[Fattening Ass]

She may be known to audiences as Jennifer Love Hewitt, but everyone calls her Love. A little bit of Love is a good thing. A whole lotta Love (thank you Mr. Plant) is, well, considerably better than a good thing. Love was gracious enough to speak with me and three other journalists about her latest film Heartbreakers, and a few other lovely things.
In her new comedy Heartbreakers, Jennifer Love Hewitt plays Page Conners, a savvy young con artist trying to break out of the shadow of her con artist mother Max (played by Sigourney Weaver). With Page's help Max cons wealthy single men by quickly marrying them, divorcing them and splitting town with the settlement money. Page figures after one more marriage scam she'll have enough money to take off on her own. All they have to do is take wealthy William B. Tensy (Gene Hackman) for all he's worth. Jennifer Love Hewitt is best known for her portrayal of Sarah Reeves on the hit TV series Party of Five. She recently starred in the title role of the ABC TV Movie Audrey Hepburn. Her other television credits Kids, Incorporated, The Byrds of Paradise and McKenna. On the big screen, her credits ******* Can't Hardly Wait, and I Know What You Did Last Summer. In addition to acting, Love has also released three solo albums. "Let's Go Bang" was her debut with Atlantic Records. That was followed by the self-titled album "Jennifer Love Hewitt." Her third CD, "Love Songs," was released in Japan. Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer Pictures' Heartbreakers is now playing nationwide. You can visit the film's official site at MGM.com/Heartbeakers, or AOL Keyword: Heartbreakers.


IGN FILMFORCE: You said that Jason Lee was a bit too hip for you to hang with, in the beginning of making the movie. How did you get over that and get the chemistry into it? HEWITT: Well, you like get him on set and he's like comfortable with you and everything. He starts doing things like his human orangutan and telling these really weird jokes in all his different accents and everything. And so, you go, okay¿. maybe I'm too hip for him (she laughs, kidding). And you're like, okay sport-guy! He's the best! He's awesome! He's like such a superstar, Jason, he really is. So I felt honored to like be with him. And we had such a good time. He was my best friend and my biggest smile every day. I'm his biggest fan. I so wish he was here for you to talk with him, because he's the best ever! IGN FILMFORCE: Did you get to keep the wedding dress? HEWITT: I didn't, but they had it made for me. I didn't get to keep that. I thought it was very sweet though. I would have liked it to have been a little longer. And not as hot¿ especially like Florida¿ two hundred degrees outside (she laughs), but I liked it a lot. The character is girly, but in a very womanish way, and then the dress is so, you know, poofy and girlish. We want to show that, you know, as the movie goes on evidently she lets go of her¿ (she pauses) She puts her faith a little more in who she is as a person and not who she can be through all the men ... she meets, which is a mistake. We thought it would be kind of, you know, odd and neat in a way that she sort of wears all these hussy clothes the whole movie, but when she finally has her moment, that [the wedding dress] is the dress she picks, and she feels like a princess. IGN FILMFORCE: Was there anything you wore that you were just like, I don't want to wear this? HEWITT: The white pants created a problem (she laughs). The white pants make you look like you have a huge butt. Honestly... and when I saw the white pants, it confirmed it! Um, yeah. And white pants show everything. Like, oh, God. The white pants were terrifying. (switching to a serious tone) I was pretty comfortable and everything. I got to help pick out the clothes. And we knew that I had to be somebody who had to overdo it. For lots of reasons: One, she completely destroyed her mother's nerves; and mainly for the fact that those clothes helped her from having to face who she really is as a person. They gave her a good hiding spot. IGN FILMFORCE: Style-wise, she's like this year's Erin Brockovich. HEWITT: That's what I was thinking because Julia Roberts is my favorite. So in the pink dress that I was wearing – the pink-laced bra on the outside of it – that was totally like my dedication to Julia Roberts. I was like Julia! (She pushes out her chest a bit, and then laughs.) It was like everyone called me Erin the whole time. They were like, "What's up Miss Brockovich?" So if Julia ever sees the movie it'll be my little dedication. (Laughing) If you ever tell her, tell her I dedicated my movie to her, because I'm sure it's the weirdest thing she's ever had dedicated to her. IGN FILMFORCE: Do you have a favorite movie of hers? HEWITT: Runaway Bride I love, and Erin Brockovich. IGN FILMFORCE: You were laughing like crazy earlier today. What was that all about? HEWITT: Oh, I think we were talking about crotches. (laughing) Not mine. Um, Ray Liotta and Gene Hackman. IGN FILMFORCE: That was the day your grandmother came to the set? HEWITT: Yes, it was. (Referring to a scene where Page (Hewitt) seduces Dean (Ray Liotta) in his office and her hair gets caught in his belt. As Max (Sigourney Weaver) enters the office, Dean sits quickly at his desk, hiding Page beneath it.) She caught 'em. (Kidding she says) She called him (Ray Liotta) Satan; called me a hooker. Yeah, yeah. I say crassy things. IGN FILMFORCE: That seems to always be the case; that the relatives visit the set on the day something unusual happens... HEWITT: Oh, and it was hysterical too because they were doing his shot, so I was underneath the camera. My grandma's like waiting, she's telling my mom (she speaking softly), "Where's Jennifer?" My Mom says, "She's underneath the desk." "What's she doing under there?" My Mom's like, "Checking things out." "What's for checking out under the desk?" "Um, she's¿ she's attached to here." And my grandmother went, "Oh, I don't think I'm going to see this movie." (She laughs) No, I don't think so. Because I have my aunts going with my grandma (to the premiere) and they know right when it happens. I told them to hold hands and to cover her eyes, and then she can watch the rest. IGN FILMFORCE: Are they very over-protective of you? HEWITT: Oh, definitely. My grandma's always like, "Jennifer, please don't do all that stuff. Please do something so that grandma can see it. And I'm like, "Okay." So I always, like when I read scripts saying¿ there have been things that I have definitely said no to just because I knew that my grandmother would not be able to see it. And I made her a promise she'd always be able to see everything. So, I try not to do anything too embarrassing. IGN FILMFORCE: Does that mean you wouldn't do nudity in a movie? HEWITT: Oh, I don't think I wouldn't not do it. I choose not to now. I don't like seeing really my own self naked. Because I'm not really, you know, hot or anything. (she laughs and waves her hand at her forehead) Whoooh! And pretty much, (the audience has) seen everything. You know what I mean in 'Breakers., there's not really much else to see. Um, except for the imagination. But, um. Yeah, I wouldn't say definitely not. I mean I might do it if it's the right thing – probably not.

Love and Sigourney Weaver in Heartbreakers

Love and Sigourney Weaver in Heartbreakers
IGN FILMFORCE: You and Sigourney work really well together. The relationship really worked, and it looked like you guys had a really good time in some of those scenes. HEWITT: Thanks. Yeah, we had a blast. She's a great mom, on screen and off. We had a very good time. And it was so fun to do a movie with a girl. I'm always, you know, with the male fisherman, Freddie Prinze. Can't Hardly Wait – always with the boys; Party of Five – always with Scott. You know, that kind of stuff. But it was fun to go do something with a girl, and just have a phenomenal movie. IGN FILMFORCE: The scenes in the car were great. You got to attack her a couple times. HEWITT: (Bashfully she says) I got to choke her. (Laughs) IGN FILMFORCE: Anything on your agenda musically? HEWITT: I'm in the midst of writing a CD right now. It'll take me a while. Probably won't come out for another year or so... because I'd like to write as many songs as possible, if not every song. IGN FILMFORCE: What kind of sound are you going for with this? HEWITT: It will probably be¿ do you know David Grey? I love him. Kind of like a female David Grey with Dido. That kind of stuff. It's going to have a little European feel to it. IGN FILMFORCE: You've got another film coming out soon¿ HEWITT: Uh, huh. The Devil and Daniel Webster. IGN FILMFORCE: You worked long hours on that film. HEWITT: Very long. It's okay. I have a good time. IGN FILMFORCE: How did you like working with Alec [Baldwin], the director? HEWITT: Best director I've ever worked with. And Anthony Hopkins produced it. The crew and everyone was literally in awe of him, and to have him act in the movie as well. It was unbelievable. Really cool. [Hopkins] was really a trooper through everything. He was so strong, and great; draw up his best side every second he was with all of us. He really made us feel like he was there and, you know, in the project. IGN FILMFORCE: Did you see the original version? HEWITT: I didn't. I didn't want to see it because I wanted to have my own sort of take on playing the Devil. IGN FILMFORCE: It'll be interesting to see how Hopkins performs Daniel Webster. HEWITT: (laughing) The Devil in this is very interesting. She very¿ she's very devilish. It was really really fun. And she's evil. She's all the things that¿ she's a woman (laughs). She's a woman on PMS. Yeah, she's a schizo.

Jason Lee and Love look at the stars in Heartbreakers

Jason Lee and Love look at the stars in Heartbreakers
IGN FILMFORCE: In Heartbreakers, did you learn anything about astronomy? HEWITT: (Laughing) Not a single solitary thing. Couldn't see a stinkin' star in the sky. Nope, didn't learn anything. I thought that scene was very good. It's one of my favorite scenes in the whole movie. IGN FILMFORCE: You've talked about before that this is your first film where you get to play a very sexy character. HEWITT: Well, I hope, you know, with me moving into more adult films and not doing stock character teeny stuff, rather, it's truly up to the audience and what they'll accept. I hope that they'll do that. I hope that they'll look and go, "Wow!" You know, "She's grown as an actress. And we're happy about that and we want to watch her do that. She's gotten better." I always hope that I'm mediocre and I get better. I never hope that it's just like I reach a plateau and I just never get any better. IGN FILMFORCE: As Page, you're a character that a lot of people look at when you walk into a room. HEWITT: I'll tell you what embarrasses me. My greatest fear is speaking in public. You meet, like, um, people who just concentrate on me. I'd rather not have everyone focus on me. There's one shot in particular where I walk into the bar in my red dress, and it's slow motion, and ahh¿ everyone's like – you don't really see this in the movie – they all turn and look at me, and I'd be like¿ here's my moment, and I walk through the door, and I'd get there, and then I go like this (she turns her head town, looking at the floor.) "Hi Jack." Like that. Mirkin (the director, David Mirkin) would go, "What's wrong? What's up your butt?" (Laughing) "Go again. Go again." And I would be so weirded out because I didn't like people looking at me. So he'd literally have to be like¿ you know, you'd hear him – before they put in the music and they took his voice out – you'd hear him go, "Hold your head up, Love. Keep going. WALK SLOWER, LOVE. You're going to be okay, Love. Talk to Jason, Love. They're not looking, Love." He wouldn't remove the people. And until finally, like the third or fourth take I was like, walk through the door. Okay. This is it. I have to do it, because if I don't I'm going to ruin everything for myself in this movie because this is who she is. And so I walked through, and I raised my head, swayed my hips and stalked it through and somehow made it. But that stuff was very hard for me having all the attention and knowing what the attention was about. When the attention has to be put on you because of what you look like, ugh. IGN FILMFORCE: That was an amusing card trick you did on the table. I was wowed. HEWITT: Wasn't that cool? The guy who taught me about it does kid's birthday parties. He taught me a few other things. I actually¿ had to cut out all the other card stuff. There was a lot more in the movie. In the scene where I first walk into The Breakers [Hotel] and she (Max) trips me; when I was doing the stunt for that – I actually did the fall myself – and I broke my finger. And so I couldn't do the card tricks anymore. And it took a long time to heal. It was black and blue, and I couldn't bend it to do the card tricks the way I wanted, so we had to cut them out because we were filming them all the next week. It was supposed to be this therapeutic thing that my character did. You'll notice at that wedding and the honeymoon scene I kind of get them out again on the bed and do it, but we couldn't really do anything super big because my finger hadn't healed. IGN FILMFORCE: The card element was just removed from the scenes? HEWITT: Yes. There were a lot of scenes with (Jason Lee) where I was doing it with him in this poker scene; like all these fancy card tricks and beat all his friends at poker, and then gave the money back because I felt because I started to fall in love with him. What's sad about that is it was a cool niche that my character had. It showed that she was a little wiser in her conning. IGN FILMFORCE: Overall, was it hard for you to be Page? HEWITT: It was weird. It was hard in a sense that my biggest fear was that people were not going to like her character. You have to like her at least enough to want her to be with Jason because he's such a great guy in the movie. My fear was going too far with it. So I really had to depend on Mirkin to say back off a little or go more this way. I didn't want to hurt myself in the process. IGN FILMFORCE: Ever had a good con that was worked on you? Or have you worked any good cons on other people? HEWITT: A bad con happened to me about six months ago. It was like right after I wrapped on Heartbreakers. You think maybe con artists would be fresh on my mind, right? I'm outside this store, and this girl with a pink mohawk – this was in my neighborhood – she just walked on by and she's crying and I'm heartbroken over this. I'm like, "Are you okay?" I thought maybe it was like she got into a fight with her boyfriend, her dog was run over. I didn't know what was going on. Say says (crying), "I'm fine, but you know, my friends¿ it's like I'm supposed to be at Universal Studios. It's my birthday and I can't get there." And I'm like oh, God. For a second I was like maybe I can drive her there. Then I thought, no that's stupid. Don't let her in your car. I was like, "Okay, I tell you what. It's freezing out here. Lets go inside. Let me buy you a coffee and a snack. You'll be alright." She says, "Okay." So I went in and I bought her stuff. And I said, "I'm going to call you a cab and I'll pay for you to go to Universal Studios and it'll be fine." She said, "Okay." So I called her a cab, and I said, "Here's eighty dollars. It's your birthday. Go have fun on me. Once you get there calm down. The cab fare is for wherever you're going." And she said, "No, that's okay, they have a car, they'll drive me home." I said "Okay, that's fine." I didn't think about well then why aren't they coming to get you, right? I said, "You take care." And I gave her a big hug, made sure she wasn't crying. IGN FILMFORCE: When did it dawn on you? HEWITT: I felt like such an idiot. I got in my car, drove out of the parking lot and said, "Oh my God! I've totally just been conned out of eighty bucks, coffee a muffin and some friendship." Sure enough, I did a u-turn, went back and she's hopping in front of the cars and she's like, "Jennifer Love Hewitt just gave me eighty bucks! How cool is that!" And they were like, "Next person." And you could hear them saying it in their convertible, and they drove off. I was like I'm going to show her up. I'm going to tell her about my movie! I'm going to show her up that way and show her how to do a con the right way! And then I was like, just cool it. Just give her the eighty bucks and go back. IGN FILMFORCE: Has this affected your desire to help? HEWITT: I'll call and say, I'll get you a cab or whatever. And if I do, I wait. I wait and I pay the cab driver, and make sure that he's going that way. IGN FILMFORCE: Any bands, music groups that you're currently listening to? HEWITT: Coldplay I really like a lot. David Grey, I'm obsessed with. Al Green's Greatest Hits right now is my top pick. IGN FILMFORCE: Have you met David Grey? HEWITT: No. If I did I'd probably pee in my pants. (Laughs) David Grey is unbelievable. IGN FILMFORCE: You've been really busy, running around promoting Heartbreakers... HEWITT: I have slept exactly four hours in the last two days. (Laughs) I'm feeling pretty good about it. A little delirious. But I'm feeling good, and tonight I have to go to the wrap party. IGN FILMFORCE: You have to get some time off in between the interviews and stuff. You're a good sport to do this. HEWITT: Oh, it's fun. It's is actually my favorite part of [promoting a film]. You work so hard on something, you want it to do well. You want people to be able to ask you questions, and you want people to know what [the movie] is about. You work as hard as you do on something and you put all your creativity into it and have no publicity, you know, that's horrible. So, I have fun doing this stuff, it's actually my favorite part. IGN FILMFORCE: Did you get to spend much time with Gene Hackman? HEWITT: A little bit. I only got to do my one little scene as the maid with him. Gene Hackman and I – he doesn't smoke either – and he and I had to learn to smoke together. I think they were Honey Rose herbal cigarettes. It was just the two of us sitting together and practicing together. (Laughs) That would be a great DVD extra.

Lee, Weaver, Love and Ray Liotta in Heartbreakers

Lee, Weaver, Love and Ray Liotta in Heartbreakers
IGN FILMFORCE: And Ray Liotta¿ HEWITT: He's the nicest man, and made me feel so comfortable. He was a dream. IGN FILMFORCE: At this point in your career, you're pretty focused on feature films now... HEWITT: I really like doing films right now, but I would definitely go back to TV at some point. I do. I would really like to do a really cool one-hour show, maybe on like HBO or something like that; or something that I've spent a couple of years developing so it would be exactly the character and exactly in with a huge push behind it; or I would maybe want to do a sitcom; something light and funny. IGN FILMFORCE: Do you keep in touch with Neve at all? HEWITT: I haven't really been able to do that. She's so busy. And I'm busy. Really, truly the only person I talk to is Scott. He and I talk quite a bit. IGN FILMFORCE: Any film projects you're developing? HEWITT: I have a few things at my production company that we've been working on. We've been working on a comedy about a young college student who stumbles into this spy-world. It has missions, and gadgets and James Bond things and the coordination of Austin Powers. I have another really important script that I want to do. The backdrop of it is the four days at Kent State. So we have quite a few things we're working on. IGN FILMFORCE: Do you have directors attached? HEWITT: No. We have directors who are considering them. IGN FILMFORCE: What's your favorite movie of all time? HEWITT: Probably Sabrina, or Splendor in the Grass. Aurdrey Hepburn in that is such a hottie. (laughs) IGN FILMFORCE: Any Oscar picks? HEWITT: Gladiator. I love that movie. It was so great. He such a hero, Russell Crowe. IGN FILMFORCE: So you'd like to work with Russell Crowe? HEWITT: (She pretends to faint) I would love it!