Freddie Prinze Jr. -Articles

The Tonight Show With Jay Leno
Transcript
January 25, 2001

Jay: He stars in the new movie "head over heels," which opens nationwide February 2nd. Please welcome freddie prinze jr.

[ Cheers and applause ]
[ Cheers and applause ]

Jay: Have a seat.

FPJ: Thank you.

Jay: Aw, you know -- [ Cheers ] I know you wanted to borrow my travel iron. Ah, I'm sorry I didn't get it to you.

FPJ:This is my video game clothes, man. I had to come over here. I was runnin' late. I grabbed what was in my closet.

Jay: You know something, I just did a whole thing in the monologue about hair dye, and that looks so natural.

[ Laughter ]

FPJ: It's not --

Jay: I know, I'm just giving you a hard time.

FPJ: It's for work, man. It's for work. It's not like I did it myself. I do my arms, though.

Jay: Let's see if the women like it. Women, do you like -- how many like -- [ Wild cheers ] all right, how many like it the way it was before? [ Slightly wilder cheers ] it's close. You know what I would do? I would do one side blond. >> Right, okay. I'll do cruella deville.

Jay: What part was it for? What work were you doing?

FPJ: I'm doing "scooby-doo."

Jay: Oh, "scooby-doo"?

FPJ: Yeah, I'm fred jones. I'm freddie.

Jay: I could see that.

FPJ: Yeah.

Jay: Now, for those who don't know, explain what it's about.

FPJ: It's "scooby-doo." I'm fred jones, and I talk to a dog and -- [ Laughter ] and I go, and I make out with daphne while I send everybody else to go do all the work. And shaggy's habits are questionable. And velma's preferences are questionable. [ Laughter ] and, you know, we're making a movie about it. And it's really funny.

Jay: Now, what do you do to get ready for this role? How does one prepare for "scooby-doo"?

FPJ: For fred, I watched a lot of cartoons. They have this thing -- they have this -- it's really silly. They have this thing in the beginning of the script, and I got to do this, like, kung fu thing with this fire hose, right? And so they got me this guy -- his name's eric lee, and he's, like, 60 years old. He's, like, 5'5." And he looks like he's 30. And he weighs, like, 100 pounds. And he's this little guy. And he's called "the king of kata," right? And the guy's, like, a master with all these weapons.

Jay: Oh, is that right, yeah?

FPJ: And so he has this thing called a chinese whip. And he whips this thing around, and I'm supposed to mimic this with a hose. We basically ruined the entire, like, beautiful culture of, like, the chinese martial arts. But this spiral, for the last two days, I've been learning how to do this thing for the movie.

Jay: Can you do it?

FPJ: I can kinda -- they brought the hose. They brought our prop hose. I'll probably knock myself out.

Jay: Knock yourself out.

[ Wild cheers ] now, don't hit me with it, whatever you do.

FPJ: I'll try. I'll try. All right. So it starts out as just a figure eight, like this, right? You do a figure eight. And then you go to the elbow, like this. And you come down like that. And then you come under the arm, and that really hurt. Jay: Ow.

And then you go around the neck, like this.

[ Scattered whoas ] something like that.

Jay: Very good. [ Cheers and applause ] that's all right. Yeah, looks like you've whacked yourself a couple of times.

FPJ: I took one of the pills once, and it wasn't very fun. But other than that, I'm doing okay.

Jay: Have you injured yourself before? Maybe you have a scar --

FPJ: Yeah, I got a -- I -- me and my cousin nicky -- I was, like, 5 years old -- and we loved "star wars." And I was luke skywalker, and he was darth vader. And we got this flag pole, and we kept bending it and bending it until it snapped. It was metal. So we were intelligent children. He's, like, backing me up up this slide, and I'm fighting him off. I'm fighting him off, and I slide down the slide to get away from him. And the flag pole landed before I did, and then it jabbed me right in the chin. And when it came out, this big chunk right here -- if you get in closer, you'll see a -- shot out, right? It shot out. And so I'm squirting blood. I'm screaming. I'm 5 years old. I'm balling. I grabbed my chin, and I go to my mom. I was like, "mom, my chin fell off!" And I'm screaming. And she took me to the hospital. And for years, I thought I was, like -- I told everybody at school that I got plastic surgery 'cause that was, like, a cool thing to say. Apparently, it's not, but -- [ Laughter ]

Jay: They sewed your chin back together.

FPJ: They sewed my chin back. And I had little whiskers. And it looked like I had a beard.

Jay: My nose has these lines now 'cause I thought, when I was 5, "hey, let's poke that dog with a stick." [ Laughter ] and it was a little terrier dog, and the dog was on my face like this. It was just a little dog. And I'm running like this. My mom's chasing me with a dog on my face. [ Light laughter ] it was just basically the same thing.

FPJ: Smart kids. Smart kids.

Jay: Now, you just moved again, right? FPJ: Yeah, I moved. I got a house for my mom and my grandma so they could live close to me.

Jay: Good, good.

FPJ: I actually gave them my house. Oh, yeah, right on for me.

Jay: There you go. There you go.

[ Cheers and applause ]

FPJ: Yeah, and I gave them my old house. And I moved, like, two streets down.

Jay: Oh, okay.

FPJ: And I almost -- almost killed bob hope.

Jay: Almost killed bob hope?

FPJ: Yeah, he --

Jay: Well, how did that happen?

FPJ: It was not my fault, first of all. I got to get that clear. I'm a very safe driver.

Jay: Oh, you were driving?

FPJ: Yeah, I have a big, like -- a big pickup truck. And I'm driving up my street. And the smaller streets have stop signs. They have stop signs. And this golf cart runs -- it runs a stop sign. And I lock up my brakes, and I -- I was probably eight feet away, but it looked like an inch away. And I roll down the window, and I'm sc -- the guy in the passenger seat doesn't blink, doesn't even flinch. Okay, I don't know who it is yet. And then the caddie, the guy who was driving the cart, speeds off. And I'm all, "hey, what -- oh, my god, that's bob hope." And I'm, like, screaming. And then the guy, like, starts to look. And the other guy takes off. The caddie's driving away. I'm like, "oh, my god, I almost killed bob hope." I freaked out. Now, when I drive, I'm, like, looking around the corner.

Jay: Watch out for bob. Well, what's bob, 97?

FPJ: I guess.

Jay: That's pretty good. He's speeding through stop signs.

FPJ: He's doing all right.

Jay: Now, tell us about "head over heels."

FPJ: "Head over heels" is the funniest movie I've done. It's this guy -- mark waters directed it. And he directed me in one of my first movies, called "the house of yes," which was my favorite movie. And it's hysterical. It's very funny, but it's, like, if you went with your mom, you would, like, look to see if she laughed. And then if she did, you'd be like, "oh, right, that's superfunny." But otherwise, you'd be kinda like, "oh, that's terrible. I wouldn't laugh at that ever." But it's a superfunny movie, and I'm really proud of it.

Jay: What do you play?

FPJ: I play this guy. His name's jim winston, or so you think. And he's, like, a fashion executive. So I had to wear a lot of suits. I think this shirt's actually from the movie. I'm too cheap to buy my own clhes. But I think it's probably going to be in the clip. But -- with my luck -- with my luck, it will be.

Jay: Probably the same underpants, too.

FPJ: Maybe. It just might. So I play, like, a real smooth guy. And I'm supposedly mr. Perfect, and you find out later there might be something a little different.

Jay: All right, let's take a look. Here's a scene from "head over heels."

[Plays clip frm Head Over Heels]

Jay: Very good. Dr. Bob says -- again, you're in the column, same column as jennifer. How is sarah michelle gellar? You guys still together?

FPJ: Absolutely. We've been together for about a year.

Jay: A year? Oh, that's great. Very good. Congratulations.

FPJ: Thanks very much.

Jay: She's a nice person.

FPJ: She's the best. She's rock solid.

Jay: Freddie, good luck, man.

FPJ: Oh, thanks.

Jay: "Head over heels" opens February 2nd.