Jennifer Love Hewitt: One Hundred Percent from the Heart

"How have you avoided the dreaded syndrome known as 'sucky sequel-it is' with_ I Still Know What You Did Last Summer_?" I ask. My irreverent mention of the movie written by Trey Callaway and directed by Danny Cannon and set in a fisherman-terrorized summer resort cracks her up. "I'll probably be in I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer, Part 85, when my grandkids are telling me, Grandma, give it up, you cant even remember your lines anymore. Just stop now! But, you're right--I have this huge fear of sucky sequel-itis, which, by the way, is a lot of fun to say. Sucky sequel-itis! I know what you mean. I always say, 'It's not going to be that good anyway, so I'll wait and see it on video."

Not that Hewitt's recommending we skip her sequel. "I came home one night," she explains, "and heard my mom go, The sequel script is on your bed. Let me know what you think. They had called me the week after the weekend I Know What You Did Last Summer made so much money, saying, Were going to do a sequel, would you like to do it? and I'd said, Absolutely. But when the script actually arrived, I took a shower, got ready for bed, switched off my room light and turned on my little book light, fearing the worst. Well, 20 pages into it, I turned back on my bedroom light. Forty pages into it, I opened the door. When I finished it, I went in and slept with my mom. Its the scariest thing I've ever read.

"Danny Cannon and I made a conscious choice that my character wouldn't be the same person you saw in the first movie," Hewitt continues. "We didn't want what usually happens in these sequels where you stop caring about the lead character--that makes for sucky sequel-itis. This movie is crazy and off-the-wall because my character is now completely paranoid, crazy in the head, and walks around her apartment with knives, freaking out at the slightest noise. The movie takes place in her head, and it's psychotic and horrific and bloody."

Since the movies setting is a Club Med-style summer resort and features an attractive young cast, could it also be described as fleshy? "I am scantily clad," Hewitt grins. "Not too scanty, mind you, but we definitely took care of the young boys. So, there's paranoia, violence, lots of blood, action and flesh."

And what's up with The Suburbans, a comedy-drama in which she plays her first adult role opposite Ben Stiller and Craig Bierko? "My character is a hot, sexpot record executive and why they cast me, I'll never know," Hewitt laughs. "But, hey, it's a movie. My character decides to find a one-hit wonder 80s band and bring them into the 90s with their 80s look and sound. Its cute and has a lot of heart in it. You know, I'm a big fan of actors in the 50s like Montgomery Clift and James Dean, and my costar Craig Bierko would have fit perfectly in that time because he has so much going on in his eyes, like they did. I told Craig, God, you're great now but I would have loved you in a war movie like From Here to Eternity or a movie about a bunch of jazz musicians in smoky cafes."

"Speaking of 50s megastar icons," I say, "how did you decide to play the great Audrey Hepburn in an ABC movie?"

Hewitt glows at the mention of her idol. "When I was growing up my mom said, You're going to grow up to be a great female, so you should see what a really great female is, and she put Breakfast at Tiffany's into the VCR. I'd never had anyone sparkle or mesmerize me the way she did. I'm not doing this to say, Am I not a great actress? or Don't I look like Audrey Hepburn? God only makes one Audrey Hepburn and we were lucky to have her on this planet. I could never be half of what she was. The movie is being made by a bunch of people who have a great love for her, and it's my way of giving her honor in a time when women really need another Audrey Hepburn to help them define who they're going to be. It's going to be a happy, positive, beautiful movie and, by the end of the two hours, you're going to be more in love with Audrey Hepburn than you were before."

Just as I'm pointing out, "Wise women before you--Jodie Foster, Sharon Stone, Winona Ryder, Julia Roberts--have shied away from even remaking one of Audrey Hepburn's movies," Hewitt interjects, "I agree with those women. I would never remake one of her movies. I think Julia Ormond's great and I thought the remake of Sabrina was good, but I missed Audrey. I couldn't remake Breakfast at Tiffany's or Roman Holiday or any of them. But portraying the life that went into making those movies, yes. People should know how funny she was, how addicted she was to chocolate bars, how incredibly insecure she was about things like her teeth, how she made sure she killed any photos that were taken of her if she didn't like her ears, nose, nostrils. In the books about her, she talks about always wanting to play characters who were snappy, witty and on top of things because she didn't feel that way in life."

Saying this, Hewitt grows uncharacteristically still. "It's a huge risk that may end up to be a huge mistake," she admits at last. "I'll probably get slammed. In fact, I don't doubt it. But that want be the worst thing in the world. The deciding factor in my doing it was that I really hope that I'm the last person on anyone's mind at the end of the two hours. Hopefully, they'll at least think, I didn't know those things about Audrey Hepburn, who was so strong and cool and funny, then want to rent every one of her movies."

Already lined up for production after the Audrey Hepburn gig is Cupids Love, a project Hewitt originated, pitched personally and sold to New Line to the tune of $500,000. It's a romantic comedy in which shell star as a wedding planner who falls in love with a groom-to-be. "It restored my faith in studio executives that they treated me--a 19-year-old who'd never written or pitched anything before--with such respect," Hewitt says, with eyes brimming. "Thank God they picked it up. But I can't even go there or I'll start to cry."

Having discussed the state of the projects Hewitt has on her resume, I ask her about some that aren't on it. "Given your role model concerns, what were you doing going up for Lolita?" I ask. "I didn't believe in it, and didn't give it 100 percent when I went up for it," she asserts. Having heard that Hewitt, like so many other young actresses in Hollywood, went after the role of Juliet, I ask, "What happened with_ William Shakespeare's Romeo & Juliet_?" Hewitt explains, "Baz Luhrmann, a sweet man, said I didn't get Juliet because I wasn't contemporary enough."

When I ask how she thought the film came out, she adds, "The movie was beautifully and lovingly done, for what it was. But I love Shakespeare and I felt sad for two 11-year-old girls sitting near me that the modern version was their first experience with the story." The role in The Crucible Winona Ryder won? "I read for that a bunch and I would have loved to have done that. But Winona Ryder is a real class act, a great stoic beauty who makes amazing choices." The role in Brokedown Palace that Kate Beckinsale nabbed? "I read for that twice with Claire Danes and tried really, really hard, because I fell in love with the script and I have so much respect for Claire. I was heartbroken when they were either afraid to work out or couldn't work out the schedule with Party of Five.

How does Hewitt deal with the painful inevitability of Hollywood rejections? "There are so many actresses in my age group that have gotten parts that I've really wanted," she asserts. "But I just say, 'Isn't that great? Look what they've done! Whether its getting a part or being in a relationship with another actor, to be competitive is a choice. Everybody needs a competitive side but humans have to stick together, we're all we have." At that Hewitt bursts into self-deprecating laughter, saying, "That sounded so cheesy and Miss America. I'm a real cheeseball, aren't I? But its how I feel."

Cheeseball or not, Hewitt is fully aware she's entering a critical time in her life and career. "This year, I just started to feel like an adult," she tells me. "I think it was a conscious choice, like, Now I'm ready to grow up. I don't mean I'll stop going to Disneyland or eating at Chuck E. Cheese--that will never happen. I mean becoming a woman, being more responsible, being much more interested in the business aspect of things, being more and more conscious of my decisions. It's just this year I'm starting to figure out who I'm going to be. What I'm going to tolerate and not tolerate."

"With your priority on becoming a more responsible adult," I ask, "does that mean you and your mom may soon be living apart from each other?"

With an emphatic shake of her head, Hewitt swears no. "I have the best, most amazing mom in the world. I'd miss her too much if we didn't live together. We have so much fun going shopping, laughing, watching Rosie and Saved by the Bell. Even when I get another place, she will never live more than two blocks away."

Although Hewitt is nursing stitches she got at an emergency room yesterday when a ceramic mug broke in her hand on the set, and although she spent most of today in a photo shoot, before which she had a couple of business meetings and after which she came to talk to me, the girl is still so revved she's planning to head off to an evening concert with some of her costars on The Suburbans. As we say good-bye, I ask, "So, at 19, what can you say about where you'd like to be at the end of your big adventure?" Without a seconds hesitation, Hewitt answers, "To be 90, sitting in a chair, able to tell my grandchildren only great stories. And to have such great memories that I leave this earth knowing I had as much fun as possible and I did it the way I wanted to."

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Stephen Rebello wrote "When Actresses Get Ugly" for the October '98 issue of Movieline.

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