Jennifer Love Hewitt opened up on being sexualised by “grown men” as a teenager while reflecting on the industry norms when she was 16. During her Tuesday appearance on Mayim Bialik’s Breakdown podcast, the 45-year-old confessed not knowing the meaning behind some of the “gross” remarks men openly made about her.
Jennifer Love Hewitt opens up on being sexualised by ‘grown men’ as a teenager
“There were grown men talking to me at 16 about my breasts openly on a talk show, and people were laughing about it. It was a culture that was fully accepted, but when you sit and you look at where we are now versus then, it is really mind-blowing,” Hewitt recalled.
The Ghost Whisperer star admitted that it was “really strange” for her to “become a sex symbol sort of like before I even knew what that was.” “I didn’t know what being sexy meant,” she added. Hewitt began her career in Hollywood as a child actress in television commercials. She shot to fame after landing the role of Julie James in I Know What You Did Last Summer.
Hewitt went on to say that men would not hesitate in directly approaching her and making sexual remarks about her 1999 Maxim cover when she was 17. “People would openly walk up and be like, ‘I took your magazine with me on a trip last week,'” she said.
{{/usCountry}}Hewitt went on to say that men would not hesitate in directly approaching her and making sexual remarks about her 1999 Maxim cover when she was 17. “People would openly walk up and be like, ‘I took your magazine with me on a trip last week,'” she said.
{{/usCountry}}“I didn’t really know what that meant,” Hewitt continued, adding, “It’s kind of gross.” She further revealed that jokes about her breasts became more common after she starred in the hit 1997 horror film. “When the movie came out, everybody said, ‘Oh, I know what your breasts did last summer,’ and that was like the joke,” she said.
“And, again, everybody would laugh, so I would laugh. It was supposed to be funny, I guess. It didn’t register with me that this is a grown man talking to me about my breasts on national television,” Hewitt admitted. However, she does not “blame” them for the jokes as “it was a culture that was fully accepted.”