Jennifer Love Hewitt: Love of the Party

Q: Has the press ever torn you to bits like they've done with Tori Spelling and Alicia Silverstone?

A: Once [a tabloid] printed a horrible picture of me, deliberately shot from below, and said, "It's obvious that Jennifer Love Hewitt is hiding a 'Party of Five' in her skirt." I cried. Then I realized, This is a tabloid. What is wrong with me? Why am I crying? I'm fine.

Q: Do you feel pressure to be a role model for young people?

A: A little bit, but I love it. I think it's such a great pressure to have. It keeps you very safe. I'm pretty boring anyway. I like going to movies and painting and going to Chuck E. Cheese.

Q: I bought your latest CD and have been listening to it nonstop. You even threw in an Andy Gibb cover tune.

A: Thanks. I'm really proud of it. Singing comes from my soul and my gut, and there's nothing else like it. My radio is timed to turn on the minute I wake up and I listen to CDs every single day, all day long.

Q: I like to buy used CDs but I always hate to see my favorite acts in the $1.99 bin. I have this overwhelming impulse to rescue them from the riffraff of Poison and MC Hammer.

A: Rescue me. I'm sure mine are in there. [Laughs] That's the most depressing thing. I made that album so fast, and I had no time to do any promotion so it just went nowhere, which is why I'm not doing another album for a while.

Q: Before this album, you had a CD called "Let's Go Bang." Was that an invitation?

A: Yes. Everyone, please come. [Laughs] That title was a mistake. I loved the song and "the bang" was a dance. It was supposed to be like the "Electric Slide" kind of thing. It wasn't promoted so some people thought I was some perverted 16-year-old.

Q: What's something else you're good at that would surprise people?

A: Electronics.

Q: Could you program a VCR for a week from now?

A: Yeah.

Q: Wow. To tape more than one show?

A: Yeah.

Q: What's the most embarrassing way you've ever blown a take?

A: I have an incredibly loud stomach and when it growls, you think the ground's going to shake. In the middle of one of Scott [Wolf's] close-ups during a crying scene, my stomach just went berserk and we had to stop. I was humiliated.

Q: What's a message that was left on your answering machine that you played more than once?

A: Jamie Lee Curtis calling to wish me a merry Christmas. I died. She's a huge role model of mine. I thought, "I can't believe it, House Arrest has been over now for months and she remembers me." And now every Christmas I get a card from her. There's something about her that's magical. The moment she steps in the room the air changes, everything changes.

Q: What's your favorite souvenir from a movie set?

A: I took my character's cheerleading trophy from Can't Hardly Wait because I always wanted to be a cheerleader. I'm such a waste of a great cheerleader.

Q: What kind of role would you like to do that you've never done before?

A: A romantic comedy like Sleepless in Seattle or While You Were Sleeping. Just a sweet girl who wants nothing but to fall in love.

Q: Would you like to do a musical?

A: I've gotten offers to possibly do something similar to the Cinderella TV movie Brandy did for Disney.

Q: What movie inspired you when you were younger?

A: Sixteen Candles. I can't even tell you how many times I would stare out my window and dream about seeing the guy in the red Porsche waiting for me.

Q: Before you landed _Party of Five _was there ever a time when you thought it wasn't going to happen and you should give up?

A: Yeah, when I was 11. I lost a movie and it tore me to pieces. I was close to telling my mom to call the airlines and let's go home to Texas. But then I talked to my acting coach for three hours and he told me, "You have such a drive and such a love for what you do. Do you have any idea how miserable you will be if you don't do this?" The next day I was booked in another job and I got over it. Now, when I find myself getting close to those moments, I always think about that afternoon. And my coach was right. I do have such a love for it that I would be miserable if I was doing anything else.

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Dennis Hensley's novel, Misadventures in the (213), is available from Rob Weisbach Books.

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