Jennifer Love Hewitt Questioned Attending 'I Know What You Did' Premiere

Jennifer Love Hewitt is looking back on the I Know What You Did Last Summer premiere with pride.

The actress, 46, told Us Weekly exclusively that she had some reservations about returning to the red carpet on July 18 for the film’s opening night, but ultimately felt she “earned the right to be there” with her castmates.

“I had so many amazing things said about that night, and then, there were so many other things said about that night, which we don’t even need to go into,” Hewitt explained while discussing her new series, A Killer Among Friends. “I felt good. I really did. I felt good standing there in that moment. There were times where I was like, ‘Do I want to go to this premiere? Do I want to stand on this red carpet at 46 and be surrounded by all these incredibly gorgeous, young 20-something people? How is that going to feel? What’s that going to do?’ And I did. I wanted to be there.”

Hewitt reprises her role as Julie James in the slasher sequel, which also stars Madelyn Cline, Chase Sui Wonders, Jonah Hauer-King, Tyriq Withers and Sarah Pidgeon. The mother of three told Us that the IKWYDLS premiere belonged to her castmates, calling it their “moment,” but she was “happy to be there in support of their movie that I got to come back for.”

“It felt like a full circle thing for Julie James, for Julie James fans, for me, for my kids,” Hewitt shared. “My stylist, Alayna [Bell-Price], got me a beautiful dress and I left the house feeling really great. It just felt good. It felt celebratory. I was proud to be a part of it.”

Hewitt is currently at the top of her game with starring roles in IKWYDLS and the hit ABC series 9-1-1. She is also the executive producer and narrator of ID’s A Killer Among Friends, a true crime series that explores a group of interconnected individuals who are haunted by a murder of one of their own.

Hewitt was drawn to the project, in part, because it was an opportunity for her to grow as a creative while highlighting important stories.

“I’ve never had the chance to really narrate something like that before,” she said. “It was really cool to be asked. Sitting in the booth and reading these stories and trying to figure out how to rely just on your voice — the way that I normally do my face on 9-1-1 when I’m doing dramatic things — was really interesting and a new skill set to learn.”

Hewitt acknowledges that the “true crime world is such a big thing for people,” but it’s not a genre she watches often — although she understands “why people love it and are interested in it.” The stories highlighted on A Killer Among Friends differ from traditional true crime narratives because they are focused on the victims’ humanity, according to Hewitt.

“For me, it was the youth and innocence lost in these particular stories that I really gravitated towards,” the actress said. “Not that there’s not always a realness and a heart to these things, but sometimes the stories are more water cooler-based. They’re more scary. These stories, to me, really felt like the human condition and the heart condition in a way that true crime hasn’t before.”

New episodes of A Killer Among Friends air Mondays at 10 p.m. E.T./9 p.m. CT on ID and stream on HBO Max.