Freddie Prinze Jr. reveals heartbreaking reason his mum didn’t want him to act

Much-loved US actor Freddie Prinze Jr. has been reflecting on his earliest days as an actor, revealing his mum never wanted him to appear on the silver screen.

In a shock admission, the Scooby Doo frontman has admitted that her pleas were so severe that he almost didn't fulfil his childhood dream, being that another family member had previously endured a heartbreaking experience in the showbiz industry.

Prinze Jr. rose to fame back in the early 90s, firstly appearing in slasher movie I Know What You Did Last Summer, before moving on to play heartthrobs in a batch of now-nostalgic rom-coms.

First, he played Zack Siler alongside Rachael Leigh in She's All That, before again bagging leading roles in Down To You with Julia Stiles, Boys and Girls with Claire Forlani, and Head Over Heels with Monica Potter.

In the years that followed, the actor went on to land arguably his most popular role as Fred Jones in the Scooby Doo live-action movie series - which is also where he first met his now-wife, Sarah Michelle Gellar, who played Daphne in the Noughties hit.

Only recently, however, has Prinze Jr., now 48, taken the opportunity to look back over his time in the spotlight and has revealed he almost gave up on acting after his mother revealed the heartache that his father had previously endured in Hollywood.

"When I was a kid, my mom was like, 'Absolutely not. It's just not gonna be your life,' he recalled this week during an appearance on the Oldish podcast.

"That was my dad's life, and it didn't end well. And so, she didn't want me to have anything to do with it."

Prinze Jr.'s father was comedian Freddie Prinze, who shot to fame in the 1970s after several talk-show appearances landed him a role in the sitcom Chico and the Man.

Sadly, however, Prinze died aged just 22 after struggling with depression, with his death being ruled as medication-induced and accidental.

Despite his mother fearing that he'd endure the same fate as his father, Prinze Jr. also confessed this week that the 'dire financial straits' that his dad's death had left the family in only served to push him further.

Speaking of his rise to fame, he recalled: "It happened really quick. I kinda got rocket-shipped to where I ended up."

Prinze Jr. added, however, that he didn't initially enjoy immediate happiness after becoming famous, and that only after a role alongside Parker Posey in dark-comedy The House Of Yes did he finally start enjoying the highs and lows of stardom.

"I was working with Parker, and she was just on this level that I was like, 'I can't do that,'" he reminisced. "And so it was inspirational, but intimidating at the same time.

"I didn't love acting because of what the business had done to my dad, and [Posey] was the first person that I ever saw love it."

He went on: "And I was just like, 'How does she have this much passion?'.

"But I finally did. I got it, and then I fell in love with the business. But it was a long affair of just liking the business and not having the same passion that she had and always wondering why.

"And then one day, it just clicked. You know? You just, you do the right role, and all of a sudden, you go, 'Oh, now I know how to be vulnerable. Now I know how to be funny. Now I know how to, you know, do the action movie.'

"It took a role to kinda bring it out of me. And maybe it did with [Posey] too. I'm not sure.

"Maybe she was just born to love it, but she was the one who inspired me to stay at it."