Jennifer Love Hewitt Interview

How do you feel about cats?
I like cats. I used to have a lot of cats, but I don't anymore, now I just have a dog. It does take a certain temperament to have a cat, as they do have certain personalities. Completely different. You have to be very insensitive in order to have a cat, because I think they're very independent. When they're kittens, you think they're going to have a dog temperament in that they're going to run to the door when you get home, lick you on the face and cuddle with you all the time, but cats are not that way. They are very mysterious; you never know what's going on with them, they like being on their own and having their space.

This movie re-enforces what cats are thinking.
I know, I've always been intrigued with what my pets think.

What pets do you have?
I have a dog. She's called Mia.

How difficult is it to act when the co-star isn't there?
It was okay actually. It took us a little bit to get used to. I had a lot less of that to do than Breckin did. He had to carry Garfield around and have him on his stomach. He got much better at it than I did. I'm only with Garfield for the one examination scene in the movie. I'm almost always dealing with Breckin so I didn't have to do as much of it as he did, but it was fine.

Do you find you're too old for certain roles and too young for other roles?
I think I'm coming at the end of it now. I'm just starting to get to the end of that. There are starting to be more roles that are different from the roles that I have already played, but closer to the roles that I really want to play. So, I'm kind of at the end of it now and happy about that.

What kind of roles would you like to play?
I'd like to do My Best Friend's Wedding, Pretty Woman, Meg Ryan type stuff. Romantic comedies. I'd love to do some action stuff as well. I'm just now getting into that, I just did a romantic comedy outside of London. I'm really excited about it. It's called The Truth About Love.

What is the film about?
We actually shot the movie in six weeks, so it was very very quick. And I just got home two weeks ago. I was mainly in Bristol and Cardiff and it's with Dougray Scott. I play an English girl who's been married for seven years, and I actually play my husband's wife and his mistress at the same time.

How difficult was the accent?
It was tough. It was more difficult because I was insecure about being the only American actor in an all British cast and all British crew. I really stuck out like sore thumb when I spoke like myself. And I felt like I stuck out like a sore thumb when I was in my accent! But then I began to realize that I didn't because that accent doesn't sound funny to them, so they don't notice it. So the mental part of it was harder for me than anything else. And once I got over it and one member of the crew came up and they were like: "Your accent is really good, we're so proud of you," I felt better.

What kind of accent is it?
It's not supposed to be anything. I wanted it to be really, really light, like Renee Zellweger's accent is very much well spoken, proper British, which I will never be able to do as well as her. I wanted mine to be barely noticeable, because I don't want people that like my movies here, to just pay attention to the fact that I have an accent the whole movie. And I didn't want people there to pay attention to the fact that I had an accent the whole movie. So my accent is very light, and you can't really tell where it's from.

What qualities do you think you have to play a good veterinarian?
I'm very caring with animals. I think patience is a big deal, because animals are always jumping around. I love to take care of people, so I think I'd be a good vet. I always wanted to be a vet when I was little.

Is it true that Carson Daly broke up with you via press release?
No, what happened with that. We had a mutual conversation. It was fine. Then supposedly, he turned around the next day and said I broke up with him on the radio, which is not true.

But you got your revenge by 'roasting ' him?
Yeah, I did. I really felt odd about that whole thing, because the truth is if you care about somebody enough to be with them for two years of your life, you're always going to care about them in some way. And I think Carson is actually a really good person, and our break up was something that affected me in my life, but it did not change the way that I feel about him. I will always think that he is a great person. Whereas anybody in my life, if I've spent quality time with you in any sort of intimate way possible, whether it will just be my heart or my head, friendship or whatever it is, call me at four o'clock in the morning and I will come to wherever you are if you need me, because I feel that that is the right thing to do. There is a big part of me that struggled with whether or not I should go and do the roast, and the only I would go and do the roast if they would allow me to stop the roast at some point and say something nice to him, which I did. I did have fun.

You changed your look in the movie, with shorter hair.
We just wanted to do something different, it was fun. I hadn't been in a studio film for a while and I thought why not look different.

Were you familiar with the Garfield comic strip?
No, I had watched the cartoon and I had read the comic in the Sunday paper. I was a fan. I thought he was adorable and really cute, but I didn't have all the comics at home.

Why do you think Garfield resonates so strongly - like with Spiderman, Daredevil?
I think it's interesting that since the world has kind of found itself where it is that superheroes are coming in from out of nowhere. I don't think that that is a coincidence. I think we are ready to know that there are going to be people who are ready to save the world, who come out when you're in trouble and make sure that you're okay. I think that that's an interesting thing that people are flocking to see those movies. Garfield is not necessarily a superhero. I think he's a very American, iconic kind of character. He's been around for a long time. People identify with him because he seems very human to me. He's like your grandfather. He walks kind of slow, he's grumpy at times. He's got a really grouchy outside, but inside he's this big mush ball. That's who Garfield is for me and that's the amazing thing that Jim Davis has done with this character all along. He's been the voice of people. The things he says to people are the things we wish we could all say, but we would all get hit in the face if we said that to somebody! He's a cat, and he's cute, and orange and fluffy and he can say what he wants because nobody will hear him!

He likes to pig out - what is your pig out food?
I do love Italian food. Any kind of pasta or pizza. My new pig out food is Indian food. I eat Indian food like three times a week. It's so good.

How is your music career going?
Good, it's kind of on hold for a while. I took so much time off to go and tour with the record (Bare Naked) that I kind of put the acting side of things on hold. So, now I'm trying to catch up the other side of my life and do a bunch of acting projects, and get back to the singing stuff for a while. It's good to take a break from that. Especially, when you write your own music, you have to experience and live things in order to have things to write about. Right after I got done writing the record, I didn't have anything left to write about. I had kind of written about it all. So, now I need to live a bit.

What about making a musical like Renee?
I'd love to do a musical.