"It's the reason you'll like or hate the movie at the end of the day."
MAJOR I Know What You Did Last Summer spoilers below. Stop here if you haven't seen the movie yet, (what are you waiting for, huh?) and come back later. We'll be waiting for you. If you've already seen the movie, let's get right to it.
Freddie Prinze Jr. finally got to play a villain. In a 2023 interview, Prinze expressed his desire to try his hand at playing the bad guy for once. To which Ron Perlman essentially responded – never gonna happen. More specifically, Prinze said Perlman told him, “This town will never let you have my career, pretty boy.”
Well, Freddie finally got his wish. In Jennifer Kaytin Robinson's (Do Revenge) I Know What You Did Last Summer legacy sequel, the final reveal has split longtime fans of the franchise with the reveal of nice guy Ray Bronson gone bad. Ray is actually one half of a killer duo; his counterpart in carnage is a new character, Stevie, and together, the two wreak havoc on Southport once again.
Prinze explained there had to be a reason behind Ray's switch-up from hero to villain. “It was an easy sell once Jen told me the end of the movie, but I still needed a reason why. Otherwise, it doesn't make sense. The reason why had to work for me, and she applied trauma to this turn that Ray has. Since we're talking spoilers, he's willing to kill, and there's the fact that he never dealt with that trauma.”
Robinson provides two very different looks at the trauma inflicted upon the survivors. Returning character Julie James, played by Jennifer Love Hewitt, has some heated arguments with Ray, rooted in how the two have handled their shared trauma in essentially opposite ways. “You see how
character Julie has dealt with that trauma, and they have that scene in the beginning where she is warning him, if you don't fucking deal with this, that's a wrap. He's like, ‘Yo, I deal with it every day.' But that's a broken man talking to you. Trauma either makes you or breaks you.
It was very challenging and scary to play a broken character when I loved him so much as a strong
blue collar
average guy
,
earned every dollar he ever made.
Was never given anything. It was a lot.
So that reason
why
had to ring true to me.
When Jennifer [Robinson] gave me the reason and showed me how this trauma
kind of
destroyed him over these
20 plus
years, I was all in.”
But Prinze is fully aware that not everyone will be behind this particular character arc. “We take some big swings with this movie. I know some diehard Ray fans are going to be like, ‘What the hell man? That's my guy. Don't do that to me.' Just know this: whether you loved it or whether it pissed you off, I committed my heart and soul to this character, to that performance, to that moment, to make it as truthful and organic and vulnerable as I know how to make it. Whether you got mad or not, just know I loved it and I committed everything to it in the hopes that you'll click with that and you'll love it too.”
For longtime I Know What You Did Last Summerfans, it's a heartbreaking storyline for franchise final girl Julie James and final boy Ray Bronson. After surviving two previous installments stalked by a slicker wearing, hook wielding maniac, it seems Julie and Ray almost get their happy ending in I Still Know What You Did Last Summer. Until the maniac jumps out from under the bed to pull Julie under.
But in the latest installment, we see they survived whatever that was, and they even got married. Before going through an ugly, bitter divorce. For fans who have any ounce of love for these characters, it is a sad moment to see how far Ray has fallen. And that's intended.
“It should be a heartbreaking moment because you see how broken this guy really is. I'm not saying it's not his fault, but in his mind, in his broken perspective, what else could he do? If you watch the movie a second time and you watch that first scene with Julie and Ray again, you'll kind of see how he could spiral into that world. I thought Love [Jennifer Love Hewitt] expressed that moment really, really well and effectively without it being on the nose at all. She kind of swallowed the line and just let it play. I think on a second viewing, people can see that, but I loved the turn in this so, so much. It's the reason I did the movie. I love Ray more than anyone, I promise.”
Prinze revealed he had an idea of what was coming during our conversation last summer, but of course, he couldn't reveal anything yet. “I remembered that conversation we had about me wanting to be the bad guy or a corpse, and I really didn't want to be a corpse. I wanted to be the bad guy more. I kind of already had a couple of conversations with Jen when you and I had that conversation. I was already getting excited, but it was one of those things where I thought it was so special I didn't want anyone to know.”
As for that divisive reveal, Prinze took great care with this character, which he has been the keeper of for nearly three decades now. “I cared about it so much. I cared about the end of this movie. I care about the whole movie, but I care about the end of this movie so much because it's viable. It's the reason you'll like or hate the movie at the end of the day.”
Now that Prinze has had a taste of the dark side, are there more villainous roles in his future? “I got my fill. I got my fix, so I'm pretty satisfied with that. But as the opportunities come, I'll always see if I can connect to a character, and if I think I can kick ass, I'll definitely go after it.”
I Know What You Did Last Summer is now playing in theaters. You can read more about IKWYDLS in FANGORIA #28 where you’ll find an awesome piece by our very own Meredith Borders AND bylines by Freddie Prinze Jr. and Jennifer Love Hewitt making their FANGORIA contributor debuts.
Watch our spoiler-filled interview with Freddie Prinze Jr. below. For more, check out our interview with Jenniffer Love Hewitt on bringing Julie James into 2025.
