Freddie Prinze Jr. wasn’t initially sold on the idea of returning to the I Know What You Did Last Summer franchise — but something undeniable hooked him right back in.
“I was very hesitant to jump back in for a multitude of reasons. Some were creative, because I wasn’t the same guy so I didn’t know what kind of character they were gonna want,” Prinze Jr., 49, exclusively told Us Weekly. “I was worried they wouldn’t put much growth into it. So, I didn’t have any interest. And then my friend Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, who cowrote and directed the movie, said, ‘I know you’re gonna say no, but let me just pitch you my version of this movie.’ And she put so much thought and so much soul into Julie and Ray.”
Prinze Jr. solidified his name on the Hollywood map after starring opposite Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ryan Phillippe and now-wife Sarah Michelle Gellar in the original 1997 I Know What You Did Last Summer. He portrayed salt of the earth and ultimate good guy and Hewitt’s onscreen beau Ray Bronson in the cult classic slasher, who accidentally runs over a stranger on July 4th weekend.
Over the years, Prinze Jr. hasn’t hidden the fact he clashed with OG director Jim Gillespie on set of the first film, who pitched Jeremy Sisto as Ray but was ultimately overruled by the studio and scriptwriter Kevin Williamson. Despite the rocky experience, Prinze Jr. and Hewitt both returned for the 1998 sequel, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, while Gillespie was replaced by director Danny Cannon.
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No one from the original cast appeared in the third film — 2006’s I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer — or the 2021 Prime Video series that was canceled after one season. Robinson’s pitch, however, was too good for Prinze Jr. and Hewitt to pass up.
“There was so much thought into what [Julie and Ray] had gone through, trauma wise, and how they both dealt with it differently, that it gave them great motivations in the movie,” Prinze Jr. told Us. “It’s an interesting look at their relationship and where they’re at now and how they handle this new situation in their own unique ways. Once I kind of heard that, before the script was even written, I was like, ‘Wow, [Jen’s] idea is really, really good.’ She had some really cool s*** in there.”
The latest IKWYDLS picks up decades after Julie and Ray last faced fisherman Ben Willis and his deadly hook. But when five friends find themselves being stalked by their own mysterious killer after causing a deadly car accident one year prior, Ray and Julie realize history may be repeating itself.
When it came to reprising a legacy character like Ray, Prinze Jr. told Us he felt some “pressure” while “breaking down” the scenes before filming began, but with such a “well written” script, there wasn’t much to worry about.
“I’ve had experiences where I wasn’t confident in the script and was very nervous on set and hoping that we could make a change here and there because I thought it would help the scene,” he said. “That really wasn’t the case with this.”
Pointing to his first scene in the new film with Hewitt, Prinze Jr. said the pair were able to jump right back into their old dynamic, delivering some of their best work to date. “It was just so natural and so easy and so organic and true to the characters,” he added.
Prinze Jr. warned that the “trauma” of Julie and Ray’s past has affected both of them “so differently,” but promises that fans will be satisfied with how their stories ultimately play out.
“They’re not just cameos in the movie. They’re major characters,” he explained. “I don’t want people to think they’re getting screwed and just like, ‘Oh, they’re only gonna be in one scene.’ It’s not like that. They took great care of these characters.”
He added, “That first scene [between them], I think it’s the best scene [Jennifer] and I have done on camera, period, in all three movies. And I think people will really feel that when they watch.”
Of course, the new film isn’t just about the well-known characters — there was also the task of bringing the next generation of actors into the franchise. IKWYDLS also stars newcomers Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King, Tyriq Withers and Sarah Pidgeon, who Prinze Jr. praised as “phenomenal” additions to the cast.
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“It was such a pleasure to get to work with them and see how tight they were,” he gushed. “My generation was very competitive. They were not cool like this. And this group is so wonderful and dependent on one another, asking each other questions. And they celebrate each other’s successes. I’m just like, ‘Wow, man, that really wasn’t the same experience that I had coming up.’ It’s so impressive to see them at that level of maturity when they’re all still so much younger than I am.”
I Know What You Did Last Summer hits theaters on Friday, July 18.
