Jennifer Love Hewitt recently opened up about being sexualized at a young age.
The 45-year-old actress recalled that as a teenager, she was frequently questioned about her body, especially her breasts.
Speaking with Mayim Bialik on the Breakdown podcast, Hewitt reflected on the attention she received after starring in I Know What You Did Last Summer at just 18.
Even before that, as a young actress, she was put in uncomfortable situations.
She said, “In my 30s, I looked back at that time and thought, ‘Oh my God’. There were grown men talking to me at 16 about my breasts just openly on a talk show, and people were laughing about it.”
“I don’t even remember that, I really didn’t take that part in, but in hindsight it was really strange I think to become a sex symbol sort of for people before I even knew what that was.”
She recalled doing photoshoots for men’s magazines without fully understanding their implications.
She admitted, “’I took your magazine with me on a trip last week.’ I didn’t know what that meant, you know what I mean? It’s kind of gross.”
“I think later it sort of hit me more, kind of the things that I probably went through somewhere. But at the time, it felt very innocent and exciting and fun.”
Hewitt also remembered wearing a “Silicon Free” t-shirt in response to rumours that she had a boob job, even though she was just a normal teenager going through puberty.
She recalled, “After the movie came out, everybody said ‘Oh, I know what your breasts did last summer’ and that was the joke.”
“Everybody would laugh, and so I would laugh, ’cause it was supposed to be funny, I guess. It didn’t register with me that this was a grown man, talking about my breasts on national television.”
Despite everything, she’s grateful she didn’t dwell on it at the time.
She added, “Had I taken on some of that earlier, I think it would have messed with me a little bit, but it didn’t for whatever reason.”
Watching the Britney Spears documentary was a turning point for her.
She went on, “When I watched the Britney Spears documentary, that was really honestly the light bulb for me.”
“When I watched it, I finished watching it, and my husband [Brian Hallisay] was like, ‘Why do you look so disturbed?’ and I was like, ‘I know what that feels like.’”
“I know sitting there and being asked those questions and it never dawned on me that it was inappropriate.”
