I KNOW WHAT YOU DID LAST SUMMER: Jennifer Love Hewitt On The Evolution Of Julie James
"This version of Julie James is exactly as I wanted her to be."
How do you bring I Know What You Did Last Summer‘s final girl, Julie James, into 2025? Who is she now, and what has she been up to after surviving two encounters with a hook-wielding killer? Those questions were at the forefront for I Know What You Did Last Summer returning cast member Jennifer Love Hewitt when it came to reprising her role in the upcoming legacy sequel. By the time we catch up with Julie in 2025, a lot has gone down, and it seems she is quite frankly, sick of this shit. When it came to bringing a character fans are very familiar with back to the screen, more than 25 years after we last saw her, Jennifer Love Hewitt was very involved in the process of what that could and should look like.
“I think it was definitely my focus. It took a little bit to get there, mainly because of scheduling and getting together with Jen [director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson].” Love Hewitt shared. “But once we got on the phone, it was pretty immediate. We agreed that Julie did need to be sick of this shit and that she did need to be a person who felt like she had lived with 27 years of trauma.”
In the opening of the original I Know What You Did Last Summer, sweet girl next door Julie James jokes with boyfriend Ray Bronson (Freddie Prinze Jr.) that he’s going to meet “a black-wearing, tattooed, pierced, philosophy student” when he leaves the tiny town of Southport behind for New York. The description is the exact antithesis of who Julie James is when we first meet her in 1997. But after surviving two summers with a slicker-clad killer and losing friends and loved ones to the murder spree, two decades of trauma land Julie James closer to that edgy description than we may have anticipated.
“We did not want to see a healed person. I did not think that was interesting.” Love Hewitt emphasized, adding, “I didn't think that would be real, and it wouldn't do justice to the person who was on the road that night 27 years ago.”
This version of Julie James will feel familiar to franchise fans while also feeling like the character has grown with longtime
