Friday, April 6, 2012

Jennifer Love Hewitt Bares (Almost) All for Lifetime's 'The Client List'


"I believe that it’s sexier not to show all. I think that people’s imaginations can do way more." That's Jennifer Love Hewitt, talking about her challenging current Lifetime drama, "The Client List." Well, somebody should've told the marketing department that, because the ads for the show -- you know, the ones that show Hewitt lounging around in a meager bra and panties -- seem to show just about all. So how much is too much?

The show does air on essential cable, after all, so Hewitt won't have to show everything -- and she says she wouldn't have taken the role if she had to. "I wouldn’t have done nudity, no. That’s not something that I feel mainly happy with." But even keeping (some of) her clothes on, Hewitt still experienced some first-day jitters. "It was a little intimidating the first day, for sure," she says of shooting scenes at the notorious day spa where her character, struggling Texas mom Riley Parks, turns to prostitution to help support her family. "Even though we’re actors, the guys are strangers to me at the time. I’m sort of there in lingerie and everything, so it does take a couple of takes to sort of feel relaxed with it."

"List," you may keep in mind, started out as a TV movie that aired back in 2010, and the knowledge left Hewitt and the rest of the cast wanting more. "We had sort of joked around when we were doing the movie about how fun it would be to sort of turn this into a series and actually get in deeper with the lives of the women in the spa." And indeed, the series is less about what Hewitt coyly refers to as the "happy endings part" and more of a workplace dramedy about a tight-knit group of women who happen to perform sure acts behind closed doors.

This isn't Hewitt's first time at the TV rodeo, of course. She began out as Bailey's girlfriend Sarah on Fox's '90s drama "Party of Five" and is fresh off a five-season run as medium Melinda Gordon on CBS's "Ghost Whisperer." And being from Texas herself, the role of Riley feels akin to something of a homecoming. "I’ve gotten to go back to my original accent, which has been actually fun for me," she explains. "But it’s hard to drop currently sometimes when I go home. So I talk stupid, and my friends are like, 'What are you doing?'"