Freddie Prinze Jr has revealed that a terrifying ‘near-death experience’ on-set while filming I Know What You Did Last Summer was nearly enough to make him quit acting
Freddie Prinze Jr became a household name after starring in the spooky slasher film I Know What You Did Last Summer, but he has looked back at his time on the “miserable” set, and has recalled a terrifying “near-death experience” which was almost enough to make him quit.
Freddie went on to star in the likes of She’s All That and Scooby Doo, and married Buffy The Vampire Slayer star Sarah Michelle Gellar, who also starred in the horror film with him. Freddie told TooFab in an interview that the film was the “hardest job that (he’d) ever done” because of the director, Jim Gillespie.
Nothing builds your confidence like someone you’re working with telling you they don’t want you there. Freddie says the director made it crystal clear that he hadn’t wanted him to play the role of Ray.
“He made no bones about it… he was very direct in the fact that, ‘I don’t want you in this movie,’” Freddie claimed. “So when that’s your first job and you hear those words, it just wrecks you, man.”
He said the director would regularly give him “psychotic” feedback and “singled (him) out”. Freddie remembers how the director would go as far as giving his cast mates notes, but not him.
A “near-death” experience filming the motorboat scene was almost the final straw. He explained: “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.
“I packed my bags that night. I was just gonna quit the business,” but fortunately he was persuaded to stay. The role provided a springboard for his career and he later married Sarah.
During the boat scene, his character Ray jumps from a speedboat to a fishing boat to rescue Jennifer Love Hewitt’s character, Julie. Freddie says he was asked during his audition if he knew how to drive a speedboat, which he did.
When it came to shooting the scene, he found the boat was actually a “dinghy” with “an outboard motor”. They were shooting in the “choppy” Atlantic Ocean, made “even choppier” due to actual speedboats on set.
He described himself as a “21-year-old kid with no stunt experience” and said he was “concerned” and that “everything felt wrong”. He asked if the film’s stunt coordinator had approved and was told yes.
He asked to rehearse it, but alleged Gillespie actually started filming. When his dinghy hit the fishing boat’s wake “it flies in the air, goes almost upside down, dumps me out, lands back on its belly — and the motor’s still running — goes right over my head”.
“I don’t feel the propellers, per se, but I feel the movement of the water from the propellers — it is a distinctive feeling,” he recalled. “I’m embarrassed, I’m scared, I’m angry, like a lot of things are going through me at that moment,” he said angrily.
Freddie was horrified to find the stunt coordinator had been sent home because “they didn’t want to pay him overtime”. A stunt person eventually executed the stunt instead.
“It was a struggle to finish work every day, I was in pain every single day on that movie,” he recalled.
“However, it prepared me for this business in a way – it sounds weird to say this – I’m forever grateful for Jim for being such an a****** because I’ve never met one like that since. I’ve been prepared for every lesser A-hole in the business.”
He later came back for the sequel, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, and praised the director of that film, Danny Cannon. He hasn’t yet confirmed whether he will come back for the reboot of the film.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
