Interview: Jennifer Love Hewitt on returning to ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer,’ Julie’s Trauma, and her love of Nostalgia

I’ve interviewed thousands of people across various areas of the entertainment industry over the past two and a half decades. After doing so many interviews, it’s easy to develop a list of favorites—and Jennifer Love Hewitt is definitely in my top five. She’s an absolute delight to talk to, and her energy is just infectious. You can tell she genuinely appreciates being part of this industry and brings such an upbeat, positive spirit to every conversation.

This is the second time I’ve had the opportunity to speak with Jennifer in the past two months. The first time was for 9-1-1 back in May. We spoke for almost an hour and had an absolute blast talking about everything from her family to the evolution of her career. This time around, the conversation was much shorter and far more focused on I Know What You Did Last Summer.

Interview: Jennifer Love Hewitt talks 9-1-1 and her dream of being in a High Potential cross-over episode

Being born in the early ’80s, I grew up loving most things released during the ’80s and ’90s. Those two eras were my jam, which means I was very much aware of all things JLH. I remember seeing her on television as a kid, right alongside other ’90s icons like Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Lindsay Lohan, and Mandy Moore. I first stumbled upon her acting career when she appeared in House Arrest, which was quickly followed by Party of Five and then, of course, I Know What You Did Last Summer.

What’s crazy about I Know What You Did Last Summer is that it launched the careers of four actors, including Sarah Michelle Gellar and Jennifer Love Hewitt. While both actresses had already made a name for themselves on television, the industry hierarchy in the ’90s was very different from today. TV actors were often seen as “lesser than” film actors, so when they successfully crossed over into film, it was a big deal.

In this interview with Jennifer Love Hewitt, we covered a lot of ground in a short amount of time. We discussed her initial reservations about returning to the franchise, how she approached playing Julie James again after 28 years of emotional trauma, her involvement in the creative process, her love of nostalgia, and finally, whether or not her children might follow in her footsteps into the entertainment business.

You can watch the entire interview or if you wish you read the Q&A portion of the interview, you can read that below:

AB: What Reservations Did You Have About Returning to the Franchise?

JLH: I only had one reservation, and it was very short-lived. It was just, could we, in the amount of time that I was allowed to be in this movie because of my day job and everything else—could we find and see a version of Julie that the audience would feel proud of? That they would be happy with? That was very nerve-wracking for me personally.

And I think for Jen (the film’s director) too. We just wanted to make sure because it’s different, right? The rest of the movie is allowed to be whatever it wants to be. But for the Ray character and the Julie character, we really had a responsibility to say, “This is where these people have been. This is who they are now,” and we had to do that quickly. I felt nervous about that. But then once we put the pieces together, once we figured out who she was going to be and how that was going to fit into the movie, I was psyched. I just knew that we had done right by her. And I think the audience will be really happy.

AB: What was your approach to playing Julie so many years later after 28 years worth of lived in trauma?

JLH: I love playing characters with this stuff. And I love being a person who is able to act in—and be in the bodies of—characters who have trauma, who experience that. Twenty-eight years of trauma lived in is a lot. And I felt like my most important thing for Julie was that that trauma had not healed. I wanted it to not heal, because it happened to her at 18.

When I went back and watched the first movie again with my children, as their first horror movie, I realized something totally new about her that I had not noticed before—which is how silenced she was on the road that night. She was with a group of people who literally looked at her in 30 seconds and said, “Be quiet, and don’t ever say anything about this again.” And that is just not who she is or who she was.

I think that when you live being silenced for that long… you know, the interesting thing about being a professor and telling people about trauma—being able to talk to her students about that without saying, “This is me that I’m talking about,” like, I am coming from a teacher angle, but I am actually—this is my trauma—was so genius and so great of Jen to put in the movie.

Then being able to go back and face her trauma, but as the protector of this young girl and these young kids—and trying to not have them be silenced, but be heard, by someone who really knew what they were going through—was just all so great. Like, again, I’m not in the movie a huge amount, but I felt like we got so much in there for the audience to be like, “Oh, that is who Julie became.” And I think all of it makes sense. It was really fun.

AB: How involved were you in the creative process?

JLH: Only in my part—very involved. Jen and I went back and forth for months, mostly because she was busy filming the other parts of the movie, and it just took time. I think had we had our conversation initially in an hour, we would’ve been done with it. But it just took a while because of my job and her job.

Once we really got it focused, we were always in agreement—of who Julie should be, how to get there, and what to do.

What I think is extraordinary about this movie is that Jen directed it. And what’s extraordinary about that—besides her talent—is that she loves this movie. Like, she really loved the I Know What You Did Last Summer movie. Not in a, “Yeah, this will be fun for me to take on” kind of way, but like, genuinely as a fan.

Because of that, I think you see her love for that movie. You see her love for the ’90s and nostalgia. You see her love for Julie and Ray and their unfinished business and unfinished stories. And you see her love for wanting to make fun, interesting horror.

It’s just great. The movie feels like a celebration of all the right things. And for a summer movie—like, yas! Just grab the popcorn and enjoy. It is just perfect, in my opinion.

AB: Julie says to Ray in the film, Nostalgia is overrated? Do you think that?

JLH: I don’t know. I love nostalgia. I get why she says that to him. I think it’s dripping in sarcasm, and it’s kind of a perfect moment. But not for me personally. For Julie, maybe. For me? No. I love nostalgia. I love everything about it. I love that my kids act like the ’90s were this magical, unicorn time. I’m like, “Guys, the ’90s? We’re right here.” They try to teach me about it—“In the ’90s, they had this,” my daughter says, “I’m gonna wear these butterfly clips and this dress,” and I’m like, “Would you like to see a photo of me in that exact outfit?”

It’s hilarious, and I love it. Nostalgia, especially now, is so meaningful. We’re in such a weird time in the world—moving forward and not moving forward. Things are scary. It’s just wild.

Being able to pinpoint a nostalgic time when things felt more innocent and easy and fun—when TV was great, movies were great, music was great, fashion was great—it’s beautiful. So I say, wrap yourselves in nostalgia. Go there, love it, stay in it, and come back to reality later. And if I had to choose? I’d choose the ’90s, for sure.

AB: Do your kids want to be involved in the entertainment world?

JLH: Yeah, it’s funny. I think my daughter is really curious about it. And I think people are curious about her, too, because she really does look like—well, she walked on set in her little outfit at one point, and people were like, “That’s literally Julie James from 115 years ago.” And I’m like, “All right, I know.”

She’s definitely curious. The baby, on the other hand, is a total performer—like me times a thousand when I was three. I don’t know what he’s going to do, but it’s going to be something out there with people. I can just tell.

Atticus, I think, is more of a behind-the-scenes kind of guy. He’s interested in it all, but more in the stunts and the technical side. He’s obsessed with horror—how things are made, how it all comes together. So I think they’re each going to fit into different parts of the business.

And I’m ready for it. I’ve had a really positive experience, so I feel like I’d be ready to help nurture that in them—if they truly wanted it. But we’re giving it time. Hopefully it won’t happen at age 10 like it did for me. That feels really young. I don’t know if I’m ready for that.

Plus, I’m still working, so I can’t be on their sets just yet. I tell them, “You have to wait until Mommy’s done, and then we can do it.” Hopefully, that won’t be for a while.