"Hot Summer Son"

by Louis B. Hobson--Calgary Sun, 11/6/97

   What were you doing last summer?

    When he wasn't being dragged behind a speeding boat, Freddie Prinze Jr. was sliding down mast ropes of the same fishing trawler.

    Prinze is one of the stars of the runaway teen hit I Know What You Did Last Summer, and he has the scars to prove it.

    "When I was doing my Pirates of the Caribbean thing by sliding down the rope of the boat, I got third-degree burns on my hands," recalls Prinze.

    "Not only were the ropes wet, but I had to do the scene dozens of times.  It tore my hands up pretty badly.   The next day we shot the scene where I had to climb out of the water and up the nets on the boats.

    "I had to wear bandages on my hands.  That day was a killer because I was working in salt water that kept seeping into the burns and cuts on my palms.  It really stung."

   I Know What You Did Last Summer is the story of four teens who are stalked by a mysterious psychopath.  There are even hints that the maniac may be Prinze's character.

    "Come on, you can tell by his name that my character is the hero.  His name is Ray Bronson.  That's definitely a hero's last name."

    Prinze's father was the Mexican comedian Freddie Prinze and star of the popular 70's sitcom Chico and the Man.   Prinze committed suicide in 1977 when his son was still an infant.

    "I never knew my dad, so there is no feeling of loss.  It's impossible to miss somebody you never knew.   I can watch Chico and the Man or I can watch Freddie and Friends on cable TV and it's OK," says Prinze.

    "Growing up was hard because you only know your father through the memories of others.  You end up stealing those memories to pretend they're yours so you have something to hang onto."

    Prinze says he has never asked for sympathy.

    "Everybody gets the same number of cards.  You just get dealt a different hand, so you have to learn to play with what you have.

    "My hand just lacks a father card."

    Prinze grew up in Albuquerque, N.M.

    "Acting is the only thing I'm good at.  I wasn't a good student and I wasn't the best athlete.  I didn't want to spend my youth bagging groceries and using false IDs to get into bars like so many of the guys I grew up with were doing, so I packed my bags and headed for Hollywood."

    Prinze is the first to admit he had an advantage most aspiring actors sorely lack.  He had his father's name.

    "My pop made a lot of people laugh and they're still grateful for that, and I'm grateful they were grateful because it opened a lot of doors."

    Prinze's first film job was playing Claire Danes' boyfriend in To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday.  He has already completed filming The House of Yes and the ABC TV movie Detention: Siege at Johnson High.

    "It's only when I go up for comedy roles that there's a certain amount of pressure, because I'm not as funny as my father.  He had this incredible gift for timing.  He could tell how to punch a joke."

    Prinze feels that I Know What You Did Last Summer has turned into such a hit because "every guy wants to bring his girl to a horror movie hoping his girlfriend will get scared and cling on to him.   That way he can be a hero.

    "People don't go to horror movies to escape the nightmare.  They want to become part of it."