Our favorite celebrities may be open books, living their lives for all the world to see, but even they like to keep a few secrets. Until now. Welcome to E! News' 10 Things, where the stars themselves spill the goods just for you.
Freddie Prinze Jr. has played a lot of roles throughout his lengthy career.
Horror movie heartthrob. The live-action Fred Jones of Scooby-Doo fame. Sitcom star. Star Wars Rebels voice actor. Husband of Buffy the Vampire Slayer herself, Sarah Michelle Gellar. Dad of Charlotte and Rocky. (OK, maybe those last two aren't as much roles as they are real-life accomplishments...)
But did you know that the actor—who will be seen next in Peacock's revival of Punky Brewster—and lifelong wrestling fan once worked with the WWE, writing for the wrestlers while sharpening their acting skills? Or that he's a major video game fanatic? We didn't think so.
It just goes to show that no matter how long you've had posters of someone on your wall, there's still plenty to learn about them.
In fact, it's that love for gaming that's sparked Prinze's new partnership with Kelley Blue Book. They've teamed up to raise awareness of the auto industry experts' 2021 Best Buy Awards list with a special KBB.com HQ island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, accessible to fans through Dec. 17.
"I play Animal Crossing, my kids play Animal Crossing. I know a lot of gamers out there play. You guys can [email] Kelley Blue Book, you can get a password that's going to get you to their island," Prinze, who used KBB to purchase his first car—a 1987 Ford Bronco II—back in 1994, told E! News. "And on that island...from 3 p.m. to midnight eastern time every day until Dec. 17, if you pick up trash, they're literally donating money to American Rivers which helps preserve our nation's rivers now."
He continued, "From there, you can get introduced to the website when you're done playing the game. You can start looking at used cars, new cars. You can look at auto parts...repairs, things like that...You can find the right ride for you. Maybe just want to cruise. Maybe you don't care about gas mileage, maybe you do. They can give you all that info. And info is power, so please use it."
Before you do that, get to know Prinze a little better, in his own words, as he takes part in E! News' 10 Things!
1. Sarah got me an actual Katana blade from Japan, from a Master swordsmith. I've been obsessed with like Asian culture since I was a kid, especially Japan in the '90s when I was growing up. I fell in love with anime, I fell in love with everything. So she had to get actual paperwork from the government in order to get the sword out of the country. She was making The Grudge out there back then, so they were showing her a lot of love. And she brought this sword back. That's probably my favorite gift ever. Outside of that, every video game system I've ever gotten. I'm telling you right now, the video games are real close second—and I mean real close.
2. My favorite holiday tradition has always been Thanksgiving. It's always close to Christmas, so it's like a warm-up dinner, and I cook a lot. So it's a good way to get ready for the monster dinner that Christmas is going to be. Although, this year won't be that hard. There'll only be four of us at the table, so I'll be doing a chicken instead of a turkey.
3. The first hour of my mornings lately has been waking up, not showering—because I have two nine-week-old Akita puppies downstairs that have to be let out to go do their business, to get their water, their food, to clean up all the mess back there and I know I'm going to smell horribly so that's why I'm not showered yet. I attempt to drink a cup of hot coffee, but that remains on the counter while I wait outside for the dogs to do their business. I finally come back in, only to realize the coffee's now cold. Without having a sip, I put it in the microwave for one minute.
Within that 60 seconds, both dogs managed to pee and poop inside instead of outside. While I clean that up and take them back outside, the coffee gets cold again. Then I feed both dogs now that they're ready and then, once they eat, spend more time outside and then do their second business, I bring them back in, open the microwave, realize the coffee is still cold, press another minute, forget it and just make a fresh cup. And there's my first hour. It's a pain in the butt, but only for the next couple of weeks until they figure it out.
4. I was a pretty, pretty good kid. I didn't get in a ton of trouble. So, here's something I didn't do. Check this out, sixth grade, San Diego Prep. I got kicked out of the school, but I didn't do anything. I was in study hall, 12 years old. There's only three of us in this classroom, no teacher, and one of the kids starts knocking on the classroom next to us, on the wall. Whatever kid was sitting there starts knocking back as the little immature game that happens, right? So the teacher in that classroom, her name was Nancy Butts. And she hated me, just because, for whatever the reasons were. I hear this door slam. And she slams open our door, and she comes right to me—and I'm sitting furthest away from the wall that would get knocked on—and she puts both hands on my desk and slams it and she cusses. She says "Why are you such a—" I won't say the word. And I'm looking at this lady like, oh, she has never met my mother, and when I tell my mother, it is going down.
So sure enough, I get sent to the principal for a call, and I know I didn't do anything. And I know the kid's gonna fess up because when I see him on the playground, that's his you-know-what if he doesn't. So, they call my mom. My mom comes in, I tell my mom, "I didn't do this Mom." I promised. They take me home for the day. She's not believing me until later in the day when the kid admits it, and his mom calls my mom. Because I knew the kid, Ray Garcia. We used to WWE wrestle each other back in the day. So I go to school the next day, and it's about an hour in. And all of a sudden the door to my class and Mrs. Butts' class...swings open and it's my mom in a mink coat, high heels, a cigarette in her mouth. She walked up to Mrs. Butts and says "What did you do to my son?" My head hit the desk. I'm so embarrassed and afraid and ashamed, and yet, just feeling good because my mom always has my back. But super scared. She goes, "Get up and come outside before I drag you out there." And this lady went ghost. Ghost. Oh, my mom read her the riot act. [Mrs. Butts] comes back in shaking. My mom comes in and goes, "Freddie, come on. We're going to Uncle Cliff's," which was the local amusement park in New Mexico. She took me to ride rollercoasters.
5. I don't watch TV, I play video games. Ever since I was a little boy.
6. I love professional wrestling, I have since I was a kid. When I quit acting, I took a job for Vince McMahon writing for wrestlers and teaching them how to act. I did that for almost two years. I've always had love and passion for that, or the literal blood, sweat and tears that they put on a literal canvas. I've always looked at it as an art form, so there's no guilt. There's no shame in my game.
7. I just started doing a new TV show because it was filming here in L.A., and I wouldn't have even known it if it wasn't for another actor. Brian Austin Green said, "Hey they're remaking Punky Brewster, you should do it. They want you to do it." I wouldn't even read the script, [but eventually] I read it and fell in love. On set, there's a lot of kids on the show, so you try to be a team player and work with the kids and help them benefit from the mistakes you've made. Help them with moments and figuring out why they're going to choose to say a line a certain way. And so a lot of people said "Had you ever wanted to be a director?" To which I replied "No, I have enough gray hair. I don't need any more." But I probably would want to be a teacher. If I had, if I went to college and got the proper education, what I would teach? I'm not sure. I love history and I love literature. But maybe a teacher, if the acting thing didn't work out, is something that I would have had passion for.
8. The thing I miss most about life pre-COVID is public sporting events. They just started the XXL again and Los Angeles had a team—they are the L.A. Wildcats—and I was going to all their games. COVID killed their season and killed the league until Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson came in and bought it, saved the season. I miss the Lakers, I miss the Dodgers, and they both are world champions at the same time so it's just, it's wild. And I miss my live Dungeons and Dragons games. I still play tabletop role playing games, all the time. We're getting ready to do some virtual ones, but I miss that face-to-face.
9. The three things I cannot live without are toothpaste—I've got to have toothpaste. I've got to have an internet connection, so I guess a router would be my second one, or modem, and an Xbox. Those are the three things. Food, water? I don't care. Dogs? Forget all of that. Forget those kids. Toothpaste, a modem and an Xbox. Oh, and a TV! I guess get rid of toothpaste.
10. If I was planning my ultimate food day, sushi is going to be the dinner. And that's going to come from Asanebo in the [San Fernando] Valley—on Carpenter and Ventura for all you locals. Go get it! They still do takeout. I've been in there 20-plus years. They got a five-star Michelin rating, and its Zagat guide food review is one word. It just says "Perfection." The guy's a total stud. He was Nobu Matsuhisa's very first chef back in the old days. He used to be the guy that had to go get the fish every day. And he hated because it was like a 3 a.m. wakeup. So when he opened his own restaurant, he called it Asanebo which literally means "sleepyhead." He didn't have to do that anymore. I've got to get fried chicken in there at some point, so that would be the lunch. And I've got to get some Mexican food in there, so I would do a Mexican food breakfast with huevos rancheros.
To receive your unique Dodo code to access KBB.com HQ in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, email KBBAnimalCrossing@coxautoinc.com.
—Edited by Billy Nilles
(E! and Peacock are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)