Jennifer Love Hewitt on her experience with ageism in Hollywood
Jennifer Love Hewitt is the self-love whisperer.
The actress, 45, recently got candid on how ageism has played a part in her decadeslong career in Hollywood.
“I feel like fans pick this age that they love that they think represents you, and you’re never supposed to grow beyond that,” Hewitt told Fox New Digital in an interview published on Thursday. “For me, it was like me and my 20s. People seem to have a really hard time accepting that I don’t look that way anymore.”
The “Time of Your Life” alum started acting at a young age on “Kids Incorporated” before landing her first big break at 16 years old as Sarah Reeves on Fox’s “Party of Five.”
Two years later, she starred in the iconic 1997 slasher “I Know What You Did Last Summer” and its sequel. Along with several popular television shows, including “Ghost Whisperer” and “The Client List,” Hewitt has recorded four studio albums.
The “Heartbreakers” vet — who shares kids Autumn, 11, Atticus, 9, and Aidan, 3, with husband Brian Hallisay — added that she doesn’t want her children to see those types of negative comments.
“I have a daughter, I’m sensitive to it because I don’t want my kids to read those things and feel that way … or worry about me being hurt by it … it’s hard to do that sometimes,” Hewitt explained.
The singer noted, “It’s hard because I think as humans, we want to evolve … we want to have lines on our faces, and you know, our boobs be lower from breast-feeding our children, or you know, our butt’s bigger.”
“Whatever it is, you just want to have the freedom to be whoever you are at that age. And it’s hurtful sometimes when people reject you as you are verbally on Instagram or the internet because they’re having a hard time adjusting to it.”
Although the “Holiday Junkie” star has seen the public’s response to her getting older, Hewitt still loves where she is today.
“Age is age,” she continued. “I think women really come into this … acceptance of themselves and comfortability in their 40s that is beautiful. I love being in my 40s. I really do.”
Last year, Hewitt clapped back at claims she was “unrecognizable” after sharing a photo with a filter and no makeup on Instagram. Many commented that she looked vastly different.
“The picture ended up somewhere. And a bunch of people were like, ‘Jennifer Love Hewitt is unrecognizable,’” she recalled on the “Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum” podcast at the time.
“‘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?”
Acknowledging her physique back in the day, Hewitt quipped, “She was a looker,” but added that “at 23, 24, 25, I didn’t feel self-confident.”
“I felt watched. I felt like I had to be everything for everybody all the time,” she elaborated. “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.”
Hewitt even recounted an experience during filming the 2001 film “Heartbreakers” where she was told to “be sexier” on the rom-com set.
“I know that I’m supposed to be this thing for people, but I don’t know what that means,” she told a producer at the time.
Touching on the public’s perception, Hewitt said, “It’s weird for me when people are like, ‘That’s the girl that we wanted you to be.’”
“That girl was so insecure and so confused and trying her best. But this girl — who may not look [that] way — I like who I am. I feel good. I’m fine.”
“I’m a mother of a girl, and it’s dangerous what we put on people,” Hewitt stated. “It’s dangerous to say to women, ‘You can’t look like you’re not 22 to me anymore.’”
