Jennifer Love Hewitt is reflecting on how she was sexualized as a teenager and the difficulties of aging in Hollywood.
The 9-1-1 star became a teen idol starring in shows like Party of Five and films like I Know What You Did Last Summer and Can’t Hardly Wait. Having found fame at such a young age came with its difficulties and Hewitt opened up about her feelings during that time while being a guest on the Dec. 5 episode of the Inside of You podcast.
“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.”
The Time of Your Life alum 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 talked 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 unrecognizable. She’s unrecognizable 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.”
Watch the entire Inside of You podcast with Hewitt in the video posted below.
