Freddie Prinze Jr. almost left acting after miserable experience filming I Know What You Did Last Summer

It has been reported that Freddie Prinze Jr. hasn’t yet been offered a role in an upcoming sequel to his 1997 breakout hit, I Know What You Did Last Summer, although it had already been published in the trades that he would be starring in it. Ironically, that original film was so miserable for the actor that he almost left the movie business altogether. According to Deadline, Prinze Jr. had clashed with the director of that film to the point of almost quitting mid-production.

While promoting his new podcast, That Was Pretty Scary, in an interview, Prinze Jr. opened up about the difficult time he was having with director Jim Gillespie on his first major Hollywood movie. “There was no passive aggressiveness — which I hate — (the director) was very direct in the fact that, ‘I don’t want you in this movie,’ So when that’s your first job and you hear those words, it just wrecks you, man. It just wrecks you,” Prinze Jr recalls. “It was very difficult waking up in the morning – or in the afternoon, because we shot a lot of nights – and go to work with the right attitude.” 

The actor described his experience as being “a struggle every day” and particularly wanted to quit following a near-death experience while filming a scene on a motorboat that had gone wrong. He added that a producer talked him out of departing, so he decided to finish so he wouldn’t leave co-stars Ryan Phillippe and Sarah Michelle Gellar “on the wire.” To note, the director, Gillespie, did not return with Prinze and co-star Jennifer Love Hewitt for the sequel, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. Instead, he would helm the troubled Sylvester Stallone slasher D-Tox (aka Eye See You) and hasn’t directed a film since 2016’s Take Down.

In the end, Prinze says he has no regrets, as the film launched his career and introduced him to his wife Sarah Michelle Gellar. While Prinze has yet to sign on for the potential “requel” of the I Know What You Did Last Summer franchise, fans would no doubt welcome his involvement with open arms.