In 2021, when the “Framing Britney Spears” documentary dropped, most individuals have been most likely not likening the story to Jennifer Love Hewitt‘s profession. The overwhelming discourse Hewitt was subjected to within the late-’90s as a teen actress — in the course of a string of hits together with “Get together of 5,” “Can’t Hardly Wait,” and the unique “I Know What You Did Final Summer time” — was so normalized on the time that nobody questioned the way it may have impacted the actress. Hewitt herself hadn’t actually appeared to consider it, both. However then she watched the Britney FX/Hulu doc.
“Once I began watching it, I used to be like, ‘Oh, they talked to me like that. Oh,’” Hewitt stated in an interview with Vulture. “I began crying for her. After which I spotted I used to be crying for me.”
The “911” actress went on to clarify how the fixed conversations within the press about her appears have nonetheless affected her in waves over time. She was 18 years outdated when “I Know What You Did Final Summer time” was launched in 1997.
“It bothers me extra now than it did at that age as a result of I used to be in it,” she mirrored. “Earlier than I even knew what intercourse was, I used to be a intercourse image. I nonetheless don’t know that I’ve that absolutely outlined for myself as a result of it began so bizarre.”
On the subject of the type of scrutiny that media obsessions like with Spears endured within the tabloids, Hewitt determined that staying out of the general public eye made probably the most sense for her profession. The actress even stated that she didn’t sip alcohol till she was 25.
In the end, Hewitt determined to make use of her work as a manner of hitting again at anybody who tried to border her physique as the middle of a dialog. “I actually wished to be actor, and I used to be attempting to provide to the folks watching. I used to be attempting to outact the dialog round my physique,” she defined.
Heading into the brand new franchise reboot movie, Hewitt realized she was coming on the venture from a very totally different perspective — that of a veteran who’s greater than twice the age she was when the primary movie was launched. It’s a “baton passing” for Hewitt, who was on the reverse finish of an identical expertise with Sigourney Weaver after they co-starred collectively within the 2001 movie “Heartbreakers.”
“There was a second once we have been speaking about being the ingénue after which realizing you’re not the younger lady on the set anymore — you’re the older model of that lady. Sigourney was like, ‘You’re going to look again and also you’re going to do not forget that, proper now, you’re the ingénue and you then’re going to move that baton to any individual,’” Hewitt recalled. She went on to share one thing that she instructed the brand new “I Know What You Did Final Summer time” actress Chase Sui Wonders, saying, “I’m having this second, and I’ve received to let you know about it. In my thoughts, I nonetheless really feel like I’m the ingénue, however I’m not. And I simply realized that I’m right here to be OK with that.”