Jennifer Love Hewitt recalls questioning a director who asked her to be “sexier”
The American actor and singer Jennifer Love Hewitt discussed her industry-ingrained sexism experience in a new podcast interview.
The performer is best known for her roles in several hit movies, including Garfield, Heartbreakers, Can’t Hardly Wait and If Only.
Reflecting on an onset experience in the early 2000s, Hewitt revealed that a filmmaker once asked her to act “sexier”. At the time, the star was still in her early 20s and found the request somewhat confusing.
She told the Inside of You podcast that she didn’t feel like she was “in her body” as a young actor and lamented being sexualised from an early age. “I didn’t feel self-confident. I felt watched. I felt like I had to be everything for everybody all the time,” she said.
Adding: “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 I was on the cover of Maxim. I was honoured. I loved it. But why?”
Continuing, Hewitt revealed that director David Mirkin asked her to be “sexier” on the Heartbreakers set in 2000. “I remember doing Heartbreakers at 23, and the director was like, ‘We just need you to be sexier.’ I had to pull him aside and be like, ‘I don’t know what that means. I’m only 23,'” she said. “I know that I’m supposed to be this thing for people, but I don’t know what that means. He had to, like, help me figure that out.”
“It’s weird for me when people are like, ‘That’s the girl that we wanted you to be,'” Hewitt added. “That girl was so insecure and so confused and trying her best. But this girl [now] — who may not look [that] way — I like who I am. I feel good. I’m fine.”
Later, she was asked whether she considers herself to be sexy now, aged 44. “I mean, not every day, but you know, I have my moments,” she noted candidly. “There’s definitely times where I look in the mirror and I’m like, ‘Oh, dear god, what has happened?’ And there’s other times where I’m like, ‘She’s got it. She’s fine.'”
Watch the full Inside of You podcast episode below.
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