There are many anomalies and oddities in the annals of pop music history (e.g., Milli Vanilli, Willa Ford and William Hung). But among one of the most anomalous and odd was Jennifer Love Hewitt’s foray into a recording career. The most successful yield from said career being her 1999 single, “How Do I Deal,” which managed to enter the Billboard Hot 100 (granted, its peak position was at number fifty-nine, so not exactly a certified “hit” by any regular pop star’s standards, but certainly by those of a mostly TV actress like Love Hewitt). Before that point, Hewitt had already released three albums: Love Songs, Let’s Go Bang (yes, you read that correctly) and Jennifer Love Hewitt. None of which offered any chart-worthy singles.
At the same time as these albums were arbitrarily pushed out, Hewitt’s acting pursuits continued to take off, reaching an apex when she finally landed a breakthrough role for her film career: Julie James in I Know What You Did Last Summer (a part so synonymous with her filmography that of course she reprised it in the requel of the same name). Released in October of 1997, the popularity of the movie (which remained number one at the box office for three weeks, a fairly big deal for a slasher film) quickly led to a sequel called I Still Know What You Did Last Summer in November of 1998. This time around, Brandy (as Karla Wilson, Julie’s college roommate) and Mekhi Phifer (as Tyrell Martin, Karla’s boyfriend) joined the cast to mix things up (and, clearly, add a bit more diversity where it was lacking in the first movie). But what really mixed things up most of all was tapping Hewitt to record a song called “How Do I Deal” to somehow help promote the movie, even though the song very clearly possesses a romance-oriented motif. Even if a bad romance. A term that, no matter how toxic the relationship, certainly doesn’t extend to the feelings a woman being stalked by an obsessive killer has for said killer.
And yet, that seems to be the vibe Hewitt was attempting to “make work” in the name of a little “synergy.” In other words, her boon as an actress in the wake of starring in the first I Know What You Did Last Summer (theoretically) created a ripe opportunity to re-jumpstart the whole music thing. And, to do so, Hewitt pulled out the big guns by tapping two powerhouse producers to craft the backing track: David Foster and Bruce Fairbairn. Perhaps not so coincidentally, Fairbairn died (from “unknown causes”) soon after “How Do I Deal” was released…
Talking of death, that’s what I Still Know What You Did Last Summer is all about, yet “How Do I Deal” is meant to be a jaunty “little ditty” about a woman grappling with her emotions regarding a “special someone.” That “special someone” surely isn’t a rampaging serial killer with a very personal vendetta. Unless Hewitt is advocating for a different kind of kink (see also: the abovmentioned Let’s Go Bang)—but of course she isn’t. What she hoped to make was a “thoughtful” “coming-of-age” song about her “complicated” feelings for some douchey bloke that she was too young recognize as a douche, instead justifying his annoying personality by ultimately pinning the blame back on herself (as is the feminine way). This present in the chorus, “How do I deal with you?/How do I deal with me?/When I Don’t even know myself/Or what it is you want from me.” At the same time, those lines could technically be aimed at a serial killer on the loose, indiscriminately attacking anyone who gets in the way of his path toward Julie. Except for the fact that after I Know What You Did Last Summer, Julie already knows what The Fisherman (Muse Watson) wants from her—and why. It’s all a repeat of the same vendetta.
Even so, in the accompanying music video (directed by none other than Joseph Kahn, who Hewitt was probably only able to secure as a favor to Brandy—for Kahn had then recently directed the video for “The Boy Is Mine”), Hewitt chirpily sings, amidst the images of clips from the slasher movie behind her, “Every day I wake up to another day gone by/Nothing but the open road and the never-ending why/Anything can happen, yeah, but nothing ever does/I try to change, it’s kinda strange, the same as it ever was, but look at us.” Yes, “look at us” indeed: singing a pop song and bopping around to slasher-y scenes that are totally unrelated to the lyrics and context of this single.
Though, again, it seems that whoever sanctioned this as a release to align with I Still Know What You Did Last Summer was hoping that listeners would pick up on some of the errant verses that could possibly be interpreted as “spooky enough,” therefore “applicable enough.” Case in point, “Every night, in the dark, I lie awake in bed/How am I supposed to dream with all the static in my head?” Because, sure, Julie is having nightmares at the beginning of the movie, and this is part of what leads her to be persuaded to take a trip with Karla to “get away from it all.” Specifically, in the Bahamas (after Karla is blatantly offered a too-good-to-be-true “free” trip there when a radio station calls her to tell her she’s won a vacation for four to said milieu).
As for the extent of Kahn’s ability to create a music video “storyline” to tie the theme of the song together with the movie (which is impossible since these two entities simply do not logically coincide), the best he can come up with is Hewitt mostly standing next to a car and looking “hot”/“moody,” with her main outfit being a white tank top and what can only be described as some “waiter pants” (that look like regular jeans at a glance).
At certain points, there are outfit and set design changes to help “break up the monotony”—which might all combine to make this video and song feel cohesive were it not for the presence of random-ass moments from I Still Know What You Did Last Summer playing in the background. As though tacked on like an after-thought merely because Hewitt conceded to the notion that linking this song with her then latest movie might lend more traction to both. As Hewitt and her team would soon find out, that’s not exactly how it went.
