Freddie Prinze Jr. -Articles

J-14 Magazine
"The all new me"
July, 2000

The gorgeous actor has learned the hard way how to protect himself from heartache!

Freddie Prinze Jr. is making some changes in his life these days. First, he's not so candid about his private life anymore. The She's All That star is dating Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Sarah Michelle Gellar, but they are both tight-lipped about the budding romance.

Late last year, Freddie and his girlfriend, soap actress Kimberly McCullouggh, split after living together for four years. "She bounced," he says. "I did three movies in six months. It cost me my girlfriend. I'll never do that again." Now that he's dating his I Know What You Did Last Summer co-star, he's wisely keeping details of their love life secret. Sarah probably has a lot to do with that: She's a very private person.

It hasn't been difficult for Freddie and Sarah to stay out of the limelight. Neither likes to frequent the Hollywood hot spots. Freddie would rather play video games or cook dinner for two (Chilean sea bass is his specialty). His idea of a romantic date? Bowling, ice-skating and minature golf top the list of things that "let you maintain physical contact and luagh together."

Freddie's Down to You co-star Julia Stiles says she likes the little boy in him. "He was telling me, 'This is the best book I've ever read!' and it was, like, Spider-Man," she exclaims. "But I love that about him. He's not trying to be super-cool."

And cool is what Freddie has had to pretend to be for all those mushy romantic movies he's famous for. "Personally, I wish I could be making action movies where I didn't have to kiss," he jokes.

What he really wants is to scale walls in the upcoming Spider-Man flick. "I want that role very, very badly," he admits. Actors like Leonardo DiCaprio and Jude Law are said to be in the running. "It's a competition, but I can't look at it that way. There are other parts."

For example, there's the baseball film Summer Catch that he's currently filming after replacing Matt Damon. This movie will give audiences the romantic Freddie they enjoy and give the actor the action he craves. "I make movies to escape reality," he says. "It's the only place where I can fly the spaceship, pitch the winning game and get the girl and live happily ever after."