Freddie Prinze Jr. says it was ‘a struggle to finish work every day’ on ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ set
By Dan Heching, CNN
Freddie Prinze Jr. says that his time on the set of “I Know What You Did Last Summer” — the 1997 slasher film that served as one of his first-ever jobs in Hollywood — was a “miserable” experience.
The “She’s All That” star appeared in a video interview with TooFab published on Tuesday, in which he revealed that “It was a struggle to finish work every day” while working on the movie.
Prinze Jr. said the film’s director, Jim Gillespie, didn’t want him in the movie, adding, “when that’s your first job and you hear those words, it just wrecks you, man.”
The actor said he struggled with overly critical and “disrespectful” notes on his performance, including one he’ll “never forget”: “Don’t leave your mouth open. You look stupid when you do that.”
“It was very difficult waking 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.
Gillespie appeared to have a different recollection when looking back on the production for the film’s 20th anniversary in 2017, telling Digital Spy at the time that he advocated for the actor to get the role.
“Nobody wanted Freddie; they thought he was too soft, he wasn’t muscular enough, so Freddie probably screen-tested four or five times,” Gillespie told the publication. “He got to the point where he was saying, ‘I’m done’, and I really had to plead with him to stick with it because I wanted him. I thought he was going to be great with it.
CNN has reached out representatives for Gillespie and Prinze Jr., for comment.
Nevertheless, Prinze Jr. said he’s glad to have done “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” calling it “the hardest job that I’d ever done, and I’m just glad I got it out of the way that early.”
He also met his future wife, actress Sarah Michelle Gellar, while working on the film. Gellar played a local beauty queen who gets wrapped up in the murder cover-up at the center of the film.
“I wouldn’t have any of the things I have without that movie. I wouldn’t have my wife, I wouldn’t have all the other movies I’ve done,” he said.
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