When we talk about 90s horror movies, Wes Craven’s Scream is the first thing that comes to mind. Shortly afterwards, however, “I know what you did last summer” by Jim Gillespie follows, which also became an absolute blockbuster. Responsible for the success of the shocker, which is currently streaming for free on Amazon Prime Video, was in no small part the insanely attractive cast, which included then-fresh faces like Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Ryan Phillippe and Freddie Prince Jr.
In fact, I Know What You Did Last Summer was Freddie Prinze Jr.’s first major Hollywood production. In an interview with in which the actor wrote for his new podcast, “beat the drum, he also touched on filming the cult horror — and it was anything but pretty for Freddie Prinze Jr.:
“There was no passive aggressiveness – which I hate by the way – the director was very direct about it and told me: “I don’t want you in this movie.” So if this is your first job and you hear those words it breaks you. It just breaks you.”
Freddie Prince Jr. almost gave up his career
Like Freddie Prince Jr. then makes it clear in his podcast, he suffered greatly, even on his way to the set: “Every day was a struggle. It was very difficult to wake up in the morning – or in the afternoon because we’ve been shooting a lot of nights – and go to work with the right attitude.” In fact, he almost broke up after what Prinze Jr. calls a “near death experience” during a motorboat scene, he explains:
“I almost caught a flight and just went home. I was done. I had enough of it. They had broken a lot of union things they shouldn’t have, like union rules and all sorts of other things. In the evening I packed my suitcase. I just wanted to give up the business.”
Today, Freddie Prince Jr. however, glad a producer encouraged him to just keep going, because “I Know What You Did Last Summer” didn’t just launch his career. He also met his wife Sarah Michelle Gellar during filming.
The only curious thing is that director Jim Gillespie faces it in 2017 testified that no one Freddie Prinze Jr. wanted in the film and that he was particularly keen to give the then budding actor the role in the horror film.
We’ll probably never know the whole truth, but another I Know What You Did Last Summer sequel is currently in development. So after “I still remember what you did last summer” (which the author of these lines credits even more than his predecessor as an absolute idiot party) and “I’ll always know what you did last summer”, this would be nice are like the fourth part. You can find more about the project here: