Actress Jennifer Love Hewitt, who is known for her work in films such as ‘I Know What You Did Last Summer’, ‘Can’t Hardly Wait’ and ‘The Tuxedo’ among others, spoke about how she was sexualised as a teenager and the difficulties of aging in Hollywood.
Finding fame at such a young age came with its difficulties, and she opened up about her feelings during that time while speaking on ‘Inside of You’ podcast, reports deadline.com.
“I felt watched. I felt like I had to be everything for everybody all the time,” Hewitt said.
“I was called sexy before I ever knew what being sexy was. I was 17-years-old on the cover of Maxim, and I had no idea why.”
Hewitt also noted that she finds it “weird” when people want her to continue being the girl that she was back then, adding: “That girl was so insecure and so confused. But this girl — who may not look (that) way — I like who I am. I feel good. I’m fine.”
Hewitt also spoke about the complexities of aging in front of cameras and being proud of the age she is now.
The actress made headlines earlier this year when she appeared in a photo with short hair and a filter that some deemed made her look “unrecognizable.”
“Aging in Hollywood is really hard. It’s really hard because you can’t do anything right,” she said.
Of the infamous photo, she said: “The picture ended up somewhere. And a bunch of people were like, ‘Jennifer Love Hewitt is unrecognisable. She’s unrecognisable and so she’s gone to filters because she doesn’t want us to know how bad she actually looks now in her 40s.’ And I was like, ‘This is crazy.’ Right?”
Hewitt then explained she started sharing photos with filters to counteract all the negativity and jokingly said she didn’t have any filters. The star said she received flack for that, too, which made her conclude she was not going to make everyone happy.
“To pretend that we don’t (care) is a lie. We’re human, and yes, they’re known as haters,” she said. “But it’s human nature to be like, ‘What do people think about me?’ I’ve been an actor for 36 years… You don’t want to care what people think about you. But you have to care what people think about you. You want to know what’s out there.”
She continued: “The only reason those people bother me… I am a mother of a girl. And it’s dangerous what we put on people. It’s dangerous, I think, to say to women, ‘You can’t look like you’re not 22 to me anymore, because I don’t know how to take that.’ OK, well, that’s your problem! ‘Cause I’m 44 and this is what I look like.”
