Jennifer Love Hewitt: On the Ghost Whisperer Set

We were invited by the CBS network to visit the sets of "Ghost Whisperer" on the Universal lot in L.A. recently. We checked out a few of the new "Other Side" webisodes up on the show's website, then got a tour of some devastation that occurs in the two parter season finale including a lot of wrecked cars that looked like they were dropped from a tornado! We checked out Melinda's house both upstairs and down, got to examine her cool knick knacks and check out the inside of her antique shop.

In front of the facade for the store, Jennifer, dressed casually in jeans, tennies and a cute blue tunic blouse with eyelet stitching, joined us to update us on the show, the finale and tell us that she'd like Melinda to be more feisty. Love would love more scenes with children and she insists that she and crew have seen ghosts on the sets! Check it out...

TeenTelevision: You are winding down the season now. Are you ready to just relax?

Jennifer: Oh boy, you can't even imagine. Yeah, I'm really excited. [laughs] Really excited not to talk to the dead for a small amount of time and chill out.

TeenTelevision: Looking back, how was doing the second season different from doing the first season?

Jennifer: It's different on a lot of levels. I think it was more exciting, even, than the first season. Because the first season, it was just like, 'Wait a minute, the show's actually going to be on television?', which is like a huge thing in this business and 'people are actually watching it?' I was so nervous and kind of in this fog the first season. I was still figuring out who Melinda was and what it all meant. I was playing a wife for the first time. It was kind of overwhelming. So this year, I got to be more present. Melinda, for me, was sort of taken care of. I knew who she was and who I wanted her to be, and so I could relax into her a little bit and have more fun with her. I got to play around more with her sense of humor. It was nice to get to be a little more relaxed.

TeenTelevision: How would you like to see her change or grow?

Jennifer: I'd like to see her stick up for herself, once, when somebody slams the door in her face. [laughs] That's always my thing! I'm like, 'Can't I be more feisty?' And they're like, 'No, you're a nice person.'I'm like, 'I know, but still!' Because people are always like, 'Oh, you're the best. Can you really help us with your gift?' Then... Slam! 'You're full of bologna and a fake' and all of those things, and she's always like, 'That's okay, I'll come back tomorrow.' That's where Melinda and I are very different. If it was me, I'd be like, 'Open the door!' [laughs] So I'd like to see her get to stick up for herself a little bit more.

TeenTelevision: Anything else you would like to see happen with her?

Jennifer: I'd like to get to do more with kids and her. Because I think that interaction is really special. And it's fun for me as an actor, because I just love kids. But it's fun to see Melinda with children, because I think part of what makes Melinda unique and special is that to be able to do what she does, she does have to have a sort of innocence that isn't captured in most grown up people. And I think there's a part of her that's still the 5-year-old whose grandmother's kind of saying, 'You do this weird thing. You can talk to dead people.' She goes around the earth every day as sort of this 5-year-old trapped in a 30-year-old body, which I think is kind of neat. So I hope that we get to do more stuff with kids.

TeenTelevision: Melinda seems to be married to the perfect guy...

Jennifer: I know, he's perfect, isn't he? It's terrifying. I know. [laughs] I think people love Jim and Melinda's marriage. Normally it's the guy in the relationship who sort of puts on the superhero cape and goes out into the world during the day. Jim does that being a paramedic for a living and saving people's lives. But in this relationship, Melinda's kind of Superman. She has to be a million things for a million people all day long. And then when she comes home, I think it's great that she has this person who is completely willing to just let her be a girl, and be supportive of her, and he's the only person that doesn't ever think she's a freak. He's her hero, and I think that that's really neat. And the audience has enjoyed that a lot. Hopefully we inspire people to want to get married.

TeenTelevision: Was David just "it" to play your hubby even from his original audition?

Jennifer: Our chemistry is great. He's a great guy. I read with a bunch of people and he came in and he had something on his shirt. And I'll never forget it, because I was like, 'What is that on your shirt?' And he just looked at me and he's like, 'You are so my wife!' [laughs] And ever since, I've picked on him. So it's good. It works. [laughs]

TeenTelevision: Certainly male fans must be coming up to David saying that Melinda's the perfect wife.

Jennifer: No, I don't think they feel that way! [laughs] She's always gone. I mean, maybe in the nightgown scenes they feel that way, but other than that, her world is a little bogged down with other things.

TeenTelevision: Can you talk about your experience with alleged hauntings on the set?

Jennifer: Sure. I think it's really cool. Yeah, we've had all kinds of things happen. My make-up artist, we took a picture of her and she had sort of this white film over her face. And then we took a picture of her ten minutes later and there was nothing. And we had, you know, James Van Praagh look at it, and he was like, 'Yeah, absolutely, there's a ghost attached to her'. We've had lights explode. That's Jay Mohr's favorite story, because he's so excited that it was his head that it exploded over. Who in the world would be excited about glass exploding over their head? No one but Jay Mohr. I've had them show up around me a lot on film. I think it's exciting. I think it's neat. For people who don't believe, if it's just a weird sort of coincidence, that's kind of cool. And for people like me who do believe, we tell their stories every week. The spirits are really the star of the show, and if they stop by to say, 'Hey, thanks,' and make an appearance every now and then, it's their show, they should.

TeenTelevision: Do you think they're the spirits of old Universal actors who worked on the lot?

Jennifer: [laughs] Probably! Who have been out of work for a long time, and they're like, 'Gosh darn it!' Yeah. This is supposed to be the most haunted stage, by the way, so enjoy yourself!

TeenTelevision: How was it working with Jay Mohr and Camryn Manheim this past season, and having those new additions to the cast?

Jennifer: It's been really great. I think the Delia character's done such an interesting thing for Melinda, because she's so different than Andrea was. And that was something that I was really worried about, because I didn't want to feel like Melinda was the kind of person that would just carbon copy replace her best friend. And I think that they've done a really lovely thing with the Delia and Melinda characters in letting them grow very slowly to the friendship that they have. The Professor Payne character is just a blast. I think it's the only time that Melinda gets to rest in the whole show, is when she gets to sit in his office and hear him ramble incessantly about whatever it is. There's nothing too crazy that she can bring him that he doesn't have an answer for. And, I think that's fun for her to not maybe feel so alone as she did last season. There was nobody really that "got it." And he gets it. Jay is a fun person to work with. He's like a kid on too much candy, so it's fun.

TeenTelevision: We've been hearing about the "spirit world getting stronger" theme for this season. Can you talk about how it will all come together?

Jennifer: Yeah, I think you will finally understand, in the end of this season why the dark side sort of has this defiant stare on this girl in particular. You will also find out that there are other people in the world who have this gift. One of the neat things that I'm fascinated most with our season finale is that you will also find out that it's not just people in Grandview who know about her, but there are people in the world who know about this woman and how that connects with the spiritual world, why the dark side is so forceful, not just with everybody, but with her, why there is such a personal attack on this one person. Unfortunately, or fortunately, for our show, it's really sort of only her in the light. Hopefully in third season, maybe we'll find some more light people out there that can help her combat the dark.

TeenTelevision: Melinda is often a go-between in relationships. Do you think love can survive in the afterlife?

Jennifer: I do. Yeah. I think you have to believe that. I think that love is just as tough, sometimes, to get through and understand. And it's something that, as much as it makes you smile, makes you feel utterly sick and awful at times. And yeah, I do think that all things survive in the afterlife. I do. You can love somebody so much and you can lose them and they will stick with you and wish you the best and watch after you...I absolutely believe all that stuff is possible. So I absolutely think that love builds memories and stores pictures in your soul somewhere. And that goes with you.

TeenTelevision: Do you play go-between for your personal friends?

Jennifer: Constantly. Yeah, I'm a meddler without a gift. [laughs] So that's what's unfortunate for me in life. [laughs] Melinda can meddle and actually help people. I just meddle because I'm bored and I like to be in other people's business. [laughs] And I don't have very good advice and can't sort of hook them up with the other side of things. But yeah, I definitely am the go-between, and I'm always taking on my friends' lives. Whatever's going on for them, it totally affects me. I'm always like, 'We have to fix this!' I'm like the mom of all my friends.

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Lynn Barker is a Hollywood-based entertainment journalist and produced screenwriter.