Highlights
- Freddie Prinze Jr. was sued in 2010 due to a car crash that allegedly occurred in 2009. The other driver claimed to have suffered injuries and required neck surgery.
- There is no public information about whether Prinze Jr. paid the driver or if the case went to trial, suggesting a possible out-of-court settlement.
- Prinze Jr. may have kept quiet about the lawsuit on the advice of his lawyers and to avoid worsening the situation. He has been open about other hardships in his life but may have chosen to keep this private.
Besides starring as popular kid Zack Siler in the '90s rom-com She's All That, Freddie Prinze Jr. is most talked about because he was part of the famous young cast of I Know What You Did Last Summer. After he wasn't paid much to star in Scooby-Doo in the early 2000s, he played a handful of roles in movies and TV shows. However, Prinze Jr. left acting for parenthood.
While fans have noticed that Freddie Prinze Jr. didn't act that much after the 2000s, there is one part of his life that has been kept fairly hidden. In 2010, he was part of a lawsuit that didn't get much publicity. What should fans know about it?
Why Was Freddie Prinze Jr. Sued in 2010?
In September 2009, Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar became parents for the first time and had their daughter, Charlotte Grace. They seemed excited about their new addition. In April 2012, People reported that the couple was going to have baby number two, and Gellar gave birth to Rocky James in September 2012.
A year and a few months later, Freddie Prinze Jr. was sued because of something that allegedly happened back in 2009.
Someone sued Freddie Prinze Jr. in 2010 because of a car crash. In December of that year, TMZ reported that he was behind the wheel of a car belonging to Gellar. The publication says that they were able to see documents from the lawsuit that said that the driver of the other car was waiting and the light was red... but Prinze Jr. allegedly hit him.
According to TMZ, the driver wasn't able to go back to work after that, and he had to get neck surgery.
At the time that TMZ reported on the lawsuit, Freddie Prinze Jr. didn't say anything about it publicly. In the years since, he didn't talk about it, either. In fact, there is no information about whether the actor paid the driver. However, since there's no evidence that there was a trial, it seems possible that they settled out of court.
There are some lawsuits that are incredibly public, like when Terry Sanderson sued Gwyneth Paltrow in 2019 and they went to court in 2023. Since that case involved such a big celebrity and went to trial, it makes sense that people heard about it. There were countless stories about what their experience was like in the courtroom.
In contrast, not many know that Prince Jr. was sued in 2010. He's definitely a star, and it seems that if there was a trial, it would have been major news. There were no reports of a trial or even many news articles about the lawsuit at all. While it would be interesting to know what ended up happening, it doesn't seem that fans will ever find out.
Why Did Freddie Prinze Jr. Keep Private About His Lawsuit?
There must be a few reasons why Freddie Prinze Jr. has never spoken about being sued in 2010. He might have been given legal advice that he shouldn't say anything about it. It's possible to say that talking about the situation in interviews might have made things worse.
It's also true that Prinze Jr. wasn't in the spotlight that much in 2010. His days of being recognized for being a '90s heartthrob were unfortunately over and he only acted a little bit. Although he played Director of Field Operations Cole Ortiz in 25 episodes of 24 that aired in 2010, he wasn't cast in any major TV shows after that.
It might be a little surprising to fans that Freddie Prinze Jr. never brought up the lawsuit. He has been vocal about the difficult times that he has gone through in his life, from terrible acting jobs to his father Frederick James Prinze Sr. passing away in 1977.
Prince Jr. told Too Fab that shooting I Know What You Did Last Summer was awful because of the director Jim Gillespie. He said that the director "made it a point to single me out every single time" and would say "Don't leave your mouth open. You look stupid when you do that."
The actor also talked about voice actors not being paid fairly. According to the SFF Gazette, he said on the podcast Wrestling With Freddie that he was paid poorly for playing Kanan Jarrus on Star Wars Rebel.
He said, "the paychecks are whack. When I did Star Wars Rebels, they weren't paying any of us a dime. When I said, 'I'm gonna walk unless you give not only me but the rest of the cast a raise' - and I made sure we all got paid the same - that was the biggest, like, I can't say that's the biggest check any of them ever got on a show, but it was the biggest check that Disney ever paid voice actors per episode."
The actor has opened up about tricky subjects like money and bad directors, and he's known for approaching his life and career honestly. However, he might not want to discuss a delicate subject like a lawsuit. Even though fans are absolutely curious about the outcome of the lawsuit and would like to hear Prinze Jr.'s perspective on it, it's logical that he would want to keep it away from public consumption.
Freddie Prinze Jr. didn't star in any movies or TV shows in 2023, but it sounds like he's open to opportunities in the future. In 2021, he talked to The Hollywood Reporter about the movie Christmas With You and said that he felt excited about returning to a film set.
The actor said, "After taking a long break, I wanted to be creative again, and when the pandemic started, it began with writing. Writing eventually turned into wanting to act again, which got my daughter very excited. All of a sudden, I wanted to show her what her dad could do."
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