By MARK MATICH
On July 18, 27 years after the Fisherman first menaced a stalwart cast of up-and-comers in Southport, North Carolina, Freddie Prinze Jr., Jennifer Love Hewitt and another cast of exciting young actors return in an all-new I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER. Like many who were hooked on the 1997 slasher directed by Jim Gillespie from Kevin Williamson’s script, many of the cast and crew have a personal connection to the first film as fans. Among them is director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, fresh from the success of the Netflix feature Do Revenge, who says, “The original was the first R-rated movie I ever snuck into… I was so mesmerized by it.”
This innovative take on the original summer blockbuster updates the age of the group of friends who cause the horrific accident at the outset of the story from teenagers to young adults in their late twenties. In effect, this is I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER for the social media generation, marrying a nostalgic ’90s vibe with the cutting edge of today’s slasher film style. Heading up the new ensemble is Chase Sui Wonders (The Studio) as Ava, in a role similar to Hewitt’s Julie from the original film. Madeline Cline, Tyriq Withers and Jonah Hauer-King round out the cast.
Just days away from the film’s eagerly anticipated premiere, RUE MORGUE spoke with Freddie Prinze Jr., who portrayed Ray Bronson in the first film. In this interview, Prinze reflects on the exciting and enjoyable atmosphere on set with the talented young cast, delving into his character’s past trauma to craft a more mature version of Ray, reuniting on screen with co-star Jennifer Love Hewitt. and even muses about his long-standing interest in the horror genre, which extends back to his childhood.
Even though the original I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER laid the foundation, in large part, for your Hollywood career, it was also kind of a difficult and gruelling experience. So, without reliving that right now, I’m just curious to know, when you stepped on set, how was the vibe this time around? Hopefully good!
[Laughs] The vibe was excellent this time around. You know, every movie has its challenges; Some are good, some are bad, right? Both help you grow. When I was young, there were definitely some difficult challenges on the first movie that I was faced with, but it did make me stronger. It helped me grow. It gave me a lot of experience that I still value to this day, and it opened a whole new set of doors. That being said, the experience on this one was amazing from day one.
Now, it helped that one of my best friends happened to direct the movie, Jenn Robinson, so I know her, and I love her. My wife [Sarah Michelle Gellar] worked with her on Do Revenge, which was another wonderful film. But to get to see her work and kind of play with her magic the way she does, it was just amazing. I loved being on set every day, especially with that young cast. They were so perfectly placed in those roles, and I can’t imagine anybody else doing it, and I just fell in love with each and every one of them.
The movie is a reimagining, but it’s also a continuation of the same world of the 1997 film, and your character is not just a walk-on role; It’s a full-bodied update of Ray Bronson. I noticed watching the film that it’s very haunted by the spirit of the original I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER. Was it sort of a deja vu thing to step back into that world? Did it affect your performance at all?
I hope it was. I hope it did, I hope that came through. These characters… Let me start by saying this: If this had been a cameo, I wouldn’t have done it. That’s what they tried with the She’s All That sequel, and I didn’t think that was treating the characters with respect, so I was all the way out.
[The writers] treated Julie and Ray with so much care and so much respect, and they illustrated how two different people could deal with the same trauma in completely different ways. And I found that so refreshing and satisfying … to see that they put that much care into showing what happened to these characters, and who they are now, I got really excited to jump in there and play this. I tried to bring all the life experience that I have and all the trauma that I’ve dealt with – everybody’s dealt with trauma to some degree, at some level – and tried to apply this in the most vulnerable way possible to give a really honest performance from a script I really respected the time and care that they put into it. I feel that I matched the time and care that they put in with the work that I was able to do. I’m really proud of this performance, I’m really proud of this movie. I loved making it, if you can’t tell yet. By the time we’re done, you will, too!
From the dead bodies that are second to none (I thought the corpses in this movie were so friggin’ good; I hope I said “friggin” and didn’t just drop and F bomb on you!) to the new cast and just how good they were as actors… They were so much better than me when I was their age, and just to see that mature of a performance from actors with experience, but not a ton of experience, was just impressive every single day. I’m not gonna be like “I’m proud of them.”I’m not their dad. But I was impressed by them every single day, man. I just loved it, I loved working out there.
Like the original, the movie is very hip and clever in that it plays with this idea of trauma. In some ways, it almost sends it up with the things the characters do, and in other ways, it goes much deeper, like in some of the great dialogue you have. Is that something director Jennifer Robinson focused on with you? Did you give yourself a lot of notes about that, preparing for this performance?
Yeah, when we first spoke about it, before the script, before Sam and her dove into the script, Sam Lansky being the writer, we spoke about “reasons why.” Everyone needs a reason why, what specifically happened to sort of motivate this guy, and we really dove into it. You can’t make a whole movie about that, or it’s a different movie, but they can at least layer it in there enough so that I can play some nuanced moments.
And you guys can really see that this dude suffered, and what he went through, getting terrorized and stalked by a dude with a hook and living out a slasher movie in real life, is horrible! And trying to kill the people he loves, and in some cases, killing the people he loves, and for Julie and Ray to have to go through all that, we find out where they are, as far as [whether] they are together or not, very early on. I think that first scene between the two of them is the best scene that Love [Jennifer Love Hewitt] and I have ever done on camera in all three movies because I felt like it showed and represented so much of who Ray is now and who he used to be, and so much of who Julie James is now compared to who she used to be. I love that scene, and that was an important scene to Jenn Robinson as well, when we were first talking about the script. How do we reintroduce them into this world?
In that scene, there’s a line about nostalgia. The I Know What You Did Last Summer series is obviously now an iconic franchise with legions of fans. Does that put any pressure on you as an actor?
There’s pressure to perform. I want the movie to perform well; I wouldn’t be selling the movie if I didn’t like it. I want people to receive the story the way we intended them to receive it, you know what I mean? So, there’s a ton of pressure in that regard. But I know I did the work, and I know the people I worked with all executed at the highest level. I loved being on set for this movie. I loved watching Jenn set up her shots. I loved watching Jenn work with the young cast, direct them and guide them, and help these performances. And the cast was so collaborative. In my generation, they weren’t; They were much more competitive! You didn’t really ask another actor for help, for fear that they would sabotage you … There weren’t as many movies being made then. There weren’t 800 channels on TV, so it was a tougher racket.
Not that it isn’t tough now, but there were just fewer jobs for plenty of actors. So, to watch the cast sort of come together and lean on each other was so refreshing and new. For them, it was normal, but for me, I would just sort of sit on the sidelines and stare and watch. At one point, I went up to them, and I was like, “Wow, you guys really love each other, and you care about each other so much, and I just love seeing that.” And they were like, “Yeah!” For them, it was nothing, but my generation was just a little different.
Every day on set, man, I was impressed by either a shot or a dead body or a performance or a line delivery or, you know, the way I saw a hook get swung because I was like, “Oh, my God! The hook looks so much sharper than it used to!” And they were like, “Right? Right?! We kinda changed the hook!” And I was like, “Yeah, you can tell, but it looks sleek. It looks like it can cut through the wind!” Everything about it was just a ton of fun to get to be a part of, even the scenes that I was not a part of.
Excellent! So, from hearing you talk about the movie and things like the dead bodies and the hook… Not all movie fans will know this, and even horror fans might not know this, but you are a big horror aficionado. I was listening to your podcast, That Was Pretty Scary, and it’s a very refined understanding of the genre, so obviously, you’re passionate about it. What sparked your interest in the genre?
Okay, so, when I was a little boy, and I don’t remember doing this but my mom told me this, she said “When you were a little kid, and we would turn the lights out for bed, you would walk down the hallway like a monster [making Frankenstein’s Monster-like gesture], and you would roar in every dark room, and I said why are you doing that?” And I said, “Mom, I want to scare them before they scare me.” And that’s how I’ve been my whole life. It can all be summed up in that one little story.
When she took me to Universal Studios, you would get on this tour tram car, and they would take you around the lot and show you everything. They would have all the old school monsters, and Frankenstein would be out there, the Creature from the Black Lagoon would be out there, and all these characters would be there right before the trams would leave. While all the kids were running from Dracula and Frankenstein, I was reaching out and trying to touch his face and give him a hug because I thought he was so cool. I used to root for the monsters to win in the monster movies instead of the pretty girl and the handsome boy. I don’t know why I’ve always connected to those monsters. I’ve always wanted to be the “Man in the Mask,” so to speak. I would just never get that opportunity when I was a young actor coming up. It just wasn’t in the cards, as they say. That was always my dream: to be the Man in the Mask or the man behind all the monster makeup, no matter how heavy and horrible the process was. That to me was always the coolest thing in the world. I wanted to be the Predator when I saw Predator. I didn’t want to be Arnold Schwarzenegger; I wanted to be the guy who had the cool mask and looked like he was from a different planet. So, that’s really where my love of horror came from. It’s sort of wish fulfillment. Every time, I can lose myself in one of those movies.
Fantastic, and let me just say, I think the feeling in the screening room today was that you guys really delivered the goods with this one! Congratulations, and thank you for this interview.
I appreciate you saying that, man! Thank you very much.
