Jennifer Love Hewitt opened up about being sexualized early in her career and “gross” comments about her body.
“It’s interesting, I just watched the Britney Spears documentary, and there’s that whole section in there talking about her breasts,” the 42-year-old actress told Vulture in a piece published Monday about her role in “Heartbreakers” in 2001. (RELATED: Natalie Portman Opens Up About Being Sexualized As A Child)
“I was really tired of that conversation.” https://t.co/4dlG5kC88G
— Glamour (@glamourmag) March 30, 2021
“At the time that I was going through it, and interviewers were asking what now would be incredibly inappropriate, gross things, it didn’t feel that way,” she added. “I mean, I was in barely any clothing the whole movie. For some reason, in my brain, I was able to just go, Okay, well, I guess they wouldn’t be asking if it was inappropriate.” (RELATED: ‘Stranger Things’ Star Natalia Dyer Reportedly Says Cast Over-Sexualized By Media)
But now looking back, the actress said the questions she got during interviews were clearly not appropriate.
“But now, as a 42-year-old woman with a daughter, I definitely look back on it and go, Ew,” the “Ghost Whisperer” star explained. “And it really started with ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer,’ because that was the first time that I had worn a low top, and on ‘Party of Five,’ my body was very covered.”
“At a press junket for ‘I Know or I Still Know What You Did Last Summer,’ I remember purposely wearing a T-shirt that said ‘Silicone Free’ on it because I was so annoyed, and I knew something about boobs was gonna be the first question out of [reporters’] mouths,” she added. “I was really tired of that conversation.”
“With Heartbreakers, that was a big part of it. I was disappointed that it was all about body stuff, because I had really worked hard in that movie to do a good job as an actress,” Jennifer continued. “So I remember one specific moment wishing that the acting had overshadowed all that — that for five minutes, they had said I was really great in the movie versus made a body comment.”
The superstar actress said now she looks back on those moments and said she wished she knew back then “how inappropriate” it was for them to talk about her “boobs and body stuff” so she could have “defended” herself “somehow or just not answered those questions.”