Jennifer Love Hewitt Says Daughter, 11, Has 'Big Dreams' to Be on a Disney Show: 'She's a Very Good Manifester' (Exclusive)

12/15/2024 07:00 AM

On Nov. 11, the actress' daughter Autumn earned her SAG card after appearances in her mom's show '9-1-1' and new Lifetime Christmas movie

History is repeating itself for Jennifer Love Hewitt.

On Nov. 11, the actress' daughter Autumn earned her SAG card at age 10, just like Hewitt did 35 years ago. "I had this flash of my mom handing me my card at 10 years old," Hewitt tells PEOPLE in this week's issue. "I was dying, it was so cool."

Even cooler? Autumn earned the card by acting alongside her mom on 9-1-1, the TV drama on which the Party of Five alum has played 9-1-1 dispatcher Maddie Han since 2018, and The Holiday Junkie, her mom's new Lifetime Christmas movie also starring her dad, Brian Hallisay, 46, and two brothers Atticus, 9, and Aidan, 3.

While Autumn — who turned 11 on Nov. 26 — is off to a strong start in the industry, Hewitt also has some trepidation about her daughter rushing into an acting career, due, in part, to her own experience as a teen idol in the '90s.

"She's a really happy, secure, amazing kid, and I want her to stay that way," she says. "I think it would be good for her to wait a little bit, but she has big dreams of being a star on a Disney show, and she's a very good manifester. I just may have to get out of the way like my mom did."

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When she was 10, Hewitt moved to Los Angeles with her late mom Pat — who died of cancer at 67 in 2012 — after her star quality attracted attention in their native Texas.

"From the time that I was super little, I was very aware that entertaining was something that made people happy, and I loved making people happy," she says. "My mom, I don't think she would've chosen this for me, but she got out of my way and let me follow my dreams."

After booking roles in commercials and on Disney Channel's Kids Incorporated, Hewitt broke through when she joined Fox's teen drama Party of Five in season 2 as Sarah Reeves in 1995.

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Two years later she cemented her status when she landed the role of final girl Julie James in I Know What You Did Last Summer.

"My daughter is now aware that I was a big part of the '90s, so she's like, 'Oh my gosh, you were the '90s, you're back again,' " Hewitt recalls. "I'm like, 'All right, that makes me feel really old.'"

As her star continued to rise in her teens and 20s, viewers began to look at Hewitt as a sex symbol, the implications of which she didn't quite grasp at the time.

"I was pretty innocent," she says. "I didn't know anything about my sexuality, yet I was on the cover of Maxim...I just knew that as I went along, the outfits at the photo shoots got smaller. Now I look back on it and go, 'That's intense.'"

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As her three kids grow up, Hewitt — who also gives insight into her family life in her new book Inheriting Magic: My Journey Through Grief, Joy, Celebration, and Making Every Day Magical — is happy they'll have her and her husband as role models.

"Me and Brian have been together almost 13 years; that's like 190 years in Hollywood," Hewitt jokes. "I'm proud of that. I'm here to give them all the advice I've got, and so is their daddy."

For more on Jennifer Love Hewitt, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribe here.