Lauren Ambrose is looking back fondly at Can’t Hardly Wait. During a Monday appearance on LIVE with Kelly and Ryan, the 44-year-old Yellowjackets actress reflected on the lasting legacy of the 1998 teen classic, plus how successful much of the cast has been in the years since.
“It was one of my very first acting jobs,” Ambrose told Ryan Seacrest after he noted the film’s upcoming 25th anniversary. “I had to go out and do a screen test for it with other actors. That was one of my first trips to L.A.”
She continued, “It’s just amazing. Can’t Hardly Wait is full of actors who have had long careers now. You look at that cast now, and like, the extras [are famous].”
Aside from Ambrose, the core cast of the film included Ethan Embry, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Seth Green, Peter Facinelli and Charlie Korsmo.
an’t Hardly Wait is a story about recent high-school graduate Preston Meyers (Embry, now 44) who attends one last blowout bash with the class of 1998 in the hopes of finally winning over the girl of his dreams: homecoming/prom/everything queen, Amanda Beckett (Hewitt, also now 44).
Other notable cast members who played smaller roles in the film and went on to have successful careers include Melissa Joan Hart, Jaime Pressly, Clea Duvall, Eric Balfour, Selma Blair, Marisol Nichols, Sara Rue, Jenna Elfman and Jerry O’Connell. The movie also marked Jason Segel‘s first big-screen role.
Ambrose played Denise Fleming, a jaded character who masks her anger at and hurt feelings over former best friend Kenny Fisher (Green, now 49) by making fun of him, only to later reunite in an unexpected situation, where they reveal their true feelings for one another.
Denise is also a voice of reason for Preston, her current-day best friend and a starry-eyed romantic whom she reminds at their high-school graduation, “Don’t look back; you should never look back.”
Back in 2015, Hewitt tweeted that she’s “so proud to have been a part of this movie!” following a Cinespia screening of Can’t Hardly Wait at Los Angeles’ Hollywood Forever Cemetery.
She followed up with a call to get the film a reunion reboot: “Can’t Hardly Wait reunion movie anyone? Let’s get them to make it!”
As for where he thinks his character would be today, Embry told PEOPLE back in 2014, “I think that he probably would’ve taken the route of becoming a reclusive alcoholic in the hills of Connecticut, chasing his Django Reinhardt/Kurt Vonnegut to the bottom of a barrel, wondering why things never worked with Amanda.”
Asked if he’d ever do a sequel, he added, “I doubt that would ever happen, but the first time I sat and watched that movie was on New Year’s Eve. They took it off of Netflix and so I did a Tweet-along. It’s not that bad — it’s all right.”
Source : People