself to Bring Back Kirby: ‘I Wanted to Be In It That Badly’

usmagazine.com:

Reprising a fan-favorite role! Hayden Panettiere will appear in Scream 6 as Kirby Reed, returning to the franchise after first appearing in the fourth installment in 2011.“I called them up myself and was like, ‘So, you guys don’t, like, happen to want to bring Kirby back, do you?’” Panettiere, 32, said during a Wednesday, July 6, appearance on Good Morning America. “I wanted to be in it that badly,” the Heroes alum added of her decision to contact the Scream production team directly.Panettiere, who did not appear in Scream 5, will be joined by Courteney Cox, who has appeared in all five Ghostface movies. “I did not die so yes, you will see me,” Cox, 58, told Variety in June. “Gale’s pretty strong.

She may not ever [die], but who knows!” she said of her character Gale Weathers.The Friends alum’s fellow Scream OG Neve Campbell will not be returning. “Sadly, I won’t be making the next Scream film,” Campbell, 48, said in a statement to Us Weekly in June. “As a woman I have had to work extremely hard in my career to establish my value, especially when it comes to Scream.

I felt the offer that was presented to me did not equate to the value I have brought to the franchise.”Panettiere’s return to the franchise comes after several years away from showbusiness.

The Remember the Titans actress recently opened up about her struggles with alcoholism and postpartum depression. She told Good Morning America that when things got hard, she turned to “the bottom of a bottle” for comfort.“I didn’t have any negative feelings towards my child.