Hayden Panettiere "desperately needed" to take time out of work.

The 35-year-old actress rose to fame as a teenager when she starred on the superhero series 'Heroes' and remained on screen consistently for a number of years but as she returns to the spotlight in new film 'A Breed Apart', admitted that her time away meant she could explore new things upon her comeback.

She told UsWeekly: "I had taken four years off. Didn't know or plan to, but that's just the way it panned out.

"And I desperately needed it.

"It happened organically. The things that I've done before … it was just different enough that I felt like it was a blank canvas that I could paint onto anything I wanted on.

"And now try to take my career in a direction that I wasn't able to go in before."

Hayden now feels "much more solid and grounded" within her career and wants to continue "evolving" as time goes on.

She said: "I feel much more solid and grounded in this world, the crazy world that we live in.

"It's healthy to continue to keep evolving as a person. Which I always try to do to keep reinventing ourselves and learning more things about ourselves and our wants and needs and dislikes and all the above.

"But I've never been this version of me, I've never been as OK with being who I am without feeling the need to apologize for anything. I feel like I've finally earned the right to an opinion."

The 'Scream' star also admitted that when it comes to new new role in the upcoming thriller, it was the chance to be "physical" on screen that made her want to commit to the project,

She said: "The biggest thing that drew me to this character was the action part of it. It's fun. You get to be physical. I get to use my athleticism.

"And also working with cameras and at the same time, and it's just like this perfect dance that has to be created. It adds a whole other element to what we do."