Hewitt
initially
went
in
to
audition
for
the
role
of
doomed
beauty
queen
Helen
Shivers,
the
part
played
by
Gellar,
who
ended
up
being
the
last
lead
cast.
“We
ended
up
in
North
Carolina,
a
matter
of
two
weeks
out
from
shooting,
and
we
still
hadn’t
cast
Helen,”
Gillespie
said. “I
got
it
down
to
three
girls.
I
had
seen
some
of Buffy;
they’d
shot
the
pilot.
[Screenwriter
Kevin
Williamson]
liked
the
idea
of
her,
which
was
good.
So
she
flew
down
to
Wilmington
and
to
me,
Sarah
was
it.
She
was
absolutely
it.”
But
for
Hewitt, “I
was
like, ‘It
doesn’t
feel
like
me,'”
she
told
Entertainment
Tonight
in
May. “They
said, ‘OK,
well,
what
do
you
want
to
do?’
I
was
like, ‘I
want
to
audition
for
Julie
James.
That’s
what
I
want
to
do.’
They
were
like, ‘OK.
Well,
go
outside.
In
10
minutes
you
have
to
come
back
in
and
audition
for
Julie
James.’
I
just
knew
that
I
was
more
her.
When
they
said
I
got
it
I
like
lost
my
mind.”
Scoring
her
first
lead
role
in
a
film,
Hewitt
was
admittedly “terrified”
of
screwing
up.
“I
was
like, ‘Am
I
messing
up
the
entire
movie?'”
she
recalled. “I
couldn’t
sleep
[when]
we
were
doing
the
first
movie
because
I
literally
would
be
up
until
the
middle
of
the
night
with
somebody
chasing
me
and
then
they’d
be
like, ‘OK,
it’s
wrap.
Go
home.’
How
does
one
sleep
during
this
process?”