Jennifer Love Hewitt Has Good Reason To Be Scared

SAN DIEGO (TNA) – The third season of “The Ghost Whisperer” debuts Sept. 28 on CBS, and series star Jennifer Love Hewitt has plenty of reasons to be scared.

So claims producer P.K. Simonds, who says that Hewitt – or “Love,” as she is called on the set – made the mistake last season of revealing to the writers some of her personal fears.

Simonds promises they will add to the show’s dramatic arc this season by using those little fears in various scripts. However, producers are only telling Hewitt which fears are being exploited on a need-to-know basis.

In the new season of 'The Ghost Whisperer,' Jennifer Love Hewitt's real fears will spice up the episodes.

“You aren’t doing a script with clowns, are you?” Hewitt asked Simonds with exaggerated fear during a recent press conference. “I hate clowns. I didn’t tell you that, did I?”

While Simonds remains mum on the possible appearance of ghost clowns, the aim on the set this year, he says, is to “go dark and go deeper” by capitalizing on the show’s built-in mythology to scare people, but not to scare them away. He believes that “the audience invests more when something’s at stake.”

Hewitt, for one, is pleased with this development, which she says will pose an interesting acting challenge.

“The closer someone comes to the light, the darker the darkness gets in order to challenge her beliefs,” Hewitt said.

Although the producers plan to answer a number of questions about ghosts in Grandview, the hometown of Hewitt’s character, Melinda Gordon, she jokes that no one has answered why she always seems shocked when she sees a ghost.

“Why is she afraid?” Hewitt asked, squirming her face into her trademark scared expression. “This happens every day. Maybe it’s because she’s trying so hard to be normal?”

Hewitt not only plays a “ghost whisperer” on the show, she may be becoming one in real life.

Psychic James Van Praagh, who helped launch the program, says Hewitt is a natural psychic, adding that her ability is being enhanced through her work on the show. However, Hewitt demurs on whether she’ll be ready to hang up a psychic shingle anytime soon.

“I believe everyone has a natural sensitivity and, for me, it’s hard to ignore when you’re working 17 hours a day on this show,” she said. “However, I choose to let Melinda have that side of me. I don’t see ghosts, but I’ve learned to intimately judge people based on if they have positive or negative energy.”

But even if Hewitt isn’t seeing ghosts off-camera, the rest of the cast and crew are. In three seasons, the cameras have caught numerous glimpses of ghosts on film, footage that has been made available to researchers.

And though Hewitt leaves the ghost-gawking to her character, she does share some traits with her on-screen persona.

“Melinda is defined by who she helps,” Hewitt said. “I relate to that because I have this need to give as well. If I couldn’t entertain someone, I wouldn’t feel the same.

“I put my heart and soul into everything my characters say,” she adds. “I want viewers to feel like they’ve had a really good snack. A banana split.”

Along with her fears, Hewitt’s giving nature is helping to inspire scripts. When she’s not on set, she spends time volunteering for Iraq war veterans; in the new season’s third episode, producers have fashioned a similar plotline.

Sadly for Hewitt, not all aspects of her real life fit into the parameters of “The Ghost Whisperer.”

For instance, Hewitt loves to go surfing in Maui, but, so far, there are no plans for her character to hook up with a ghost that hangs ten.

“She’s traveling to the underworld, not Paris or Maui,” Simonds warned.

And while Hewitt’s music has been used as background on the show, her fans won’t have a chance to hear her sing on-screen, unless, she muses, “Melinda meets a musical ghost.”

The possibility of utilizing Hewitt’s personal hobbies in a supernatural forum doesn’t exactly excite Simonds.

“Oh no! I’m going to have to write a karaoke episode set in Hawaii where Melinda adopts a demon child,” he said in mock rage.