ENTERTAINMENTFreddie Prinze Jr. Admits He Was 'Hesitant' to Sign Onto New 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' Movie: I Am 'Not the Same Guy'
Freddie Prinze Jr. opened up about returning to 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' and reuniting with Jennifer Love Hewitt.
July 17 2025, Published 7:30 a.m. ET
Freddie Prinze Jr. wasn’t initially convinced about returning to the I Know What You Did Last Summer franchise, but then a compelling pitch drew him back in.
He initially expressed concern that the filmmakers would not provide significant character growth.
Freddie Prinze Jr. admitted he was hesitant to jump back into 'I Know What You Did Last Summer.'
"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, said in an interview.
That changed when his friend Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, who cowrote and directed the new film, approached him with her vision. "I know you’re gonna say no, but let me just pitch you my version of this movie," she said. "And she put so much thought and so much soul into Julie and Ray."
Prinze Jr. became a household name after starring alongside Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ryan Phillippe and now-wife, Sarah Michelle Gellar, in the original 1997 I Know What You Did Last Summer. He played the affable and heroic Ray Bronson, who mistakenly runs down a stranger on July 4th weekend.
Over the years, Prinze Jr. hasn’t shied away from discussing his rocky relationship with director Jim Gillespie on the first film. Gillespie initially pitched Jeremy Sisto as Ray, but the studio ultimately decided against it. Despite the challenges on set, Prinze Jr. and Hewitt both returned for the 1998 sequel, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer, this time directed by Danny Cannon.
Freddie Prinze Jr. said there were some hurdles while filming 'I Know What You Did Last Summer.'
The original cast wasn't in the third film, 2006’s I’ll Always Know What You Did Last Summer, nor the 2021 Prime Video series that ended after one season. However, Robinson’s vision for the new installment was too enticing for Prinze Jr. and Hewitt to decline.
"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. noted. "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."
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Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar are now married.
The latest I Know What You Did Last Summer picks up decades after Julie and Ray last faced off against the fisherman Ben Willis. When five friends become the targets of a mysterious killer after a deadly car accident a year prior, Ray and Julie discover that their past may be repeating itself.
Prinze Jr. admitted he felt "pressure" while "breaking down" the scenes before filming, but with a "well written" script, the worries diminished. "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 explained. "That really wasn’t the case with this."
Recalling his first scene with Hewitt in the new film, Prinze Jr. said they slipped right back into their chemistry, delivering some of their best work together. "It was just so natural and so easy and so organic and true to the characters," he remarked.
Prinze Jr. emphasized that Julie and Ray are not merely cameos in the film. "They’re major characters," he clarified. "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."
The new film isn't just about the familiar faces. It also introduces a new generation of actors, including Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King, Tyriq Withers and Sarah Pidgeon, who Prinze Jr. praised as "phenomenal" additions to the cast.
Freddie Prinze Jr. called his 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' castmates 'phenomenal.'
"It was such a pleasure to get to work with them and see how tight they were," he said. "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.
