To an outsider, making a movie seems like a glamorous gig, but the reality is it takes a lot of work. This work can be complicated by the many people needed to accomplish the task and their highly inflated egos. It can be a bit of a minefield to navigate. Actor Freddie Prinze Jr. understands this all too well.
The She’s All That star recently opened up on his new podcast That Was Pretty Scary about his experience filming his breakout role of Ray Bronson in I Know What You Did Last Summer. It was so “miserable” that it almost caused him to walk away from acting forever. According to Freddie, director Jim Gillespie did not want him to have the part and made his opinion known during the entire shoot.
For his podcast, Freddie, 47, sat down and watched the 1997 film for the first time ever. He explains why he could not watch it before. "It wasn't because it was a difficult job or because of the weird things that went on on that, the good things that went on on that, the bad things that went on on that," he explained. "It's just one of those things. I don't want to see my face, I hate my face, I hate the way I look, I don't think I'm a good lookin' dude."
Freddie then went on to explain what was “weird” and “bad” about his filming experience. It boils down to one person: Jim. "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," Freddie said.
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Freddie has a good perspective on the situation now, but admits it was not easy to live. "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,'" he said, laughing.
"When that's your first job and you hear those words, it just wrecks you, man. It just wrecks you,” Freddie went on to say. He credits co-stars Ryan Phillippe and Sarah Michelle Gellar for getting him through the process. Sarah and he would go on to date, get married, and have two children.
Freddie and Ryan did not stay in close contact after filming, but had a strong bond on set that Freddie is thankful for.
"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. Remember what booked you this role. Screw his notes. Any note he gives you just say, 'OK, and do what you want to do.' He was the first person to say that to me," Freddie recalled.
Freddie not only almost quit acting because of this director, he also almost quit the film itself. He had a "near death experience” and that was his breaking point. He decided to finish the film but only for his co-stars and crew.
"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," he recalled.
"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,” he went on to say.
Looking back, even though it was a difficult experience for Freddie he is thankful for what he gained from it.
"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. I'm here because of that struggle and because of that pain and it was those things,” Freddie mused.
He even is thankful for Jim.
“I'm forever grateful for Jim for being such an a–hole because I've never met one like that since. I've been prepared for every lesser A-hole in the business,” Freddie noted. “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."
