Freddie Prinze Jnr. got his start in I Know What You Did Last Summer. He hated making that movie.

In 1997, Freddie Prinze Jr. hit the big time.

The actor, who had roles in small-scale projects and even made an appearance on Family Matters, became a star after the writer for I Know What You Did Last Summer came knocking.

Gifted with undeniable talent, Prinze Jr. got to debut his acting chops to the world in the slasher-horror film franchise. 

But the actor's time filming wasn't exactly peaceful, with Prinze Jr. admitting to TooFab that the film's director, Jim Gillespie, didn't even want him on set. 

Watch the trailer for I Know What You Did Last Summer. Post continues after video. 

Gillespie made it no secret he preferred another actor to play the role of Jennifer Love Hewitt's love interest, Ray Bronson. 

"It’s not that we weren’t on the same page, I knew what the correct choices were for the Ray character. He wanted a different actor, a really good actor named Jeremy Sisto, who I know and I like and respect very, very much,"  Prinze Jr. explained.

He went on to say Gillespie "made no bones about his feelings." 

"There was no passive aggressiveness – which I hate – he was very direct in the fact that, 'I don’t want you in this movie'," he said. 

Gillespie sort of admitted to thinking less of Prinze Jr. in a 2017 interview, when he told Digital Spy "nobody" wanted the actor for the role because "they thought he was too soft, he wasn’t muscular enough, so Freddie probably screen-tested four or five times."

I Know What You Did Last Summer, 1997. Image: Columbia Pictures.

"He got to the point where he was saying, 'I’m done', and I really had to plead with him to stick with it because I wanted him," Gillespie added. "I thought he was going to be great with it. He went to the gym and worked out, changed his diet and his hair cut. I stuck to my guns and eventually, they went, 'Yes.'"

While Prinze Jr. said he had writer Kevin Williamson and the movie's studio on his side, the actor loathed the director and called him an "a**hole" who made it a "struggle to finish work" every day. 

"I wanted to fight that guy two or three different times. Once I felt was a legitimate reason, and the other two I was just pissed off, which, that’s not right," he admitted. "I’m glad everybody talked me down."

Jim Gillespie on the set of I Know What You Did Last Summer. Image: Daily Record.

The isolation only intensified when Prinze Jr. would come to set and find out that Gillespie "would bring the other actors together without me, and give them all notes."

For himself, he allegedly received "psychotic notes like, 'Don’t leave your mouth open. You look stupid when you do that.'"

"That was the exact note, word for word, I’ll never forget it," the actor recalled. "And I’m like, 'I’m either gonna break down or I have to beat this guy’s a**.'"

Thankfully, he found solace in his co-star Ryan Phillippe.

"Ryan came up to me and was like, 'Screw that guy, man. How many times did you audition for this movie?' and I go, 'Five times.' He goes, 'Yeah, you earned it. You didn’t get offered the role, you earned it,'" Prinze Jr. recalled. "He was the first person to say that to me."

It got to the point where he was "in pain" and "almost quit the movie" altogether after suffering a near-death experience while filming the final scene on a motorboat. 

Prinze Jr accused people working on the film of breaking "a tonne of union stuff they shouldn't have."

"I almost caught a flight and went home. I was done. I had enough. They had broken a tonne of union stuff that they shouldn't have, like union rules," he said. "All kinds of things. And I just felt like, 'Yo, if I’m not wanted here, screw it.' [There are] other things I can do. I dropped out of Le Cordon Bleu to make this movie. I'll go be a chef, that's what my mom wanted me to be anyways. I packed my bags that night. I was just gonna quit the business."

Listen to Cancelled, hosted by Clare and Jessie Stephens. Post continues after audio. 

A producer calmed him down and the actor decided to stay, a decision he made because of his co-stars and the crew who needed him. 

All in all, Prinze Jr. thinks he was treated the way he was due to filming conditions. 

"I’m sure he’s a hero in someone else’s story. I’m sure he helped someone else out and they loved him. But for me, he took a lot of frustration out on me," he said. "He was a first-time director; he didn’t have a lot of time; he didn’t have the budget he wanted; he didn’t have the actor he wanted, and he didn’t know how to deal with that frustration."

He went on to say he's actually thankful for Gillespie's poor treatment of him. 

"It prepared me for this business in a way – it sounds weird to say this – I'm forever grateful for Jim for being such an asshole because I've never met one like that since," the actor explained. "I've been prepared for every lesser A-hole in the business."

While his relationship with Gillespie was ruined but the silver lining is I Know What You Did Last Summer wasn't just the launchpad for his career but it gave him the tools and knowledge to deal with difficult situations in Hollywood. 

It was also where he met his co-star, Sarah Michelle Gellar, who later became his wife. 

Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar, 2000. Image: Getty.

The pair didn't begin dating until three years after the film was released but they now share two kids together; 13-year-old Charlotte and 10-year-old Rocky.

"In hindsight, I'm not upset, because that movie launched my whole career. I wouldn't have any of the things I have without that movie, I wouldn't have my wife, I wouldn't have all the other movies I've done, I wouldn't have this podcast," he said. "We wouldn't be doing this interview. I'm here because of that struggle and because of that pain and it was those things."

"It was the hardest job that I've ever done," he said, "and I'm just glad I got it out of the way that early."

Feature Image: Columbia Pictures.

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