Jennifer Love Hewitt Reveals About Red Carpet Doubts at 46 — & Why She Showed up Anyway
Jennifer Love Hewitt nailed her red carpet look at the I Know What You Did Last Summer premiere on July 14. But that moment almost didn’t happen.
The 46-year-old actress shared with Us Weekly that she was struggling with some inner doubts about walking the press line on her big night.
“I had so many amazing things said about that night, and then, there were so many other things said about that night, which we don’t even need to go into,” she said to the media outlet. “I felt good. I really did. I felt good standing there in that moment. There were times where I was like, ‘Do I want to go to this premiere? Do I want to stand on this red carpet at 46 and be surrounded by all these incredibly gorgeous, young 20-something people? How is that going to feel? What’s that going to do?’”
In the end, Hewitt realized that she “wanted to be there” and felt like she “earned the right to be there” — and she’s right. She kicked off the I Know What You Did Last Summer franchise as Julie James in 1997, and without her presence, the red carpet would have missed her sparkle. Still, the conversation about Hewitt’s body on social media was uncomfortable to read at times.
She looked amazing in a sparkling, black tea-length dress as she confidently posed for the cameras. But she knows that there have been discussions about her “sex symbol” body even as a teen on Party of Five. “Before I even knew what sex was, I was a sex symbol. I still don’t know that I have that fully defined for myself because it started so weird,” she told Vulture recently.
That narrative took a different turn in 2007 when a tabloid magazine wrote a horrible caption while she was on the beach enjoying a vacation with her then-boyfriend. They wrote, “Stop Calling Me Fat!”
“I was having the time of my life. I had made up the dumbest song about eating snacks and playing in the ocean, and I was singing it to my boyfriend out loud, doing some weird dance move, and they got the picture, and then it was on the cover,” Hewitt recalled. “I don’t think I was ever really insecure until that cover.”
Hewitt added, “And then when it happened, I don’t know that I’ve ever recovered from it. Because there’s a part of me that’s always like, ‘Is this version going to be good enough, or is that going to happen again?’”
Hewitt has more than earned her place in Hollywood, and she deserved every delicious moment on that red carpet to shine.
Before you go, click here for more celebrities who’ve spoken out about being body-shamed.