If Jennifer Love Hewitt ever needed a job to fall back on, taking calls as a 911 dispatcher would not be high on the list.
鈥淚鈥檇 be such a nervous nelly,鈥� Hewitt insists. 鈥淚鈥檇 panic. I鈥檇 be the worst 911 operator. What they do is amazing. The pressure they are under and their ability to stay calm so that they can get someone the help they need is incredible.鈥�
Hewitt鈥檚 own inabilities aside, the actress can at least play the part. This season, she has joined Fox鈥檚 hit drama 9-1-1 as Maddie, the sister of firefighter Evan 鈥淏uck鈥� Buckley (Oliver Stark). Her character becomes a 911 dispatcher to restart her life after leaving an abusive relationship.
The role marks Hewitt鈥檚 return to TV after nearly three years away 鈥� an intentional break motivated by the birth of her second child, Atticus, now three (her daughter, Autumn, will be five in November) and grief over her mother鈥檚 2012 death.
9-1-1 also returns Hewitt to Fox almost two decades after her breakthrough role in Party of Five and its spinoff, Time of Your Life.
Q: What prompted your acting break and did living life off camera enhance your work?
A: I needed to take some time for myself and to grieve my mother. I needed to become a new mom; I needed to learn how to be a wife. I鈥檝e really enjoyed the break, and I feel like now, having gone back into acting, it鈥檚 really done a beautiful thing for me in that it鈥檚 made everything that I do in my acting/entertainment life not less important but less like, 鈥淚t鈥檚 everything all the time,鈥� like it used to be.
I also feel like I have new things to pull from as an actor. I think it鈥檚 so odd as actors that we, especially kid actors, which I was, we鈥檙e expected to pull from all these life experiences that so many of us haven鈥檛 had. I remember I directed an episode of Ghost Whisperer, and I had to work with a girl who had never been in love before. And she was doing a story all about love. And she was like, 鈥淚鈥檓 sorry, I just don鈥檛 know what it is, what it feels like.鈥� And I was like, 鈥淥h, my God. Let鈥檚 go to lunch.鈥� I feel like I acted for a lot of years from my heart but not really, truly understanding some of the things that I understand now.
Q: As a young actor, was taking a break even something you could have fathomed?
A: It鈥檚 a big reason why I never went to college. I was afraid that I was going to lose it all. I was afraid to do that. It鈥檚 for sure scary.
Q: The death of a loved one can sometimes prompt people to be more fearless; for others, it can cause them to retreat. How did it weigh on you?
A: I went into a very fearful place. I started getting a lot of anxiety, and I鈥檝e had anxiety since (my mom) passed. It鈥檚 still something that I deal with on a daily basis. I try not to give it to my kids. But yeah, it鈥檚 been really hard for me.
I think, initially, I went into survival mode. I knew that I couldn鈥檛 sit indoors and just grieve her. I needed to change my surroundings, so I moved. I got rid of some stuff. I just needed a change. I traveled a little bit 鈥� she loved to travel. That wasn鈥檛 something that I had done before. I did some things that I was afraid of. But 鈥淧hase Two,鈥� for me, I was real afraid. I remember every time the phone would ring, I鈥檇 be like, 鈥淥h, my God, someone else ...鈥�
I lost my grandmother a little less than a year after my mom, so that was hard. She was the other significant female in my life. But when my daughter came around, and I got pregnant, this really beautiful thing happened where I went, 鈥淥h, but there鈥檚 life too!鈥� The one that moves you forward is the trust and the non-fear place, and the one that holds you back is the fear place. And so I just tried to move forward.
But I think because I was so fearful, for me to act and to have to tap into those things not in a safe place, would have been really hard for me. So I do think that that was part of why acting scared me at that time. Because I just wanted to be in joy. I didn鈥檛 want to force myself to go deep into that place.
Q: Can I ask: When was the last time you watched Party of Five?
A: Probably at that time. I know you can stream it, and there鈥檚 part of me, during the very few moments in my house that I have to myself, where I am like, 鈥淗ow weird would it be if I just sat down and watched 鈥楶arty of Five?鈥欌��
Q: What鈥檚 it like knowing that the show has reached reboot status? And what are your thoughts on Freeform鈥檚 plans to remake it as a story about immigration?
A: It doesn鈥檛 surprise me that they would do something so smart and lovely with that show. It鈥檚 going to be great. But it does, for a second, make me go: 鈥淥h, God, I鈥檓 old enough that something is being rebooted.鈥� But I鈥檓 actually really excited to see it.
Q: You posted an Instagram story apologizing for your appearance at the network upfronts, where you were promoting 鈥�9-1-1.鈥� As someone who has had their body commented on since you were a teenager, has it become reflex to get ahead of the scrutiny?
A: The wonderful thing about Instagram is that it allows you to have a voice in places where you wouldn鈥檛 normally have a voice. The upfronts for me was such a dizzying, crazy experience.
That morning, we do my hair and it looks great at the hotel and my makeup looked great. But by the time I got to the venue, I was melting. I had mascara underneath my eyes. Normally in my life I would never feel the need to comment on it, but I know people. It鈥檚 just the world that we live and so I was like, 鈥淵ou know what, instead of reading a bunch of stuff that鈥檚 going to hurt my feelings in two days, I鈥檓 just gonna sit in my closet and say, 鈥業 was a hot mess party of one. Got it, here are the reasons.鈥欌��
I got a lot of really good responses, but I got a lot of responses from people saying鈥� 鈥淵ou shouldn鈥檛 have to do that.鈥� I wish that people could walk on the red carpet and look however they look and people would still feel as excited about their new show or have something nice to say about them or whatever. But we don鈥檛, like as a society right now we just don鈥檛.
