Jennifer Love Hewitt talks being Sexualized as a Teen in Hollywood

The actress recalled how males would brazenly joke about her physique, significantly after her film, “I Know What You Did Final Summer season.”

Jennifer Love Hewitt mentioned it was “heartbreaking” that regardless of her efforts within the movie, the main focus was not on her expertise as an actress however on her physique.

Talking on a latest episode of Mayim Bialik’s “Breakdown” podcast, Hewitt mirrored on the unsettling expertise of being overly sexualized as an adolescent, recalling the way it was as soon as normalized in Hollywood.

The “Ghost Whisperer” star, now 45, opened up concerning the inappropriate consideration she acquired in her early years.

“There have been grown males speaking to me at 16 about my breasts brazenly on a chat present, and folks had been laughing about it,” she shared. “It was a tradition that was totally accepted, however if you sit and also you take a look at the place we at the moment are versus then, it’s actually mind-blowing.”

Hewitt admitted that being labeled a “intercourse image” earlier than she even understood the idea felt “actually unusual,” including, “I did not know what being attractive meant.”

She recalled how males would method her with unsettling remarks after posing for Maxim in 1999 at simply 17.

“Individuals would brazenly stroll up and be like, ‘I took your journal with me on a visit final week,” Hewitt mentioned, per Page Six. “I did not actually know what that meant. It is type of gross.”

Later within the dialog, Hewitt recalled how feedback about her physique turned a working joke after “I Know What You Did Final Summer season” was launched.

“When the film got here out, everyone mentioned, ‘Oh, I do know what your breasts did final summer time,’ and that was just like the joke,” she shared. “And, once more, everyone would snicker, so I might snicker. It was imagined to be humorous, I suppose. It did not register with me that this can be a grown man speaking to me about my breasts on nationwide tv.”

Regardless of the uncomfortable state of affairs, the “Consumer Checklist” star clarified that she would not maintain grudges towards those that made the remarks.

“It was a tradition that was totally accepted. They had been allowed to consider that that was acceptable, and I answered the questions and laughed proper together with them,” Hewitt admitted.

Hewitt, who starred in “Celebration of 5,” additionally recalled feeling self-conscious about her physique.

“I had greater boobs for a smaller individual, and so it was embarrassing,” she mentioned. “I did not wish to be checked out by a 40-year-old in Pizza Hut.”

The actress famous that she “all the time wore large garments” to keep away from undesirable consideration.

After starring in “I Know What You Did Final Summer season,” Hewitt shared that she was annoyed that the main focus shifted virtually totally to her chest relatively than her efficiency.

“I had labored so onerous making an attempt to be good in a horror film, and I actually needed folks to stroll away from the film going, ‘That is a very good actress,'” she mentioned.

“And, as a substitute, each headline, and I am not even joking, for 10 or 12 years after that, earlier than they ever talked about something about expertise or if I had performed a component or modified myself for a component or – it was all the time about my breasts, all the time first.”

The actress recalled feeling disheartened by how her work was overshadowed.

“That felt … it was similar to, ‘Come on, I am working so onerous. I am rising. I am making an attempt so onerous, like crying from my coronary heart week after week for you,'” she mentioned. “And the one factor that you just see is a film poster with boobs on it. That was heartbreaking for me.”

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Hewitt mentioned how ageism has impacted her prolonged profession in Hollywood and the way she is embracing the journey of self-love and growing old with grace.

The 45-year-old actress shared: “I really feel like followers choose this age that they love that they assume represents you, and also you’re by no means imagined to develop past that. For me, it was like me and my 20s. Individuals appear to have a very onerous time accepting that I do not look that approach anymore.”

She continued: “It is onerous as a result of I feel as people, we wish to evolve … we wish to have traces on our faces, and , our boobs be decrease from breast-feeding our youngsters, or , our butt’s greater.”

“No matter it’s, you simply wish to have the liberty to be whoever you might be at that age. And it is hurtful typically when folks reject you as you might be verbally on Instagram or the web as a result of they’re having a tough time adjusting to it,” Hewitt added.

Hewitt, who shares kids Autumn, 11, Atticus, 9, and Aidan, 3, along with her husband, Brian Hallisay, expressed her issues about how unfavourable feedback have an effect on her youngsters.

“I’ve a daughter, I am delicate to it as a result of I do not need my youngsters to learn these issues and really feel that approach … or fear about me being damage by it … it is onerous to try this typically,” she defined.

Nonetheless, regardless of the general public’s response to her growing old, Hewitt shared that she is at peace with the place she is in life.

“Age is age,” she famous. “I feel girls actually come into this … acceptance of themselves and comfortability of their 40s that’s lovely. I really like being in my 40s. I actually do.”