Jennifer Love Hewitt recently shared insights into her involvement in planning the return of her character, Julie James, for the I Know What You Did Last Summer sequel.
In a recent conversation with Variety, the 48-year-old actress expressed her enthusiasm for helping to redefine her iconic role, nearly 30 years after first portraying Julie James.
Hewitt noted that she brought her extensive experience and insights to ensure Julie’s return in the horror movie felt authentic and impactful. In the original 1997 film, Julie was a scared teenager. However, in the latest sequel, she has evolved into a trauma professor who has survived not only killers but also a painful divorce from Ray Bronson.
The creative team actively sought suggestions from Hewitt on how her ’90s character would have developed over 27 years.
“They allowed space for me to know her better than anyone, which was so kind because they didn’t have to do that,” Hewitt told the outlet.
She gushed, “I felt very seen as somebody who had created her the first time.”
“It would’ve been very, very easy to make an all-new ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer,’ and put a line in there about Julie James and a line about Ray, and that could’ve been it. But the audience didn’t want us to be forgotten. And they didn’t want Brandy’s character Karla, to be forgotten. They wanted us to come back, and so we’re here,” she explained.
Furthermore, she highlighted that leading a horror movie in her late 40s sends a powerful message to young girls.
“It is showing young girls out there that we get older and you can’t count us out,” she said, adding, “The women in these horror movies that are coming back are strong. And they mean something in this world.”
