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"Prinze of Weirdos"
by Louis B. Hobson--Calgary Sun, 2/1/99
Freddie Prinze Jr. insists he was nothing like the character he plays in the teen comedy She's All That.
Prinze plays Zack Siler, the most popular senior at his school who takes a bet that he can't turn class outcast Laney Boggs (Rachael Leigh Cook) into a prom queen.
"I was absolutely not the big man on campus. If anything, I was more like Laney," says Prinze. "My classmates thought I was really strange. They called me a weirdo."
Prinze is the son of comedian Freddie Prinze, the star of the TV series Chico and the Man who committed suicide in 1977 at age 22. Prinze Jr. was raised by his mother in Albuquerque, N.M.
"My being an outcast in school had nothing to do with my father. No one even knew who he was. I was like 10 months old when my mom and I came to Albuquerque. A lot of time had passed by the time I got into high school."
Since he arrived in Hollywood five years ago, Prinze has been bombarded with questions about his father. "I hope my answer doesn't seem trite but it's all I can offer. I didn't know him and I still don't know him. I have the same image of him that everybody else does and that's from watching his old TV shows."