In a desperate attempt to ditch the all-American blonde cheerleader image, Heroes star Hayden Panettiere has signed up to play a brunette in a new movie.

The 18-year-old beauty, who plays a fair-haired cheerleader Claire Bennett in the hit sci-fi TV series, recently completed filming Fireflies In The Garden about a dysfunctional family in which a dark-haired Panettiere stars opposite Julia Roberts.

And she is hoping the dramatic role and darker locks will be enough to convince audiences of her versatility.

She says: "I wanted to kill the cheerleader image, so I changed my hair colour and wore no make-up.

"It's been very hard for me in the past to have people see me in any other way. They can be very narrow-minded."