Jennifer Love Hewitt was a ‘90s starlet who started out as a supporting character in Party of Five Season 2. But as her popularity kept growing with roles in the teen comedy Can’t Hardly Wait and the slasher film I Know What You Did Last Summer, her popularity dubbed her as a rising sex symbol at a young age. If the Texas native actress could advise her "pretty innocent" teen self, she reveals she knows exactly what she’d say.
Known by this generation for playing dispatcher Maddie Han in ABC's 9-1-1 (which returns with its 2025 TV premiere on March 6), Jennifer Love Hewitt’s beginnings in Hollywood certainly gave her desirable "girl next door" vibes. But when the Garfield actress told People about watching the Hulu documentary Framing Britney Spears, she said she could relate to the pop singer about being seen as a sex symbol at a young age and being asked demeaning questions during interviews.
The Golden Globe nominee spoke about the innocence of not being aware of her sex symbol status when she first started out in Hollywood and how she feels about it now:
I didn't really know what was happening. I was pretty innocent and didn't really know anything about my sexuality, yet I was on the cover of Maxim. I just went with it. I just knew that as I went along, the outfits on the photo shoots got smaller, and I knew that my brother got more worried, and my mom was like, 'Whoa, what's happening here?' Now, I look back on it and go, 'That's intense.'
I can understand the innocence for the actress as a teenager in Hollywood following the directions of higher-ups. Jennifer Love Hewitt’s early experience proves the challenges young starlets face when adults shape their images without knowing the consequences. I can imagine how scary it may have felt to look back at old photos of wearing small outfits and wondering how that could have been okay at the time.
Being new in the business, it appears that the Ghost Whisperer star was just trusting the process without real comprehension of it. Hewitt previously said when she would get asked about her boobs, she wouldn’t think twice about the inappropriateness of the questions. The talented actress knows in today’s age, you’d have more freedom to turn down indecent questions compared to feeling the need to laugh them off.
If only we could time travel and speak to our younger selves to better ease their worries of getting older! Jennifer Love Hewitt told People that she’d say to her 18-year-old self, “You don’t have to be sexy” and other useful pieces of advice:
I would tell her to calm down, that she's still going to be here at 45. I think that's what I was most panicked about at 18. It was like, 'How long does this last?' Now, at 45, I would tell that girl, 'We got this. We're going to be here for a while.'
The film/television star indeed is still here at 45. Other than continuing her role as Maddie on 9-1-1, 2025 looks to be a great year for Jennifer Love Hewitt. She’s got her new memoir Inheriting Magic: My Journey Through Grief, Joy, Celebration, and Making Every Day Magical in bookstores now about healing through grief, being a mother of three, and her love of party planning. Hewitt also decided to bring her Lifetime Christmas movie The Holiday Junkie to the real world by turning it into the brand 2021 Co. x Holiday Junkie, filled with holiday greeting cards and stationery gifts.
We can also look forward to seeing Jennifer Love Hewitt reprise an iconic role in which she ran for her life from a hooked serial killer. Yep, I Know What You Did Last Summer is getting a sequel and the Heartbreakers actress has confirmed her return. All we know about the upcoming horror film is that Freddie Prinze Jr. will return with a plot similar to 2022’s Scream in the legacy cast joining with a younger cast. My child of the ‘90s self is ready to see Hewitt bring back her iconic screams and the emotions she brought to her character of Julie in the first place.
Jennifer Love Hewitt may not have been aware during her "pretty innocent" teen years of her sex symbol status, but her adult self knows now how those early experiences have shaped her career and that her journey is far from over in her 40s. With I Know What You Did Last Summer 2 having a 2025 movie release on July 18 and 9-1-1 continuing to thrive in its eighth season, I know Love will keep spreading.
