Interview Excerpts
Jennifer Love Hewitt: "They're gonna be scared out of their mind that people their age - in such a real setting, in a real town, in a real place, in a small town which most people run to to get away from scary things - not even in this small town can you hide from this horrific thing." [Source: DVD]
Jennifer Love Hewitt: "A lot of the scenes we've done so far I've been literally truthfully terrified. Like a lot of the terrifying scenes I'm not acting, I'm really scared of this stuff - I see it for the first time when we roll." [Source: DVD]
Jennifer Love Hewitt: "There isn't anything that is going to keep these people from this horrific thing - that's like crowding their lives and that's so scary, that's so scary because most people will think that you can run into your house and you can be safe in your house. She's not safe in her house - none of these kids are safe in their house." [Source: DVD]
Jennifer Love Hewitt: "All of this stuff going on, and all these people's worlds are basically falling apart and they will never ever ever be the same and it's one mistake, one night for no reason at all and it's very very scary." [Source: DVD]
Jennifer Love Hewitt: "Her mom says, 'You've got some mail'. Here's her letter, she picks it up from the table and it simply says 'I know what you did last summer' on it. And to anybody else that would mean absolutely nothing but to her that's her world just falling to pieces right there again. Because not only has she made a really bad decision - she's murdered somebody - but now somebody else was there that night, knows that she did it, probably knows exactly what she looks like and is either gonna turn her in, is gonna hurt her really really badly, or can chose to haunt her for the rest of her life." [Source: DVD]
Jennifer Love Hewitt: "When I read the script I was terrified - like I wouldn't keep the script in my room." [Source: DVD]
Jennifer Love Hewitt: "It's almost like that's the moment when you can't breathe." [Source: DVD]
Jennifer Love Hewitt: "You never know where he's gonna turn up. Ever. Which is why I'm scared to go home at night (laughs)." [Source: DVD]
Jennifer Love Hewitt: "My friends are like, 'we have to go see this movie because it's really gonna freak us out.'" [Source: DVD]
Jennifer Love Hewitt: They're having a little too much fun and they end up hitting a man [...] and trying to make a decision on whether they're going to go to the police and tell them that they've hit this guy or whether they're just gonna leave him for dead. [Source: E! True Hollywood Story - Scream Queens]
Jennifer Love Hewitt: And their decision comes back to torture her a year later. And a year later she is completely, completely different. She now - a girl who used to have tonnes of life to her has none left. [Source: E! True Hollywood Story - Scream Queens]
Jennifer Love Hewitt: Through this, through the movie and this murderer sort of running around chasing her, torturing her basically she regains strength and becomes the person that she was before. [Source: E! True Hollywood Story - Scream Queens]
Jennifer Love Hewitt: I never watched horror films before because they scared me. And so it was a chance for me to face my biggest fear and during the movie I - there was a scene where I saw somebody dead and started hyperventilating and freaked out and started crying and a lot of the scary stuff has been real. [Source: E! True Hollywood Story - Scream Queens]
Sarah Michelle Gellar: "They were such interesting characters and for me Helen was such a change, it was a real departure, and it was something I really wanted to do. I also love horror, I love being scared, I love thrillers and I think it's so rare that things actually scare you." [Source: DVD]
Sarah Michelle Gellar: "There's alcohol in the car. What happens, what do you do? Do you go to the police? You're gonna fry for this. They're gonna go to prison and be tried as adults. Or do they get rid of the body? And it's a great dilemma." [Source: DVD]
Sarah Michelle Gellar: "There's a horrible horrible chase scene where she knows this is it - I mean he's gonna kill her, if he gets her he's gonna kill her. And that's kind of it for her so she really has to, she's really running for her life at this point. Up until then the fisherman was using scary tactics, he was frightening them, he was sending them letters, he was toying with them, he was playing them. Now it's serious." [Source: DVD]
Sarah Michelle Gellar: "No one likes to be scared in real life but when you know it's for fun I think it's an exciting thing, it's an adrenalin rush. I've always liked really good thrillers." [Source: DVD]
Sarah Michelle Gellar: "She's incredibly frightened - as anyone would be in this situation." [Source: DVD]
Sarah Michelle Gellar: "They're terrified, they're not in control, they don't know what to do." [Source: DVD]
Sarah Michelle Gellar: It's really terrifying. I think what I've always said - and as I'm becoming more of an expert of horror and thrillers - the things that scare us most, what terrifies us most is what could actually happen. [Source: E! True Hollywood Story - Scream Queens]
Sarah Michelle Gellar: "Well I think that's what Kevin's genius is - is now, you know, I think towards the late 70s, early 80s, horror became almost comedy. It was comical, it was funny, it was the big breasted girl and you knew as soon as she got naked she was gonna get it. And there was lots of decapitation and body parts being severed and that's not scary, it's funny. And I think what Kevin's done is he's made it scary again because he hits you where it hurts. He makes you scared up here and that's what scares us because it's things that could actually happen. And then what he does is, you have something funny and you get totally confused and you get thrown off track and you're laughing and then all of a sudden, boom, you get scared again and then there's a touching moment - something that you might relate to, that you might understand or might have happened to you - and then, boom, yet scared again. And that's what makes the movies work and especially this one I think."
Sarah Michelle Gellar: You know what, I wish I knew what it was he did, because then I'd be the greatest actor going, because if I could follow the things - the ways he got us there. But my problem is once I do a scene I literally have amnesia - I'm blank, I don't remember if I said my lines, what happened. But he would get you to this level, he'd talk this scene, and he'd make you feel these things and it was horrifying. Not to mention the fact that we were such a close cast. We were four of us in this small town in North Carolina for two and half months with no-one else but ourselves. So if you're watching a scene and there's someone else in it and they're getting hurt it's very hard in your mind to differentiate between Ryan and Barry, Freddie and Ray, or Love and Julie. Because all I see is Ryan getting hurt, I see Freddie, and it plays really weird tricks on your mind - the blur, it becomes a real blur, the line between reality and fiction."
Ryan Phillippe: "He just got this letter and maybe it did affect him on some level and make him think about what they had done and sort of think, but as he's leaving he hears his car - without him driving it - pulling away. And things kind of get hectic then and he ends up being chased." [Source: DVD]
Ryan Phillippe: "It is an accident - it's the period of time that follows where we make the mistakes and decide to try to cover this thing up that really destroys all four of us." [Source: DVD]
Ryan Phillippe: "It's not Freddy Krueger, it's not Jason - we're being chased by a guy who is stoppable. But, if you don't know who he is, how can you stop him?" [Source: DVD]
Ryan Phillippe: "Sometimes you're watching the monitor and you're watching things being filmed and you know the outcome and you know the story but it's still incredibly creepy, it's still really frightening because of the look of it and the feel of it." [Source: DVD]
Ryan Phillippe: "Just the anxiety of knowing that you did something so awful - no one else does - and you're waiting to be found out." [Source: DVD]
Ryan Phillippe: "It's all things that are incredibly plausible and I think that makes it that much more frightening." [Source: DVD]
Ryan Phillippe: "All it says on the letter is 'I know what you did last summer' - there's no return address, there's no name, nothing." [Source: DVD]
Ryan Phillippe: "And the fear seems to surround you more." [Source: DVD]
Freddie Prinze Jr: "When I was in the fourth grade in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I read a book by Lois Duncan - it was called "I Know What You Did Last Summer". And a lot of her books that I'd read before were offbeat but they never scared me. And in the fourth grade I opened up this book and I was like terrified for like a month." [Source: DVD]
Freddie Prinze Jr: "They had all these plans and in one split second they're forced to make a decision that's gonna change their lives forever. And it's just frightening what they have to experience - no eighteen year old should have to experience it." [Source: DVD]
Freddie Prinze Jr: "They're driving down Reaper's Curve and Ray opts to drive because Barry's been drinking way too much and they hit what they think is an animal and what they later find out - they see a boot - and unfortunately they walk a little further and they see a body." [Source: DVD]
Freddie Prinze Jr: "He's a real person with real motives as to why he's hunting these four people - literally hunting them - and he has them all four terrified because he uses his mind and he plays mind games with all four of the characters." [Source: DVD]
Freddie Prinze Jr: "Well everybody wants to get scared. Every girl wants - I think, I hope - wants to cuddle with her boyfriend a little more, and every boy is praying that she gets scared and holds on to him. And I think - at least as far as my history goes - I mean everybody wants that good fright whether it be from a roller coaster or playing hide and go seek or going to see scary movies." [Source: DVD]
Freddie Prinze Jr: "Kevin Williamson wrote it - who I'm - he brought horror film back to what it should be for a movie called 'Scream.'" [Source: DVD]
Kevin Williamson: "I think the horror genre is definitely back, I mean I think it's back with a vengeance. The trick is now it's different, I think it's escalated - the audiences are more sophisticated so what you have to do is give them the unexpected." [Source: DVD]
Kevin Williamson: "If you bury the past you gotta make sure it stays buried and in this case it's coming for them." [Source: DVD]
Jim Gillespie: "We like to be frightened, we like to be held in suspense." [Source: DVD]
Jim Gillespie: "What I was looking for was the ability of the two girls. Sarah Michelle Gellar - 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' - that is now a hit show. Jennifer Love Hewitt - 'Party of Five' - is a well known face." [Source: DVD]
Neil H. Moritz (producer): "I think what Kevin Williamson and director Jim Gillespie have created are great characters that we want to see live - we don't want to see get hooked." [Source: DVD]
Neil H. Moritz (producer): [re: Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr.] "When we were doing 'I Know What You Did Last Summer,' I would have never thought of those two together" ... "I just found them to be so different. But when I see them out or at dinner, they just genuinely care so much about each other." [Source: Entertainment Weekly, June 2002]
Erik Feig (producer): "Ryan has the classic movie star good looks but you actually see underneath and he's a much more complex character. And Freddie Prinze Jr. - plays Ray in the movie - brings so much heart to it and so much soul." [Source: DVD]
Stokely Chaffin (producer): "They have to pay for what they've done, but they have to pay in a way that's far out of scale with what really happened." [Source: DVD]
Muse Watson: "They were terrific. Although I don't see them often, I consider them friends. We had a great time getting to know each other." [When asked, "How was it working with super teen stars, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze, Jr?] [Source: Slasher News]
Other Commments: The website A Scream in Southport used to include a number of interview soundbites from the cast and crew which are unfortunately no longer available. They included: [Jennifer talks about the sequel] [Sarah talking about the sequel] [Jennifer talking about having to scream] [Jennifer and Jim Gillespie discussing stupid characters] [Sarah tells us what the movie is about] [Jennifer about what they did for fun] [Sarah discussing big and small budget movies] [Jennifer and Sarah: It's not Scream] [Sarah talks about what scared her while filming]
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