Jennifer Love Hewitt wants fans to stop “weird” sexualization of her younger self.
The 44-year-old actress has addressed the way people fixate on her appearance in her early 20s, and admitted even in her late teens she was confused by the attention she got.
Appearing on the ‘Inside of You’ podcast, she said: “She was a looker. But also that 23- and 25-year-old wasn’t in her body…
“I felt watched. I felt like I had to be everything for everybody all the time.
“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.”
She filmed ‘Heartbreakers’ at 23 years old, and can remember being asked to “be sexier” on screen, but she didn’t understand the instruction.
She told the filmmaker: “‘I know that I’m supposed to be this thing for people but I don’t know what that means.'”
It means she is uncomfortable with fans still wanting her to be that same person two decades later.
She explained: “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.”
While she has grown to feel more confident in her skin, she admitted she has her “moments” where the self doubt creeps in.
She added: “I mean, not every day, but you know, I have my moments. There’s definitely times where I look in the mirror and I’m like, ‘Oh, dear god, what has happened?’ ”
Now, her response to any critics is that it’s “your problem”, joking: “Because I’m 44, and this is what I look like.”
However, becoming a mother – Jennifer has kids Autumn James, 10, Atticus James, eight, and Aidan James, two, with her husband Brian Hallisay – has also altered her perception.
She said: “I’m a mother of a girl, and it’s dangerous what we put on people. It’s dangerous to say to women, ‘You can’t look like you’re not 22 to me anymore.'”
