Jennifer Love Hewitt didn´t prepare herself for rape victim role

Jennifer Love Hewitt says she didn’t bother to prepare for her guest role on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. In her episode — which airs on September 29th — Jennifer  plays a rape victim named Vicki, who is brought into the hospital claiming that she has been attacked multiple times by the same man.

“There really was no preparation,” she said. “I was afraid to wrap my head around it, to be bluntly honest with you. It was a scary place to go. I’m not usually an actor that does that. I usually play characters who are nice, sweet, fun women. I had to do different things on Ghost Whisperer, with talking to the dead and stuff like that, but this was different. I don’t think I ever could have been prepared for this. It was definitely scary.

“Before I got there, I thought that I was going to be able to have a lot more control over my emotions while doing it than I did. I credit the cast and the crew, and Mariska and Helen specifically, because they really pushed me. They said, ‘Great, so everything that people know you for, and everything that you usually give is awesome, but it’s not going to work here. You’re going to have to go deeper’.

“I think I learned a really important lesson, as an actress, that hair and make-up is great, but the lack of it is better. It really does something for you, when you have to look at yourself covered in blood. I caught glimpses of myself and I was like, ‘Gosh, I don’t know who that actress is at all. I don’t know who this person is.

“Being able to have the gift that (executive producer) Neal Baer and everyone gave me of being able to not just strip down emotionally, but strip completely down — look-wise, wardrobe-wise, hair-wise, make-up-wise and all of that stuff — and be something that I’ve never been before, really allowed me, emotionally, physically and mentally, to go to a different place. So, there was no preparation. I wouldn’t have known how to do that. It just happened. We just got there the first day and I went, ‘Okay, I have one job to do and that is to give everything I’ve got. And, out of that, hopefully people will know how important the issue is, and they will feel the depth of what I think this girl feels and goes through, and hopefully it’ll work.’ Ultimately, I think it did.”