Freddie Prinze Jr became a Hollywood heartthrob following his role in I Know What You Did Last Summer, pictured here alongside Jennifer Love Hewitt (Picture: Getty Images)
Freddie Prinze Jr has dropped a bombshell about filming I Know What You Did Last Summer more than 20 years after the film’s release, and it’s left us horror fans shook.
During the revival of slasher movies in the late 90s, Freddie, 47, took on a lead role in director Jim Gillespie’s horror-thriller, which also starred fellow nineties heroes Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Ryan Phillipe.
IKWYDLS isn’t celebrated on the same scale as Wes Craven’s Scream, which was released the year before, but it has become a cult classic among horror fans.
While the cast seemed to gel on-screen, the behind-the-scenes dynamic wasn’t as hunky-dory for Freddie, who has shared his ‘miserable’ experience of shooting the horror and, in particular, bombshell claims about his relationship with director Jim.
Freddie claimed: ‘There was no passive aggressiveness, which I hate. He was very direct [with] 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.’
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Freddie claimed that Jim was keen for actor Jeremy Sisto to take on the role of Ray Bronson, but was allegedly pushed to hire Freddie by screenwriter Kevin Williamson and the studio.
I Know What You Did Last Summer, also starring Sarah Michelle Gellar (second right) and Ryan Phillipe (r) became a cult classic (Picture: Getty Images)
Freddie recalls it being a gruelling shoot and one that made him almost quit Hollywood (Picture: Getty Images)
Freddie also claimed he was ‘singled out’ by Jim when the filmmaker gathered the cast for feedback.
‘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,’ Freddie said.
The She’s All That star revealed that he almost quit acting after suffering a near-death experience while filming the horror’s grand finale on a motorboat.
‘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 if I’m not wanted here, screw it,’ he revealed.
Jim Gillespie directed the first instalment of the horror franchise and has not yet responded to Freddie’s claims (Picture: Getty Images)
Freddie is grateful for his role in the film as he met future wife Sarah (Picture: FilmMagic)
On reflection, Freddie ‘isn’t upset’ about his experience on the set as it ‘launched [his] whole career.
He added of Jim: ‘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.’
It wasn’t all bad for Freddie though as, of course, fans will know that he met wife Sarah – his co-star – on-set of the cult horror classic and they’ve lived happily ever after.
IKWYDLS became a hit and was quickly followed up by the sequel, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, in 1998 which saw Hewitt return as the protagonist along with new cast members Brandy and Jack Black.
A TV series of IKWYDLS was released to Amazon Prime Video in 2021, while another film sequel is in the works at Sony Pictures.
Metro.co.uk has reached out to Jim Gillespie’s reps for comment.
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Thank goodness he didn’t!