Freddie Prinze Jr. almost quit acting after a difficult experience on the set of I know what you did last summerthe film that helped launch his career.
The actor recalled the conflicts he had with director Jim Gillespie that made filming the 1997 slasher a “miserable” endeavor in an interview with TooFab – but said he was grateful Gillespie was a ” asshole” because it prepared him “for all the little morons”. in business.”
Prinze Jr. claimed that Gillespie preferred Jeremy Sisto for the role of Ray Bronson, but the studio and writer Kevin Williamson pushed to cast him instead. “There was no passive aggression, which I hate. He was very direct [with] the fact that ‘I don’t want you in this movie,'” Prinze said. “So when it’s your first job and you hear those words, it just destroys you, man.”
Everett-Collection Freddie Prinze Jr. in “I Know What You Did Last Summer”
Prinze said Gillespie would give him “psychotic grades” (“Don’t leave your mouth open. You look stupid when you do that”) and “made it a point to single me out every time”, excluding him when he gathered the other actors to provide notes before filming. “It was very difficult to wake up in the morning – or in the afternoon, because we shot a lot of nights – and go to work with the right attitude,” he said.
The actor shared that he nearly quit the film after a “near-death experience” while filming on a motorboat for the horror flick’s finale. “I almost got on a flight and went home. I was done. I had had enough,” he said. “They had broken a ton of union stuff that they shouldn’t have had, like union rules. All kinds of stuff. And I just felt like if I wasn’t wanted here, fuck it. He there are other things I can do. I dropped out of Cordon Bleu to make this movie. I’m going to be a chef, that’s what my mom wanted me to be anyway.
“I wanted to fight this guy two or three different times,” he said of Gillespie.
The support of fellow stars Ryan Phillippe and Sarah Michelle Gellar, who would become his wife, contributed to this otherwise miserable experience, Prinze said. But he is also fully aware of the film’s positive aspects. “I’m not upset because that movie kickstarted my whole career,” he said. “I wouldn’t have anything I have without this movie. I wouldn’t have my wife, I wouldn’t have all the other movies I’ve done.”
Jesse Grant/Getty for Paramount+ Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr.
While it was a “struggle to get the job done every day”, Prinze is “eternally grateful to Jim for being such an asshole because I haven’t met one like that since”, he said. declared. “I’m sure he’s a hero in someone else’s story. I’m sure he helped someone else and loved him. But for me, he vented a lot of frustration on me he was a first time director, he didn’t have a lot of time, he didn’t have the budget he wanted, he didn’t have the actor he wanted and he didn’t know how to deal with that frustration.”
EW has reached out to Gillespie’s rep for comment.
EW confirmed last month that Prinze and co-star Jennifer Love Hewitt were in talks to reprise their roles for a IKWYDLS following. Further details are unknown since the project is still in its early stages, but Jennifer Kaytin Robinson (Revenge, A good person) is attached to direct. The original film followed four friends accidentally bonded after they knocked over a stranger and dumped his body in water. When they reunite a year later, they receive a threatening letter from someone with knowledge of the incident and are soon terrorized by a hook-wielding murderer.
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