Freddie Prinze Jr. Almost Quit Acting After the Director Was So Awful to Him on I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER
Freddie Prinze Jr. is known these days as a late ‘90s-2000s heartthrob who has gone on to have a steady career in both TV and film, especially in the voice acting realm these days. But back in the mid-90s, he was still trying to break out onto the teen movie scene. When he landed one of the lead roles in the teen slasher flick I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), he was relieved, and this was the vehicle that launched him to stardom, but it wasn’t without major conflicts on set that almost made him walk away from acting altogether.
In the premiere episode of Prinze Jr.’s upcoming horror movie podcast That Was Pretty Scary (via TooFab), he kicks off the series talking about his experience on I Know What You Did Last Summer, detailing the horrible environment created by the film’s director, Jim Gillespie.
"It's not that we weren't on the same page, I knew what the correct choices were for the Ray character. He wanted a different actor, a really good actor named Jeremy Sisto, who I know and I like and respect very very much."
Prinze Jr. said it was the studio and writer Kevin Williamson who pushed for him to get the role in the end. But Gillespie wasn’t shy about letting Prinze know he wasn’t his first choice.
"I'll give the man this, I think his name is Jim, he made no bones about it. There was no passive aggressiveness -- which I hate -- he was very direct in the fact that, 'I don't want you in this movie. So when that's your first job and you hear those words, it just wrecks you, man. It just wrecks you."
While he and his co-star and future wife Sarah Michelle Gellar weren't dating yet and wouldn't start to for a few years, Prinze Jr. credited her and co-star Ryan Phillippe with talking him off a ledge. Though he and Phillippe aren't close now, they built a bond pretty quickly while working out together to get in shape for the movie. That bond carried over once filming began, and Phillippe was the reason he was able to stay in the production.
"So, when I did have those moments where the director was giving me psychotic notes, like 'Don't leave your mouth open. You look stupid when you do that' -- that was the exact note, word for word, I’ll never forget it -- and I'm like, I'm either gonna break down or I have to beat this guy's ass. Like those were the only two options in my head. I remember Ryan came up to me and was like, 'Screw that guy, man. How many times did you audition for this movie?' and I go, 'Five times,' he goes, 'Yeah, you earned it. You didn't get offered the role, you earned it. There were less people every single time time you went and then it was just you. Remember what booked you this role. Screw his notes. Any note he gives you just say, Okay, and do what you want to do.' He was the first person to say that to me."
He appreciated the guidance from both Phillippe and Gellar, who had more experience under their belts thanks to years on soap operas before booking the horror movie, but Prinze Jr. says his interactions with the director had a negative impact on him.
"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. Because I knew the moment we got on to set for rehearsal, I was either going to be Mr. Pay No Mind, which would be where he would give everyone notes before we shot anything or before we rehearsed, except me. He made it a point to single me out every time, would bring the other actors together without me, and give them all notes. And I'm like, well was he just trying to do some method crap? I just don’t understand."
The actor claimed the director even confirmed his suspicions and flat out told him, "I don't want you in the movie." On his podcast, Freddie also said he "almost quit the movie" following a mishap that allegedly happened while filming a scene on a motorboat for the film's finale. He refers to it as not only a "near death experience," but a breaking point.
"I almost caught a flight and went home. I was done. I had enough. They had broken a ton of union stuff that they shouldn't have, like union rules. All kinds of things. And I just felt like yo, if I’m not wanted here, screw it. There's other things I can do. I dropped out of Le Cordon Bleu to make this movie. I'll go be a chef, that's what my mom wanted me to be anyways. I packed my bags that night. I was just gonna quit the business."
This time a producer stepped in and calmed him down, as Freddie decided to stick it out so as not to leave his costars and some of the other members of the crew up a creek without a movie.
"I wanted to fight that guy two or three different times. Once I felt was a legitimate reason, and the other two I was just pissed off, which, that's not right. I'm glad everybody talked me down. In hindsight, I'm not upset, because that movie launched my whole career. 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, I wouldn't have this podcast. We wouldn't be doing this interview. I'm here because of that struggle and because of that pain and it was those things.
“It was a struggle to finish work every day, I was in pain every single day on that movie. However, it prepared me for this business in a way -- it sounds weird to say this -- I'm forever grateful for Jim for being such an asshole because I've never met one like that since. I've been prepared for every lesser A-hole in the business. And I'm sure he's a hero in someone else's story. I'm sure he helped someone else out and they loved him. But for me, he took a lot of frustration out 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."
Despite the horrible experience, the actor came back for the sequel, directed by Danny Cannon the following year, and he said it was the "exact opposite experience." Prinze Jr. said Cannon could be "tough to work for," but also "never demanded anything from anyone that he wouldn't demand for himself."
It’s awful that he had to go through that, but at least he had friends to lean on in the process, he met his future wife on the set, and he launched a successful career from it. I Know What You Did Last Summer was the last blockbuster movie Jim Gillespie directed.
