Freddie Prinze Jr. has a favorite piece of lore from his childhood.
In the late ’70s, only a few years after the untimely death of his famous father, Prinze went with his mother to Universal Studios. The back-lot tour was delightfully chock-a-block with actors playing the company’s iconic monsters.
“Wolf Man, Dracula, the Creature from the Black Lagoon,” Prinze remembers. While other kids hid behind their parents, screaming, Prinze was starstruck. “I would ask for hugs,” he says. “I hugged Frankenstein.”
In time, Prinze would spin his boyhood love of monsters into a Hollywood career as a ’90s heartthrob. His Noxzema smile and chiseled jawline made him the object of desire for millions of rising millennials in the Ugly Duckling rom-com “She’s All That.” He’s also synonymous with beloved horror franchise “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” a movie that cemented him — and co-stars Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ryan Phillippe and Sarah Michelle Gellar (to whom he’s now married) — as pop culture icons.
Prinze Jr. and Gellar ruled as a power couple, but his proceeding decades in show business were full of pivots. While Gellar’s fame from “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” kept her busy in TV (and allowed her to amass 4.8 million Instagram followers), he dabbled in recurring roles on action shows, voice-over work in the animated “Star Wars” world and, most unexpectedly, two stints in the writers’ room at WWE.
Prinze probably won’t get any hugs from the villain in this month’s movie reboot of “I Know What You Did Last Summer,” whose faceless fisherman fond of gutting victims with a hook returns to terrorize a new generation of coeds. Prinze and Hewitt reprise their roles as Ray and Julie, young lovers who survived killing sprees in films from 1997 and 1998.
Variety caught up with Prinze via Zoom, conferencing from his Los Angeles home. Clad in a burnout T-shirt, the actor proved every bit the relaxed Southern California dad he’s become. Peppering the conversation with “Bros” and “mans,” he shares his formula for private life as a public figure, the one Hollywood dream that’s evaded him and the cost of authenticity in a ruthless business.
In the previous films, Ray was a prototypical townie but still had a good head on his shoulders. Where do we find him and Jennifer Love Hewitt’s character, Julie, in 2025?
Time hasn’t been good to Ray. That was attractive to me — I’ve never gotten the opportunity to play that before. Ray is a guy who never spent a dollar he didn’t work really hard to make. He’s in denial. He’s not the tough guy he used to be. Julie has used her trauma to help build her career and move her life forward.
Have you kept in touch with Jennifer over the years?
We run in different circles. I hadn’t seen her since we wrapped the second movie in ’98, but we care a lot about these characters, and it was all still there. After we finished that first scene, we had a chance to say, “Oh, you have kids. And you have kids.” Honestly, I think the first scene we share in this movie, where Ray and Julie con- front the reality of their relationship, is the best work we’ve done of all three. I’m really proud of it. Our director, Jenn Robinson, three-dimensionalized these characters.
Your career is diverse: You had this intense fame as a young man. You got married and had kids and became a private citizen while doing action movies, TV procedurals, an- imation voice-over. You were in a writers’ room. What’s left?
I’d love to direct a horror film. They were my favorite movies since I was a little kid. I always got off on scaring my mom or friends. At lights-out time, when I was 3, I used to go down the hall before bed into every dark room and growl. My mom asked what I was doing, and I said, “I’m try- ing to scare them before they scare me.”
You’ve been outspoken about difficulties you’ve had with some bad behavior in show business. You discussed your wife’s mis- treatment on “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” years before showrunner Joss Whedon was accused of harassment and toxicity. You’ve said you quit working for WWE because it conflicted with your values as a father. Has that cost you anything?
I don’t know how to answer that accurately. This will sound stupid, but when I was 14 years old, I saw an interview with Elvis. He was asked a political question and said, “Look, man, I’m just an entertainer.” I try to live as private a life as a public figure can live. I offer dignity to everyone, and the opportunity to earn respect. That includes your celebrities. I find people want affirmation more than information, and that’s fine. I don’t offer up advice.
Does it occur to you that some of your con- temporaries are still going to L.A. clubs and posting thirst traps while you’re being a dad?
There are some young people that are old souls, and there’s some old people that have young hearts. I’m almost 50. I didn’t know that my contemporaries are still partying until you said it. I don’t keep up. I’m not on social except for this podcast I do. I just love my kids. My daughter [Charlotte] is away for the summer, and I hate it. I like hanging out with my son [Rocky] — he’s really funny. I love my wife, man. I married her for a reason.
You’ve been married for 23 years — all while in this business. How do you pull it off?
Marriage is hard no matter what business you’re in. What works for us might not work for everyone else. We work at it. I’m not perfect. She’s not perfect. We piss each other off, but we respect one another. We were friends first. Maybe that’s the secret? It wasn’t just “Oh, she’s hot, he’s hot — let’s hook up.” But I know people who’ve done it the other way, and their relationships are just as strong as mine.
I’m sure the upcoming “Buffy” reboot with Chloé Zhao is a big thing in your house right now. Is Sarah being treated the right way?
It’s in good hands; if a studio starts micro- managing and things like that, then who knows. So far, so good. I read the pilot and I thought it was awesome. I’m not the demographic, [but] I can easily recognize the impact it’s had globally. We’ve been to Bali and seen a taxi driver with a “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” T-shirt on.
Is there a world where you appear on the new version?
She hasn’t asked, and I haven’t offered. If they needed me, of course. But I think they got it under control.
This could be your chance to play a monster.
Exactly. To finally be someone under the mask.
There have been some attempts to get a biopic about your father off the ground. Is that still in the works?
I was approached by someone I respect who saw a clip of my dad while they were doomscrolling online. It was a cool take, centered around his stand-up comedy. It seemed effortless. We got him in touch with some of my dad’s old comrades, these legends like Pam Grier and Paul Williams. People who really knew him. My dad and Pam Grier were lovers — that’s not a secret — so I was grateful for her time. The script didn’t translate to that original pitch, so it disappeared into the ether. If the right idea came along, we’d say yes as a family.
Has anyone suggested you play your dad?
No, thankfully, although I’d expect that note from some of the executives that exist these days. Once all the studios were sold and became publicly traded companies, the leadership changed. The philosophies are night and day from when I was coming up.
Netflix will air a documentary about the writers’ room inside WWE. Will you watch?
I really wish they wouldn’t do this. I think it’s just too inside. I was taught by old-school people, and the goal of the writers’ room is to help get the talent to succeed. That’s the job. If a monologue or the scene sucks, that’s on the writer. If it’s great, then the talent got that over. You take the blame but not the credit. If the cookie is delicious, let me enjoy it. I don’t want to see how it’s made. I’m not wishing for failure, but it’s not as much fun when you know everything about the magic tricks.
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