Freddie Prinze Jr. Almost Died on the Set of ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’

Recently Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jennifer Love Hewitt delighted horror fans with talk of the two returning to the I Know What You Did Last Summer franchise after 25 years. Hardcore fans might be surprised however, given Prinze’s recent revelation that he almost died while doing a poorly thought out stunt in the 1997 original. Prinze told the story as a guest on Chris Van Vliet’s show:

There was a stunt where to save money they sent the stunt crew home and they wanted me to drive this dinghy with an outboard motor over the wake of this boat. We do the rehearsal and the boat is not safe to do this jump and I fly out of the boat and it goes right over my head — the outboard engine — I don’t know how close it was but it felt like it was a millimeter away. I get out of the water and I’m pissed and the director comes up to me and he’s like ‘You told me you knew how to drive a speedboat.’ And I’m like yes I do, that’s not a speedboat, it’s a dingy with and outboard motor, what are you… you’re mad at me? And he’s like ‘We have to do it again.’ And I’m like… I’m not doing that again.

Prinze also said that he had a hard time working for the director in general, as he made sure that Prinze knew he was not the director’s first choice for the role “every single day”.

Despite his experience on the I Know What You Did Last Summer films, Prinze says that horror has always been his favorite genre of film and the only reason he hasn’t been in more horror movies is that the opportunities haven’t presented themselves. “I had a real bad experience on the first one and a real special experience on the second one and I’ve been looking for a horror film ever since then but either the ones that came my way I didn’t like or the ones I liked didn’t come my way.”

Further reading:

• Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. in Talks to Return for ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ Sequel
• Is ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’ Based on a True Story?