Jennifer Love Hewitt Talks ‘9-1-1’ Season 9 And Her Fearless Mindset

Jennifer Love Hewitt on “9-1-1”

Disney

Jennifer Love Hewitt has remained a beloved Hollywood darling since she was a kid – from Party of Five to I Know What You Did Last Summer and Can’t Hardly Wait – just to name a few. Lately, the longtime actress has been saving the day on primetime network television, as she continues to play 9-1-1 dispatcher Maddie Han on ABC’s 9-1-1 series.

Joining the hit drama at the start of season 2, Hewitt, 46, now heads into season 9, premiering tonight, and is still motivated to keep telling these heart-pounding 9-1-1 stories.

“In February, it will be 37 years for me in this business,” Hewitt told me during our new Zoom conversation. “This is the longest-running show I’ve ever been on. Even though I’ve been on ones that went for a while, this is still the longest-running one. With TV and the business the way that it is today, I’m really grateful to have an awesome job with great people that I love and I get to learn from every day.”

The Texas native went on to say that Maddie is “maybe the favorite character I’ve ever played. She’s the most flawed person that I’ve ever played – and not necessarily her own flaws, but the things that have been dealt to her in her life.”

She says that 9-1-1 showrunner Tim Minear, whom she calls a “mad scientist, genius, wonderful human,” has handed her a lot of big topics on the show and acknowledges how all of that has created “this really great relationship with the audience. I’m always excited to play Maddie.”

Being a show set in Los Angeles, California and filmed there, the importance of providing jobs for people in the region is not lost on Hewitt, especially following the devastating wildfires that occurred earlier this year.

Hewitt said, “I do think that things should film here. My family and I lived in the Palisades in January, so we have had our whole lives uprooted this year due to this, and to be able to still give back to LA and work in LA and have the business thrive here in LA, it’s extraordinarily important. I just love seeing things film here and it is a real joy as a mom of three to be able to still do what I love during the day and be able to come home at night and be with my babies.”

Now more than three decades into her acting, producing and directing career, Hewitt has certainly noticed the ways that her creative interests have evolved over time.

“I think that as I get older, I’m just more comfortable in myself. I’m still human – I hate like haters and the things that people say sometimes. That stuff is still out in the world, but I think I understand it more now. I don’t take it as personally. I understand that it’s just a view and a person expressing themselves the way that I would want to, but as an artist and just being in the business this long, I think my gratitude is higher than it’s ever been, truly.”

Hewitt added: “Also, I think I just feel more comfortable in myself as an actor, as a woman, as a professional – and that’s a really nice feeling. I think starting as young as I did, sometimes you come into it with a lot of insecurity and self-doubt, and I don’t know that Hollywood necessarily helped that sometimes. So, it took a minute for me to kind of settle in. I feel settled, so it’s good.”

Previously on 9-1-1, Maddie has experienced many highs-and-lows, from an abusive marriage, a joyous new wedding, giving birth and even having her throat slashed when kidnapped by a serial killer. I joked with Hewitt, curious whether she wonders if Maddie ever thinks about moving out of LA, getting away from all of the drama and settling into a calmer profession.

Hewitt said, “Right? Doesn’t she just want to start over? What is wrong with just packing a bag and being like – I’m going to Fiji! But I don’t want to go to Fiji. I want to stay here in LA for the show. I think Maddie always puts herself back together again, but I also think that Maddie is a little bit of a trauma junkie, and it finds her. It’s just kind of who she is.”

As many fans continue to mourn the loss of Fire Station 118’s former Captain Bobby Nash in season 8, played by the actor Peter Krause, Hewitt has a message she wants to assure the ongoing distraught 9-1-1 fans with this new season.

“I want to say to the audience – because they know that losing Bobby was a very big deal, and it was for us on the show – I want them to know they’ve been honored this season. He is not going to be physically there, obviously, but he is honored in so many ways. It’s not just Bobby, it’s Peter that we’re honoring every step of the way because he’s a legend, and we have to, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. So, feel good about the fact that he will be honored.”

As for the 9-1-1 calls and rescues ahead on the ABC series, Hewitt says the upcoming storylines are “off-the-rails, so you’re not going to want to miss the very beginning of season 9 for sure. It’s really fun.”

Knowing that these elaborate set designs and special effects cannot come off believable with just the ensemble cast performances alone, Hewitt has nothing but praise to say about her 9-1-1 crew.

“The crew really is the show, always. The actors are the ones that are the faces of it and the writers are the ones that are the words, but it’s really the crew that makes it. It’s really these people who show up three or four hours before we do and go home three or four hours after we do every night, that work their bodies and their mind and their hearts and their creativity to bring these things to life. We have truly one of the most special crews I’ve ever seen.”

Even several seasons into the series, Hewitt still has those “pinch me” moments when working alongside her other celebrated 9-1-1 co-stars.

“When I get to do a scene with Angela Bassett, I have to reread it a second time. I feel like a person who has won a contest – like I get to work with Angela! I’m obsessed with her. Kenny [Choi] is just – he has my heart. I love him. I feel like we were meant to be on this show. I said it from the beginning and I feel it every time we get to work together. I’m so blessed to be his TV wifey.”

Being a Hollywood star that has been in the public eye for almost all of her life, I wondered – Who is Jennifer Love Hewitt in 2025? What brings the greatest purpose and passion to your days lately?

Hewitt said, “Oh my goodness. Gratitude – real gratitude. I’ve done this a lot in the length of time that I’ve been in the business, where I feel like I had these periods where it’s time to kind of re-invent a little bit. I did it out of the teenage years into sort of adult roles. There was a sexy time, and let’s go look for something bigger in playing Maddie. I feel like now, I’m 46 – I’ll be 47 in February. Being a mom, even as an actress, I have multiple personalities all inside of you at one time that you can draw from and pull from in a million different ways.”

She added: “Being in my mom era has definitely really shown me and given me some interesting things as an actress, but I feel like I am in a time of feeling fearless. I want to do different roles, if they come to me, and just really have fun with acting now because I don’t feel nervous and worried about it as I did when I was a kid. So, it’s kind of a fun time for me as an actor. I feel like I’m ready to just kind of go like – Ooh yeah, let’s try that!”

Remaining a constant within the entertainment industry over recent decades, Hewitt has in fact seen a shift happen in Hollywood over the years, for better or worse.

“The business has changed so much. It’s crazy for me to be in this business now, seeing where it’s come from. The one thing that I will say that I love, is the 90s is back! I think it’s fun to see so many actors that were kids when I was a kid, doing things and coming back and being amazing. We are this little generation of people that are like – Don’t count us out! Just because we were in the 90s, too. We’re coming back for you!”

Hewitt also refers to the social media aspect of her job these days as being hard, feeling like she is still adjusting to those parts expected of her today.

Hewitt said, “I love the ability to promote my own things and to be able to talk directly to the audience and say this show matters to me. I love 9-1-1, but I also hear you and I know that it hurt your feelings or it made you crazy when we did this, but there’s more coming. On the other side of it, I think that it can be tough in a way, that I didn’t have when I was starting in the business. People would say bad things about us, but they were written just in magazines and if you didn’t go to the newsstand and you didn’t pick it up, you didn’t see it. Now, it’s everywhere and I think that can be hard to digest sometimes. I worry for my kids about that because they can access anything, so they can read anything – can see anything. They can see when people are unkind to me and all of that stuff. I both love social media and I struggle with social media, all at the same time.”

Looking at the positive, she went on to say that the business “is on its way back to a normal place,” believing that the industry is getting back from “all the trauma that the business suffered in the last few years. I’m a big streamer, I’m a big broadcast network girl. I love seeing all the people just like thrive and be great.”

9-1-1 season 9 is not the only show within this television universe to tune in for – 9-1-1: Nashville is premiering the brand new series, directly following 9-1-1 on ABC this fall.

Hewitt said of the 9-1-1: Nashville new series, “I’m really excited for them. I love Nashville. It’s going to be a great place – the amount of emergencies that can go on there with just like the weather alone: tornadoes, snow, rain – all of it. I just got to see a bunch of the cast at the ABC party and they’re having a really good time. I applaud it all.”

As my in-depth conversation with Hewitt came to a close, I left her with my original and signature interview question, curious about what she would say to her 9-1-1 character Maddie, after embodying her on this television journey thus far, and could give her advice, a warning or a comforting message. What does Hewitt feel that Maddie needs to hear from her, the person who arguably knows her best, from the outside in?

Hewitt said, “That’s such a good question! You should be really proud of that. That is awesome. Wow and I have a lot to say to Maddie. My advice to her is, I think, she needs to not be so trusting of people. I think that she needs to maybe stay a little bit more reserved and be careful with her empathy, because sometimes it can end you up in a basement with your throat slashed – so, watch that!”

She then concluded with, “My comforting words to her would be it will be okay, and Maddie is such a fighter and such a survivor that I believe she will always fight and she will always survive and I love that about her. I think if I could say anything else to her, I would just say I’m really proud of you. I think she has been through a lot and she has handled it with such grace and strength.”