Freddie Prinze Jr. is a lifelong horror fan, a monster kid from the jump, and he wants to play a villain. "It's something I always wanted, and it just never worked out." Prinze is a (spoiler!) final boy of the I Know What You Did Last Summer franchise, but he's dreamed of having a career akin to Ron Perlman's. A dream Prinze says Perlman responded to with, "This town will never let you have my career, pretty boy." When it comes to the upcoming I Know What You Did Last Summer sequel, Prinze says he is not currently signed on for the project.
"I don't like speaking for other actors, but only the director and writer have deals. I haven't spoken to anyone there except the director, because she's a friend of ours. Her name's Jen Robinson. She did that Do Revenge movie on Netflix that my wife [Sarah Michelle Gellar] did. But officially, they have offered me nothing. I haven't heard from their studio. I haven't heard boo from them. So no, I'm not officially attached at all."
Prinze is game to join the project, but we're still hoping to see him realize his dream of playing a horror movie villain.
As a lifelong horror fan with an inside perspective of the industry and the genre, it makes all the sense in the world that Prinze and friend/co-host Jon Lee Brody have started their That Was Pretty Scary podcast, breaking down all the horror films they've loved in their collective personal cinematic history. For the inaugural episode, Prinze watches I Know What You Did Last Summer for the first time ever (with wife and co-star Sarah Michelle Gellar) and breaks down the hellacious shoot. The inception of the podcast was pretty simple. Prinze says Brody approached him with, "Dude, we should do a podcast on every horror movie we've ever seen." Prinze credits Brody with introducing him to a lot of Asian cult horror films. When setting out to create their podcast lineup, focusing only on the films they wanted to highlight and celebrate was important.
"We made a promise to each other to only discuss movies we love because I don't want to bag on anything. Then I have a unique perspective as far as being an actor and a writer and being in one. And Jon has a unique perspective being a director. He's James Wan's protégé. All your fans know who James Wan is. He made my horror movies not scary anymore."
Prinze also chats about Scooby Doo fandom, first crush Elvira, and Kevin Williamson kicking down the door to usher in a whole new wave of teen screams. After auditioning for Scream, Prinze was asked to be more "edgy." And then he saw Skeet Ulrich, "the edgiest motherfucker I've ever seen in my life!" But that audition led to I Know What You Did Last Summer, also penned by Williamson. As an IKWYDLS survivor, Prinze didn't get to have an FX cast made of his body to double as a corpse because he doesn't have a death scene. But he didn't let that stop him. "I just remember being jealous, and I didn't want anyone to know I was jealous. I'm in my trailer and I'm like, 'Man, I got to find out who made them.'"
The answer to Prinze's question — Matt Mungle. After being asked for an introduction, Prinze had his own custom corpse created, which he kept on display for over a decade. "It melted after a decade. It lasted a long time. Those jabronis didn't even take theirs with them. Sarah [Michelle Gellar] and Ryan [Phillippe] didn't even ask!" Well, we love that Freddie's got a love for FX work, and he should have taken home all the heads! Check out our full conversation below and listen to the That Was Pretty Scary podcast on Wondery and wherever you get your podcasts.
