Hayden Panettiere plays convicted killer Amanda Knox in an upcoming Lifetime movie -- but, despite requests from Amanda's parents to make it happen, Hayden has never met her.
"I really wanted to meet her," Hayden told press today while promoting "Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy," adding "it didn't work out because of the scheduling."
"She [Amanda] only has two days of the week that she gets visitors and I would have had to go with her family," says Hayden of Knox, who is currently serving a 26-year sentence for the murder of roommate Meredith Kercher. Hayden also says she didn't want to "impede" on Amanda's time with her family.
Panettiere tells TooFab she didn't meet with Kercher's parents before filming either and that "many things that went into the decision ... it wouldn't have been fair to meet one family and then not meet the other, so it just didn't work out like that."
Knox, who maintains her innocence, is appealing her conviction -- and Hayden has no insight into whether the woman she plays actually committed murder.
"I feel like it was just this constant pull and tug and this back and forth, 'Oh she's innocent, oh she's guilty, oh she's innocent, oh she's guilty' -- and to the point where, at the end, having spent as much as I did on it, I truly, I have no idea."
The movie airs Monday, February 21.
