LATE SHOW WITH DAVID LETTERMAN
June 2002
Transcribed by Nancy

David Lettermen: Our first guest stars in the new live action film version of the popular cartoon Scooby Doo. It opens June 14th. Here’s Freddie Prinze Jr.

*Loud applause; Freddie comes out*

DL: Welcome to the show.
Freddie Prinze Jr.: Thank you very much, thank you very much.
DL: Pleasure to meet you. Why don’t you do me a favor and tell me and everybody else just a little but about yourself? Where are you from, where you grew up, how you got started being a big time, big shot actor and stuff.
FPJ: I’m uh, I’m uh, Freddie Prinze Jr. I’m a Pisces. I was uh, born in Albuquerque, New Mexico…
DL: Uh-huh.
FPJ: And uh…
DL: Is that a great place to grow up as a kid?
FPJ: It's uh…well I kind of switched time between California and Albuquerque so it’s great for certain things but if you’re artistic or you like acting or things like that, it’s not the best place to go 'cause it's very much like a football factory there and they just like, shipped kids right out onto college and uh, so I was considered a little weird; a little off so it was tricky. It was tricky. I went to the school counselor office quite a bit. They thought I was…they thought I was paranoid schizophrenic cause I kind of, you know, I make stuff up in my head…I’m an actor, I make stuff up so I was sort of like, make believe and pretend stuff on the playground instead of like playing football so they thought I was retarded so they sent me to them.
DL: Freddie what kind of stuff were you making up? Just stuff to kind of occupy your mind, you got bored easily?
FPJ: Yeah I got bored. You know I wasn’t like...I didn’t play football as a kid, you know, I was raised by my mom and my grandma so I learned how to cook and that was pretty much it. And so for the rest…I spent the rest of my time, you know, sort of like making up different like, fantasies and like superhero buddies of mine and we go fight crime and like save the world and you know.
DL: And so now you’re kind of doing that in movies.
FPJ: Yeah, I used to be called 'weird' and 'retarded' and now I’m 'creative' and 'artistic.'
DL: Well, there you go. And if you hadn’t become an actor, was there anything else that got your attention? You said you were cooking. You didn’t really play sports much. What might have happened to you if you weren’t an actor? What would you be doing today?
FPJ: Well, before I left, I worked at the Price Club so uh... *Laughs* I changed tires there with a bunch of Indians…so maybe I’d be doing that still. I don’t know.
DL: Well there’s nothing wrong with working at the Price Club.
FPJ: Hey nothing wrong at all...It’s just, you know, I was this 16 year old manager with a bunch of thirty-five-year-old Indians that just wanted to kill me so it was a little tricky. It was a little tricky.
DL: When did you actually get something that really sort of got your attention? You thought, ‘Oh my, this is really going to work. I can be an actor.’ What was the first step you made?
FPJ: My first job ever was on this…there was this sitcom called “Family Matters”. I don’t know if you remember it. *Audience cheers* It was with Jaleel White, he played Urkle, there you go. So big applause for “Family Matters” alright, so I…
DL: Was this the ABC…
FPJ: It was an ABC show, yeah.
DL: ...the Friday night thing?
FPJ: Yeah but I didn’t have like a big…I was like a guest cast.
DL: Was this with Urkle?
FPJ: Yeah, it was with Jaleel yeah, there you go. So I had four lines, it was my big debut and I was this punk named Burt and I carried a gun to school and they don’t want you...It’s a comedy and I’m carrying a gun to school and…they try to, they do this gun drive where you’re suppose to like give up your gun…
DL: Yeah turn in the gun…
FPJ: And uh…but I’m not going to give up the gun. *Freddie acting out his lines* ‘You going to offer me money?’ and the girl's like, the girl says ‘No’ ‘Well do I get concert tickets?’ and she’s like ‘You get your life.’ And then that was it. That was my big part and there you go.
*Audience applauses*
DL: Did you do a lot of those…were they doing those when you were a kid? The after school specials?
FPJ: I did, I did the very last…It was so bad that it was the last after school special.
DL: You killed the genre.
FPJ: We were replaced by the “Richard Bay” show I think and uh, we really were. It was called “Too Soon for Jeff” and it was me and Jessica Alba and she was fresh off the “Flipper” series. And uh, I was…
DL: So she was red hot.
FPJ: Yeah I just, I just, you know, finished my three lines with, you know, “Family Matters” so I was smoking. And we did this after school special and they dealt with like, serious things and I got her pregnant and she had the baby and I didn’t want the baby and it was how do you deal with this and I had to be like a father for the first time. It was very dramatic and really horrible and uh, if you ever get the chance to see it, don’t. And that was it. And then after that I started making cool movies so there you go.
DL: Good for you. Now uh, last last night Sarah Michelle Gellar, your co-star in this film, was on the program.
FPJ: Yes.
DL: And she was talking about when you guys first started dating and I didn’t know you could do that. I didn’t know you could date someone in the same movie. I thought there were rules against that.
FPJ: Are they? I don’t know. We didn’t know that there were. We’d been dating awhile before.
DL: You’re lucky you didn’t get suspended.
FPJ: Yeah, we almost got suspended.
DL: But she was saying that there’s confusion about actually when the first date occurred and what it was.
FPJ: No, there’s no confusion about it. I’m right about it and she’s wrong about it.
DL: I see.
FPJ: It's not confusing, it's, look: She…we went out to dinner once. We had been friends for like five, six years and we went out to dinner once and all of a sudden, like, it wasn’t dinner anymore. All of a sudden it became something else but that’s what she calls the first date…
DL: Well, wait a minute. What does that mean?
FPJ: Well, she kissed me. So she kissed me, so it's no longer, we’re not just buddies anymore but she calls that the first date. But a date only counts if the guy thinks there’s a possibility that he’s going to score at the end of dinner so…it's not a date. It’s not a date, it's true. So it wasn’t til the next time we went to dinner, then it was a date.
DL: Well if that’s how it works, technically, I’ve never had a date.
FPJ: Ohhh.
DL: All right, we got to do our thing. We’ll be right back with Freddie Prinze Jr. everybody.

(Commercial Break)

DL: Howdy-doo ladies and gentlemen. Welcome back to the blockbuster show. Freddie Prinze Jr. is here. How many films have you made?
FPJ: I think either...this may be my 13th movie?
DL: That’s remarkable.
FPJ: 13th…in seven years…
DL: Because you’re just a kid really.
FPJ: Yeah, it’s a wee lad. Twenty-six.
DL: Things are going pretty well for you.
FPJ: Things are terrific.
DL: Now when you wanted to, you knew you were going to be in show business and stuff, did you ever consider doing stand up comedy like your father? Was that ever a possibility?
FPJ: No. I uhh…apparently you have to be very funny *Audience laughs* to do that and I’m a lot better if somebody writes it down first. So no, that was never an option. A lot of people ask me that. This stand up comedian, Paul Rodriguez, who’s a very, funniest comic, he used to always say ‘Just do your dad’s stuff. It’ll be great.’ So, but that didn’t work out. I never took a swing at it.
DL: And I guess you were an infant when your father died. You were like 10 months?
FPJ: Yeah, 10 months old, yeah.
DL: And at some point you must of started to assemble, through other members of the family and friends, an impression of what your dad was to other people and what he represented in show business and stuff and created for you your own image of the guy. Is that was that more less what happened?
FPJ: Yes.
DL: What was that process like? It must have been exciting.
FPJ: It was exciting. It’s kind of like, sort of getting to grow up all over again. You know I moved to Los Angeles when I was 18 years old. Like I just graduated and my buddy was like ‘You need to get out of here’ I was like ‘Why’ cause ‘People think you’re weird here, you’ll work out better in LA.’ So I moved to LA and I started, you know, coming in contact with people who had a lot of contact with my father and meeting people that were very close to him and not so close to him over the years, and you learn the good and the bad. It was literally sort of…I got to be 12 years old again and sort of got to figure out who my father was as a man for the first time, so it was a really special experience.
DL: And that experience in addition to filling in a blank for you as you were growing up, what does that mean now that you’re looking at starting a family of your own? How do you feel about that now?
FPJ: It makes you want to be a damn good father and it makes you want have as many kids as possible but I don’t know how that’s going to go over with Sarah. *Laughs* So, she’s a little thing.
DL: Well you’re still arguing about the first date, for god's sake.
FPJ: Exactly, so we got...
DL: Good luck.
FPJ: I want about five and I think we’re…I’m working on one with her so we got to compromise somewhere in the middle.
DL: Well that’s good. This all sounds very positive and I think it’s a nice story because your father was an enormous star and now so are you so that’s just great.
FPJ: Yeah he was a terrific guy. He was a terrific guy.
DL: Good for you. Lets uh, tell me about Scooby Doo, the movie and the Scooby Doo deal and what’s going on there.
FPJ: Scooby Doo is…I am, as you know…
DL: Now does this mean something to you that’s special?
FPJ: Yes, yes. I am a little off, as a lot of people know, and I love cartoons and comics. It’s the world I live in everyday. I actually, over the last twenty-something years, have collected every episode of Scooby Doo. So this was a very big deal to me…OK, there’s over 340 of them and even when they remade them in the late 80’s. They called them the “Thirteen Ghost of Scooby Doo” and they got rid of Fred and Velma and brought in this little Puerto Rican kid named “Rudy.” That’s great for Puerto Ricans all over the world but it’s a horrible cartoon. It was a big big deal for me to be involved and get it done right and we did a fantastic job with it.
DL: You collected every episode of this?
FPJ: There are over 340 of them and I have every one. Yeah, every one. And that along with about 6,000 over cartoons.
DL: Does your fiancée know about this?
FPJ: She does, and not until after she was my fiancée though. I made sure I had her before.
DL: I would think so. And what about it kind of spoke to you? What did you like about this cartoon?
FPJ: It was a dog that talked. *Audience laughs*
DL: I see…
FPJ: You know what I mean. I was five years old and that became the coolest thing in the world. I was Scooby Doo for six Halloweens in a row. It was…I loved it.
DL: Well, there you go. So you’re not in this movie by accident. This is something you really wanted to do.
FPJ: Yeah, very much. After I…the first time I was really nervous, but after I read the script, I knew how good it was going to be so I contaminated the director and producer with my knowledge of the cartoon. Drove them crazy and let them know that I would go postal if I didn’t get to be in the movie.
DL: Right, right.
FPJ: They let me in.
DL: All right, let's take a look at a little bit of it. Do you know what this scene is going to be?
FPJ: Yeah this is Fred Jones, that’s the character I play, he’s a little egotistical. He’s letting Velma know 'This is how you properly train a dog.'
DL: All right, dog training Scooby Doo, Freddie Prinze Jr., watch this.

(Plays clip from Scooby Doo)

FPJ: There you go.
DL: Nice hair by the way, yeah, very nice.
FPJ: Yeah, very manish.
DL: Well, it's great to meet you.
FPJ: Very nice to meet you, too.
DL: Thank you very much for being here.
FPJ: It's my pleasure.
DL: I hope you come back.
FPJ: I will.
DL: Freddie Prinze Jr. everybody. We’ll be right back.

Copyright © 2002 Late Show with David Letterman, CBS. All Rights Reserved.