Jennifer Love Hewitt opens up on how her past roles in Hollywood films sexualized her

Jennifer Love Hewitt reveals how her past roles in Hollywood films sexualized her at an early age. The actress and mother of two reflected her early career in the showbiz industry in honor of the 20th anniversary of “Heartbreakers.” There she played the role of Page Conners, a young woman who acted as a con artist with her mother Max Conners (Sigourney Weaver) to seduce and rob wealthy men.

While she was looking back on such eyebrow-raising questions that she was frequently questioned about, Hewitt empathized with Britney Spears. Her life has been prodded in the “Framing Britney Spears” documentary.

The 42 year old actress remembered preparing herself for interviews in which she was mostly questioned about her body. She said, “I just started to [prepare myself], like, I know I’m doing an interview today, so I’m pretty sure at least 20 of the 40 minutes is going to be about boobs and body stuff, so we’ll just get that out of the way and then maybe they’ll ask me something else.” She accepted watching the documentary about Spears’ life reminded her of some of her own issues working in Hollywood at a young age.

“When I watched that Britney Spears documentary, it hurt my heart a little bit because I remember in hindsight having that feeling. I’m really grateful that we’re in a time where, hopefully, that narrative is going to change for young girls who are coming up now, and they won’t have to have those conversations,” she said.

Hewitt went on to say she now views some of those past interviews with repellence. She mentioned that she grew “really tired of that conversation,” noting that “Heartbreakers” was “a big part of it.” Now, as a mother of two, she wishes she did more to stand up for herself.

“I was disappointed that it was all about body stuff because I had really worked hard in that movie to do a good job as an actress. So I remember one specific moment wishing that the acting had overshadowed all that — that for five minutes, they had said I was really great in the movie versus made a body comment. Now that I’m older, I think, Gosh, I wish that I had known how inappropriate that was so I could have defended myself somehow or just not answered those questions. I laughed it off a lot of the time, and I wish maybe I hadn’t.”