Freddie Prinze Jr. Says He 'Didn’t Love Acting Because of What the Business Had Done to My Dad'

Mar. 15, 2025

Freddie Prinze Jr. in 2016 and dad Freddie Prinze in 1976.Photo:Desiree Navarro/WireImage; Frank Carroll/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

Desiree Navarro/WireImage; Frank Carroll/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty

Freddie Prinze Jr.is opening up about how he learned to love acting after his father’s tragic experience in Hollywood.

On the most recent episode of theOldishpodcast, theI Know What You Did Last Summerstar explained to hostsRandy Spelling,Brian Austin GreenandSharna Burgessthat his mother discouraged him from acting from a young age.

“When I was a kid, my mom was like, ‘Absolutely not. It’s just not gonna be your life,’ ” Prinze Jr., now 48, said. “That was my dad’s life, and it didn’t end well. And so, she didn’t want me to have anything to do with it.”

Freddie Prinze in a promo photo for ‘Chico and the Man’ in 1974.NBCU Photo Bank/Getty

NBCU Photo Bank/Getty

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Prinze Jr. said that it wasn’t until his family was in “financial dire straits” that he decided to try to make a living as an actor. “It happened really quick,” he said of his own rise to fame in the ’90s in teen-centric films likeShe’s All That. “I kinda got rocket-shipped to where I ended up.”

While a love of acting didn’t come along with success, he explained, one of his earliest film roles gave him a glimpse of what that could be like. In the 1997 black comedyThe House of Yes, Prinze Jr. starred oppositeParker Posey, who played a mentally ill woman with a fixation onJacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

Josh Hamilton and Parker Posey in ‘The House of Yes’ in 1997.Bandeira/Kobal/Shutterstock

Bandeira/Kobal/Shutterstock

“I was working with Parker, and she was just on this level that I was like, ‘I can’t do that,’ ” Prinze Jr. recalled. “And so it was inspirational, but intimidating at the same time.”

“I didn’t love acting because of what the business had done to my dad,” he continued. “And [Posey] was the first person that I ever saw love it. And I was just like, ‘How does she have this much passion?’ ”

Even then, Prinze Jr. said, it took him “probably 20 years to figure out why she cared so much.”

Freddie Prinze Jr., Parker Posey, Tori Spelling and Rachel Leigh Cook at the ‘House of Yes’ premiere in 1997.Bei/Shutterstock

Bei/Shutterstock

“But I finally did. I got it, and then I fell in love with the business,” he explained. “But it was a long affair of just liking the business and not having the same passion that she had and always wondering why. And then one day, it just clicked. You know? You just, you do the right role, and all of a sudden, you go, ‘Oh, now I know how to be vulnerable. Now I know how to be funny. Now I know how to, you know, do the action movie.’ ”

“It took a role to kinda bring it out of me,” he added. “And maybe it did with [Posey] too. I’m not sure. Maybe she was just born to love it, but she was the one who inspired me to stay at it.”

source: people.com