Over the last few decades, Hollywood has released so many teen movies and romantic comedies that it is extremely hard for any of them to stand out. Despite that, there have been a handful of movies that fall within those two genres which have managed to accumulate so many devoted fans that they have gone down in history. For example, the 1999 film She’s All That has enjoyed enough success to spawn an upcoming gender-swapped remake that is highly anticipated.
Of course, when a movie enjoys a great deal of success, there tends to be a lot of different reasons for that. In the case of She’s All That, a lot of people had a role in the movie’s success including Freddie Prinze Jr. who was one of the people that was the most responsible.
After Freddie Prinze Jr. took Hollywood by storm once She’s All That came out, it seemed like he was destined for huge things in the business. While Prinze Jr. undoubtedly accomplished a lot as an actor, he still fell short of many people’s expectations. As it turns out, one of the main reasons for that is that Prinze Jr. gave up acting for a time because he was so fed up with the business after dealing with an A-list star.
An Admirable Acting Career
During the late-90s, Freddie Prinze Jr. became a big star due to his roles in the hit movies I Know What You Did Last Summer and She’s All That. However, there are loads of former teen stars who were launched into the spotlight after they headlined a few major movies only to be rejected by the powers that be in Hollywood.
Fortunately for Freddie Prinze Jr., it has always seemed like the powerful people in the acting business have wanted to work with him. As a result, throughout the 2000s Prinze Jr. landed a lot of notable roles. For example, during the 2000s Prinze Jr. headlined films like the Scooby-Doo series and Summer Catch.
An Awful Experience
More than a decade after Freddie Prinze Jr. first became famous, he landed a role in the hit show 24. As a result, that meant that Prinze Jr. got the opportunity to work with Kiefer Sutherland. An actor who has been famous since he was a young adult, Sutherland has starred in several hit films. More importantly, since 24 was so successful at the time, Sutherland arguably was among the most successful actors in the world when Prinze Jr. got to work with him.
Unfortunately for Freddie Prinze Jr., even though Kiefer Sutherland has led a fascinating life, that doesn’t mean that he has grown to be a good person to deal with. Instead, Prinze Jr. made it very clear that he feels that Sutherland was a nightmare to work with when he talked to Vanity Fair in 2014. “It was terrible. I hated every moment of it. Kiefer was the most unprofessional dude in the world. That's not me talking trash, I'd say it to his face, I think everyone that's worked with him has said that.”
Later in the aforementioned Vanity Fair interview, Freddie Prinze Jr. stated that working with Kiefer Sutherland made him give up acting for quite a while. “I just wanted to quit the business after that. So, I just sort of stopped.”
What Freddie Did
While Freddie Prinze Jr.’s claim that he wanted to quit acting after working with Kiefer Sutherland may seem like hyperbole, that really isn’t the case. After all, once the actor’s 24 tenure came to an end, it would be a couple of years before he appeared on screen again. Instead, Prinze Jr. opted to go work as a backstage producer for WWE from 2010 until 2012. While it wasn’t the first time that Prinze Jr. was hired by the WWE, it seems clear that he embraced that job in 2010 in an attempt to get away from Hollywood. Ultimately, Prinze Jr. opted to quit WWE after a couple of years because he wanted to spend more time with his wife and kids.
After a couple of years away from the acting scene, Freddie Prinze Jr. decided to dip his toe back into the pool when he appeared in a TV movie that was released in 2012. Then Prinze Jr. figured out something that helped him to rediscover his love of performing, he really enjoys voice acting. In the years since, Prinze Jr.’s career has almost entirely focused on voice roles, including a pair of notable roles in Star Wars animated series. Only recently has that changed a little as Prinze Jr. took on a supporting role in the 2021 sitcom Punky Brewster.