Jennifer Love Hewitt Recalls 'Grown Men Talking to Me at 16 About My Breasts' on Talk Shows: 'Gross'

Jennifer Love Hewitt is recalling her discomfort over inappropriate comments made by adult men when she was a teenager.

While on the Mayim Bialik's Breakdown podcast Tuesday, Jan. 28, the actress reflected on when she was breaking out as a young actress in the '90s, saying some of how she was viewed and treated as a sex symbol at the time "felt very innocent and exciting and fun."

But when she was in her 30s, she told host Mayim Bialik, "It sort of hit me more, the things that I probably went through somewhere."

"I was like, oh my God, there were grown men talking to me at 16 about my breasts just openly on a talk show, and people were laughing about it," said Hewitt, now 45. "I really didn't take in that part of it in [at the time]."

"In hindsight it was very strange to become a sex symbol for people before I even knew what that was," she continued. "I didn't know what being sexy meant, and I was on the cover of Maxim magazines. People would openly walk up and be like, 'I took your magazine with me on a trip last week,' and I'd have to be like, 'Oh, ha ha.' And I didn't really know what that meant. It's kinda gross."

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Hewitt also said when her blockbuster slasher I Know What You Did Last Summer premiered in 1997, "Everybody said, 'Oh, I know what your breasts did last summer.' "

"I was so mad that I had done my first movie and worked so hard and the only thing that you see is a movie poster with boobs on it," she said.

Now the Can't Hardly Wait star is "thankful" that she didn't fully grasp the larger implications at the time, "'Cause I think had I taken on some of that earlier, I think it would've messed with me."

Hewitt gives a lot of credit to her mom for "keeping reality very apparent" — like after a Hollywood event, "I'd have to go home and clean my room. And I think that helped," she said.

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Related: Jennifer Love Hewitt Confirms Return for I Know What You Did Last Summer Reboot: 'Never Too Late to Go Back'

The Party of Five alum told PEOPLE last month that she could relate to a lot of what Britney Spears went through in the public eye.

"She said people always talked about her boobs, and you go back and look at the interviews and the questions that were asked to me as a child, and it's crazy," Hewitt said. "The things that people were allowed to say to you in an interview was definitely wild."

If she could give a piece of advice to her 18-year-old self, the actress said she would tell her, "You don't have to be sexy."

"I would tell her to calm down, that she's still going to be here at 45," Hewitt added. "I would tell that girl, 'We got this. We're going to be here for a while.' "

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