“We know what you’ll be doing this Summer…”
An interview with Freddie Prinze Jr.

You have a new hairstyle.

It was all blonde (for ‘Scooby Doo’) so I had to cut it all off. It was like straw at the end of the day.

You played baseball what position?

I wanted to be a pitcher. I think every kid wants to be. Just not enough of them have the talent to do it.

How far back does your fascination with baseball go?

Ever since I was a little kid. I started playing little league when I was 7-years old. I played for two years and then I saw my first boxing match and that was it. I didn’t do anything but box after that.

I actually read somewhere that you have one of Muhammad Ali’s gloves

Actually I have some of George Foreman’s gloves that he used in an actual fight. It’s pretty cool.

Is that your prized possession?

No. I have a comic book collection that is pretty much my prized possession. It’s a fairly sizable collection.

You’ve taken a lot of criticism for making “teen movies”. How do you think this movie will affect your perception?

Unfortunately, I don’t think it matters. Here’s my whole thing. I say I don’t care about the critics, but I don’t care about the good reviews either. If somebody writes: “Oh my God, he was a genius and wonderful”, I don’t care. It doesn’t make me feel good about my work. I already feel good about my work.
If somebody writes: “Its garbage. Its crap” I don’t care. I know that it’s good. I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t know it was good. If it doesn’t please someone because they disagree with the content or I remind them of their mean brother or their ex-boyfriend or whatever, there is nothing I can control there. I know that I am a very good actor and I am constantly getting better, so I am never really worried and it hasn’t affected me getting work because at the end of the day, when I step in a room and its me and three other guys and we go and read scenes, most of the time I get the part because my work is at a level where I’m never going to go in and not know exactly what it is I am supposed to do. So I’ve always made sure I can be proud of my stuff. There were a couple of times I didn’t go in 100% prepared and I ate it, and I promised I would never do that again, so…

Is there a concern on your part about becoming pigeonholed or typecast?

The only people who have ever tried to pigeonhole me, and this is unfortunate, is the press. They really tried to say, “Now you’re gonna fall apart because you made these movies and now you’re gonna pay for it.” But I said in the beginning, when I was making ‘She’s All That’ that I was planning on making three films for a specific audience, and that was what I wanted to do because when I was a kid I didn’t have those. I just missed the John Hughes movies, which I loved. And I wanted to do movies that treated that audience with respect. So I did those three. And I went and made ‘Head Over Heels’ and I was playing 27 years old in that. And I can’t help it if teens also go to that movie. There’s content in that movie that teens shouldn’t be seeing, but I’m not gonna police the theatres. Nor do I have any desire to police the theatres.

Do you have any say in the casting of your movies?

It depends on the size of the film. ‘Scooby Doo’ I had no say in, you know, because it’s ‘Scooby Doo’. ‘Summer Catch’ I had a lot more say in because it’s a smaller film. And it’s a first time director. I had more experience than the director especially with actors and things like that, so they just kind of trusted my opinion.

What was it like working with Sarah Michelle again on ‘Scooby Doo’?

It was awesome. I think that she is literally going to be the biggest movie star in the world. So when she has an opportunity to spread her wings, which unfortunately I don’t think she gets to do enough, people are just gonna fall out of their seats because she just shines on screen. We have little playback monitors that are like as big as [a cassette] tape and she looks like brightest star in the universe. And that’s not just me saying that because I’m marrying her. Other people will tell you the exact same thing. Whatever that thing is that people say “Oh she’s got it” she’s got it 10 fold.

Do you guys give each other feedback?

Absolutely. We always talk to each other. That’s what’s so great about working with someone that you know. Working with Matt or working with Sarah, we do communicate a lot with each other that’s why I work with Matt so much. There’s no nonsense. I know he’s about doing really great work. He doesn’t care about anything else. He’s always on time. He always knows his lines. He never shows up wasted. He never shows up stoned. And I don’t have to worry about that stuff. He is one of the best actors I have ever worked with.

So you and Sarah spent six months in Australia, where do you find the time to plan a wedding?

I would never Sarah and I work because we never talk about that stuff.

Do you have a date set at least?

[Laughs loudly] If you were Barbara Walters on your best day I would never tell you that. Never.

Just asking.

You’re allowed to ask.

Did all the guys bond while you were making ‘Summer Catch’?

Yeah. It was sort if harder for Jessie than everybody else, because it’s a lot of guys and a lot of the guys are semi pro baseball players or soon to be baseball players, and a bunch of us are dirt-bag guys who grew up loving baseball and now we have all of these awesome coaches teaching us how and all the guys are like vying for the one girls attention. All “check me out.” “No, check me out.” Her boyfriend hated us. Her boyfriend wanted to kill us. He was like this little guy, you know. And there were all these big baseball players every actor in the movie was over 6’ tall. He would get so mad. We’re like “Hey Jessie, how’s it going?” [Imitates a hug] “Hey, look how hot your girlfriend is. Isn’t she beautiful?” He made me laugh

What about the thong? Did that take a lot of convincing?

Actually, no. It wasn’t me. I have a no nudity contract. And so, nobody’s ever gonna see my ass besides Sarah. Nobody is ever gonna see it. My mom when I was a baby and Sarah now that I’m not. That’s the way it is. Two people. My grandmother may have seen it once or twice.

So was Mark really talking about your ass being so great?

No. He was probably talking about another guy’s ass.

How did you prepare for this role?

Well my main thing, minus my standard operating procedure, was learning how to pitch. It would have been easy to grab a double and just let him do everything but I really felt that understanding the character meant understanding pitching. I had some of the best scouts and pitching coaches in the country teaching me how to throw a perfect pitch and not letting me be shot on camera until my pitch was awesome. Once you kind of understand that, your whole demeanour kind of changes. You have to understand that until you throw a pitch, until you throw something at someone, nothing feels better than when you throw a pitch and you throw it right where you want it and this guy is trying to hit it and he misses by a ton and you know right there that you own this guy and that on his best day he can’t do anything.
And that literally changed the whole way I looked at pitchers. It changed the whole way that I was gonna make the movie. But by the same token it adds that extra confidence

Any injuries?

My shoulder got torn up a bit by the end of the movie, but that was more because they shot all the baseball stuff in a 2½ week period and through a lot of that I’m pitching. And so there are days where I had to pitch like three days in a row and I was pitching like 80 pitches a day.

Who’s your team?

My team? I like the Yankees. But I had to like them. When I was a kid, my grandfather is from New York. The worst beating I ever got in my life was because I loved Willie McGee and Ozzy Smith from the [St. Louis] Cardinals, and I thought they were like the coolest guys in the world and I got caught watching a Cardinals game, so I stopped doing that.

Are you concerned that this movie will have problems finding an audience in countries where baseball is not played?

Unfortunately in Europe, they play Cricket and that’s a stupid sport. Or soccer, which is cool, but baseball is a lot cooler. I love baseball. Soccer is cool, but I’m not good at that, so I don’t like it. So I don’t think the movie will do well in places like Great Britain and France.
Hopefully people will like the fact that there are half naked chicks and half-naked guys running around that should get some people into the theatre.
But a baseball movie is not for everybody. People in Japan will understand it. People here will understand it. Canada will understand it. But cricket people won’t get it. They’re just bad baseball players.

Do you think “Scooby Doo” is gonna have wider appeal because it is internationally known?

Comedian Eddie Izzard, he’s a British comic and an absolute genius was talking about how our American foreign policy makes it a little bit difficult for us to travel to other countries. But he said there are two things you can do: 1) Say you’re Canadian. 2) Talk about Scooby Doo. Because everybody loves Scooby Doo. Everyone knows the song. People in Zimbabwe know Scooby Doo. It’s a worldwide thing, so I think the movie will do huge business everywhere. And rightfully so because it is an awesome movie.

Is it just a weird coincidence that you and Sarah did this movie together?

Pretty much. I’m sure somewhere at Warner Brothers someone thought “this will be a great media thing because we’ll have Sarah and Freddie” but one of the executive on ‘Summer Catch’ over at Warner Brothers, he’s a good friend of mine, and he said “I want you to do a movie that is gonna be more international. I want you to be this international star” And so, he was like, “I really want you to do ‘Scooby Doo’”. And I was like, “I don’t really think I want to do ‘Scooby Doo’. I don’t think it will be any good.” And he was like “Read the script” You don’t understand, I have every single episode of “Scooby Doo” on tape, and I didn’t want to wreck it. But I read the script and it was hysterical. And by then, Sarah was already in negotiations to do it.

Was your apprehension because of the failure of ‘Josie & The Pussycats’ and ‘The Flintstones’?

‘Josie’ hadn’t come out yet. It came out when we were filming the movie. I just didn’t want to do it because I‘m a huge fan same reason I didn’t want to do ‘X-Men’. I learned how to read reading the “X-Men” comic book. I didn’t want to be in a movie with a script that wasn’t the “X-Men” I knew.
It’s a cool movie with super-heroes flying around, but it wasn’t my ‘X-Men’. It’s not the way I still read it today. And by the way, it’s destroyed the comic book, too. After the movie came out they changed the whole comic book and all the writers quit. Anyway, I didn’t want to do something I was a fan of that wasn’t being done in the right way

What do you think about the lack of original ideas for movies in Hollywood?

It’s just about making cash, man. You know what I mean. Everybody wants to have the number one movie and it’s all about winning that [opening] weekend. If you have something that already has the existing hype around it, then you have that much better of a shot at succeed. I’m not mad at them. I think they’re making cool movies, but you’re right, there have been more original films made in the past than what’s going on now.

Do you have a song?

We have a couple of songs

You don’t want to talk about it?

That’s the reason why it’s special, because it’s personal and private. People go, “Are you a romantic?” and I say “Yeah” then they go, “What do you do?” [Laugh] How romantic is that? It’s not cool. I keep my mouth shut. That stuff is personal and special.

Do you imagine yourself as a family guy?

I’d love to have kids one day. I think that would be awesome. I don’t know when, but when I do, Sarah will be the first one to know.

What else is in the works for you?

‘Scooby’ was 6 months long and when that was over I was literally dead. I hurt my back really bad. We did this ridiculous stunt and I wanted to be Jackie Chan and I went and I did it and the guys pulled the wire too far and I landed on my chest and I went all the way over. They have it on tape. I think they are gonna show it on Leno or something. But when people watch it, it’s like Faces of Death. So now I’ve been taking it easy. I’ve been writing. I have a couple of comic book things that are in the works.

You’re writing comic books?

Yes. I’m writing one superhero one it’s like a teen comic and I’ve got a little special thing coming out from Marvel which I’m not gonna talk about. You are going to have to be surprised. And a couple of other things that have not been sold yet.

How was being in Massachusetts as a Yankee fan?

I hate the Boston Red Sox and I hope they fall off the face of the Earth. I wish that the San Andreas Fault was in Boston, because I hate everybody there, I hate the State!

Did they give you grief?

People in Boston gave me a lot of flack, but I don’t care. I hate everybody there.

You and Matthew are working together on ‘Scooby Doo’. Is this going to become a regular thing?

Look, I have awesome chemistry with Matt and I mean him and I both know it. So if he’s in a movie, I want to be in it. And if I have a movie coming out, I want him to be in that. Because he makes my work better and I love the guy to death. Whatever you write in the script, you have to know he’s not gonna say it. Hell, not even say something close to it. He’ll have like 45 ideas and 44 of them will be 20 times better than what’s on the page. He’s got this philosophy and he’ll tell you. “I make one choice every day when I look in the mirror, and that’s to be brilliant.”

What’s your favourite Thanksgiving food?

Well turkey and mashed potatoes and gravy, of course. I like green beans too.

So you have a relative that has a great recipe

I have a great recipe. I love making turkey. I would make it every day if it didn’t take 3½ or 4 hours.

What do you do?

The whole trick is lifting up the skin, don’t worry about basting it.

How was your time in Australia?

It was great time, but six months at the end of the day, I’m an American. I need to be in America. Six months is a long time to be anywhere.

‘Scooby Doo’ is released nationwide on July 12th

CREDIT LINE - By Lolita Petitfleur/Planet Syndication