Freddie Prinze Jr. got to sink his teeth into an entirely new kind of role for his new film, The Girl in the Pool.
“This character is the opposite of everyone that I’ve ever played,” Prinze Jr., 48, exclusively shared in the new issue of Us Weekly. “Usually, I’m playing characters that make the right decision, that make good morally sound decisions. Morality being a general term, and he ends up with the right person. This guy is none of that.”
In the psychological thriller, Prinze Jr. plays Thomas, a man whose life collapses when his mistress (Brielle Barbusca) is found dead in his pool. He’s forced to conceal the truth to protect his family, triggering a chaotic night that threatens to unravel his seemingly perfect life.
The actor told Us that unlike his other notable roles — Zack in She’s All That, Ray in I Know What You Did Last Summer and Fred in Scooby-Doo, to name a few — Thomas is “ruled by compliments and criticism,” causing him to be an “emasculated” man who allows himself to be toyed with.
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“He’s like this beta personality that just can’t make a decision for himself,” Prinze Jr. explained. “He’s undisciplined, he’s cheating on his wife. He’s in the middle of an affair. And all those are all horrible things. And I loved that. I thought that was exciting to get to show people that kind of a character and what I could do with it.”
Despite being less than admirable — or let’s just say it, not very likable — throughout much of the film, Prinze Jr. said that The Girl in the Pool’s third act is where viewers will find some modicum of empathy for the character.
“You get this sort of moment of honesty and vulnerability for the first time from him,” he said. “And then I think there’ll be some connective tissue there for people to grab onto and go, ‘This son of a gun. This guy’s going through it.’ Granted, he did it to himself, but he keeps shooting himself with the second arrow.”
While Thomas faces his own issues on screen, Prinze Jr. found himself tackling his own challenges behind the camera. Production on the film lasted just two weeks and took place in one location, which made for an “intense” experience for the cast and crew.
“The amount of responsibility on you as the lead in that kind of a film — coming to the set, you have to know your stuff,” Prinze Jr. told Us. “You’re shooting 10 pages a day. Everybody’s depending on you to be there and be at your best. So I put a lot of pressure on myself to be that guy. I knew the responsibility of this character. I knew how hard it would be. I put a lot into him.”
Despite the pressure, Prinze Jr. had an “amazing experience” with The Girl in the Pool — something he credits to the people he enlisted to help bring the project to life. That included Monica Potter, a longtime friend whom Prinze Jr. met on the set of their 2001 movie, Head Over Heels.
“I know what I can count on from her. She’s an actor that keeps you on [your] toes. She has to be, because she’s worked with some legends that make you stay on your toes,” he gushed. “So she’s really, really good at it. And that helps me because I tend to get stuck in my own head and can get tunnel vision, then spiral out into that. So when somebody’s bringing new angles and throwing you different pitches than what you were expecting, it changes and alters your performance for the better.”
Potter, 53, plays Thomas’ wife in the film, and Prinze Jr. said their built-in chemistry helped the dynamic easily come to life. Although the duo hadn’t been in constant contact over the past two decades, the actor said that working together felt like “no time had passed.”
Potter also “saved” the film in many ways, Prinze Jr. said, by agreeing to take on the role just two days before shooting began.
“That’s how last-minute it was. I needed her help,” he admitted. “So when she came on, everybody worshiped Monica because she saved us from having to push and lose money. I mean, it was a small budget, independent film. Just to get financed was a success for me. The fact that we ended up with distribution is, like, just such a gift. But everybody loved Monica because she kind of saved us when she came in. I don’t even know if she knows she saved us.”
Between the cast — which also includes Kevin Pollack, Gabrielle Haugh and Tyler Lawrence Gray — a solid crew as well as a script he could get behind, Girl in the Pool is a project Prinze Jr. remains proud of. It also impressed his wife of 21 years, Sarah Michelle Gellar, who was just as thrilled to see the actor take on a new type of role as he was.
“If we didn’t support one another, we wouldn’t have lasted very long. So, when she sees me excited to do something new and different, she’s excited for her man to get to show people what he can do,” he told Us, adding that Gellar, 47, has “always been that way” since before they were dating. “Even when we were friends, it always felt like she had a vested interest and wanted me to do well. And it’s always vice versa with me and her.”
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Like Gellar, Prinze Jr. thinks viewers will thoroughly enjoy Girl in the Pool, which will keep them on their toes from start to finish.
“There’s definitely going to be a lot of questions in the second act. Like, ‘Hold on a second. Did this person do what I think they did or was it this other person?’ The second act is about people trying to figure it out,” he said. “The first act introduces it. And the third act is the family trying to fix what’s been broken.”
The Girl in the Pool is available on demand Friday, July 26.
For more on Prinze Jr.’s latest role, check out the latest issue of Us Weekly — which includes 12 additional pages, a redesigned look and new franchises readers will love — on newsstands now.
With reporting by Andrea Simpson
