Movies

Original I Know What You Did Last Summer Star Turned Down Reboot in Hilarious Way

Sarah Michelle Gellar remains on ice.

Image Credit: Sony Pictures

I Know What You Did Last Summer writer-director Jennifer Kaytin Robinson discusses the hilarious way one of the stars of the original movie turned down the reboot. The popular slasher franchise is back for a new installment, and while it’s borrowing the same name as the 1997 film, it’s not a total reboot. I Know What You Did Last Summer takes place in the same universe as the first two movies, which means we get some guest stars in the form of Jennifer Love Hewitt and Freddie Prinze Jr. However, I Know What You Did Last Summer also has a fresh, young cast to carry on the tradition of accidentally killing someone, hiding it, and then being terrorized by a mysterious fisherman.

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I Know What You Did Last Summer‘s official trailer was released today, and Entertainment Weekly got to talk to Robinson to find out more details behind the film. While Hewitt and Prinze Jr. are both back, Robinson worked hard to try and recruit Sarah Michelle Gellar as well, even though her character, Helen Shivers, is dead.

“I tried, okay? I harassed her! But she is dead,” Robinson joked. “I tried to pitch some crazy s— too. I was like, ‘What if it’s like you weren’t dead and you’re actually alive, but in hiding?’ And Sarah’s like, ‘I was on ice. I was the most dead a person could be. You can see my frozen body.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, but what if?’ And she said, ‘I am dead. I am Sarah Dead Gellar.’”

During the trailer for I Know What You Did Last Summer, we see the gravestones for Elsa and Helen Shivers, with a photo of Sarah Michelle Gellar resting next to Helen’s. The trailer ends with Chase Sui Wonders coming up behind Jennifer Love Hewitt on what looks like a college campus to ask for her help. “I just have one question,” Hewitt says. “What did you do last summer?”

โ€œIโ€™ll be super honest, I had total anxiety for 48 hours before [filming] because I was like, โ€˜Can I do this? Am I going to pull this off?โ€™ Itโ€™s a lot of pressure,โ€ Hewitt told PEOPLE when the first-look photos from I Know What You Did Last Summer were released. She found it โ€œvery nerve-rackingโ€ at 46 years old to go back to a role she first played at 18, but said that the โ€œphenomenalโ€ younger cast members eased the transition.

โ€œItโ€™s for them to make it their own and for me to stand by like a proud mom and say, โ€˜Itโ€™s yours now, take it and run and enjoy,โ€™โ€ she explained. As for her reunion with Prinze, Hewitt said, โ€œIt felt like a high school reunion. It felt like that moment where youโ€™re like, โ€˜Oh my gosh, I have butterflies in my stomach and my heart is beating really fast because I have not seen this person in 150 years and now weโ€™re back, here we are.โ€™ We just had to jump right back into Julie and Ray, but when we did it felt like we had never left, honestly.โ€

Directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, I Know What You Did Last Summer stars Chase Sui Wonders, Madelyn Cline, Sarah Pidgeon, Jonah Hauer-King, Tyriq Withers, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and Freddie Prinze Jr. The movie lands in theaters on July 18th.

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