My Girl Crazy - Compilation of the Best 'My Girl' Interviews

There are few stars like Anna Chlumsky, who within very few years

has done 6 movies, each of such very high callabre. I think her

success has largely been due to her highly personable nature both on and off

screen which has produced a fan base that has grown up along side her. Also,

unlike most other child actors she has managed to keep her feet on the

ground and maintain a sense of reality. I 've started to follow her since some time ago,

after having seen My Girl and My Girl 2. What follows is a compilation of some of the

nicest interviews with her... One of her first London interviews before

the London launch of My Girl was with Big Magazine, interviewed by Randi

Reisfeld in a "swanky London Hotel".

"Oh look!" she squeals, pointing at a gossip page, "there's Mack!" She

holds up a picture of Macaulay Culkin for her mum Nancy to see.

It's obvious that 11-year-old Anna is still mates with, and a fan of,

her superstar co-star. "He's just great!" she beams, "He's a very easy

person to get along with."

But Chicago-born Anna gets quite upset at the suggestion that they

played loads of naughty pranks on the My Girl film crew.

"I wasn't naughty," she says, widening her eyes. "Mack played pranks on

me!" Her favorite was when he stuck her bum to the toilet.

"He stuck double-sided sticky tape to the loo and I sat on it! It

wasn't like Superglue or anything, but it hurt! He was in the other

room and when he heard the bathroom door close, he thought he'd got our

tutor. He was going "Ye-e-e-s!" Then Our tutor came in and he said

"Aren't you in the bathroom?"; she said, "No Mack, I'm right here!"

He also tried to scare their tutor into beleiving Anna had been eaten

by an Alligator!

"Mack had this big plastic alligator. He made me lie on the floor of

our school trailer and pretend to be dead. Then he put the jaws around

the neck and looked around for some ketchup to put over me. When our

tutor came in Mack shook it to make it look alive. She didn't believe I

was dead though. She just laughed."

As you can imagine, what with all the prank playing, Anna wasn't too

keen on kissing her co-star. "I just wanted to get it over with," she

says. "I wasn't thinking about kissing the Macaulay Culkin. It wasn't a

good or bad experience - it was just acting. We had to do it 15 times

before we got it right. Thankfully it was a short kiss!"

Other articles at the time detailed the young actors exploits further...

The young stars of the family drama My Girl - Macaulay Culkin and Anna

Chlumsky - found a lucrative way of picking up extra pocket money

during filming.

The tiny terrors fined their adult co-stars and directors very time

they swore. And, according to director Howard Zeiff, poor Jamie Lee

Curtis was the biggest loser. "Jamie paid them $200 apiece. They were

hanging out the whole time waiting for us to swear," he says...

Over the next year or two Anna went on to film The Mommy Market and then My

Girl 2. The Mommy Market was a big flop (in my opinion due to a poor plot

and bad direction), but it did give her a chance to break away from the

character of Vada. My Girl 2 followed in the wake of its predecessor making

a very enjoable and successful family film. Released around the same time

was the following interview with Anna (aged 14), That's My Girl in Time Out

Magazine. She was interviewed by Anwar Brett.

Meeting different film stars it's easy to see why, in that rarefied,

pampered world that is Hollywood, they come across like spoiled

children. Often it's because they are, throwing little tantrums when

they can't get their own way. Conversely child actors these days seem

to be much more level headed. There are exceptions, but tabloid

headlines aside, the kids who suceed on the screen are often protected

by parents careful not to let their offspring get too caried away with

their success.

After My Girl proved a suprise hit a couple of years ago, that could

easily have happened to the film's eponymous heroine Anna Chlumsky, as

she was inundated with a variety of scripts and even screen tested for

a role in Jurassic Park. But two years on and with a sequel - My Girl

2, of course - now under her belt, Anna has the acting game put into

sensible perspective.

It's fun making movies," she states, "what would be the point of doing

something you don't like? I live in Chicago, and I've only made three

movies in three years because school is the most important thing to me

right now. If I went to Hollywood and did back-to-back movies then when

I'm grown up I won't be able to identify with the everyday things my

kids are going through while they're growing up.

"I'll probably give up acting at some point though. It's weird being a

kid and having a job, and even weirder continuing in the same job when

you're an adult. You can start life as a waiter but you don't

necessarily want that for the rest of your life. I want to be a

palaeontologist."

If that happened, Anna would be a real loss, as her maturity comes

across on screen just as much as off. Reprising her old role as Vada

Sultenfuss, she begins a school writing project about someone she

admired but never met. Vada chooses her mother, who died soon after she

was born, a nd dragging the reluctant Nick (Austin O'Brien) along with

her she makes some important discoveries. Off screen she found a new

friend in the young Last Action Hero star.

"I didn't know Austin before," Anna continues. "We only met on this

film. He was great, and he was the only other kid on the set so that

was good news for me. He was someone to hang out with."

But, and here's the true test of maturity, who about that kiss at the

end of the movie?

"Oh, I didn't mind having to kiss him," she adds thoughtfully, "it's

just one of those things that you sometimes have to do."

Big Magazine picked up on Anna's return to the screen with this interview

titled "Just Great Friends"...

What was it like working with Austin O'Brien?

"It was great. Austin's really cute and I have a new friend now. He's a

really nice kid, really polite and everything. We still keep in touch,

although it's difficult because I live in Chicago and he's in Los

Angeles."

How did Austin compare to Macaulay Culkin?

"Austin's a lot quieter. He doesn't play pranks like Mack did. He's

also more laid back whereas Mack was always up and running around in

this wild way."

Which one do you prefer?

"I don't prefer either. I like them both." (Very diplomatic).

What did you think of the clothes in the movie?

"Oh I loved them. I really liked wearing the clothes. It was like

dressing up on Halloween."

How was the kissing scene with Austin in My Girl 2?

"It's weird when you're friends with someone and then you have to kiss

them. But we tried not to make a big deal out of it because then

everyone else would have made a big deal out of it."

Was he a good kisser?

"I don't know. I don't really have anything to compare it with. I've

never really kissed anybody for real."

What do you worry about?

"I don't worry about boys; in fact my best friend is a boy, so I can

talk to them. I worry mostly about school and whether I am doing well -

and that I won't fall down during my graduation ceremony!"

Do you worry about your appearance?

"Na, I don't care aboout it. When I get up in the morning, I'll just

put on my jeans and some shirt I see lying round and then I'll go to

school."

Do you have a boyfriend?

"No. I think I'm still a little young. But I'm going to High School

next year so it will probably be different then."

Another interview with the My Girl star was titled "My Girl Crazy". This too

was published at about the same time as My Girl 2 came out. (I'm afraid I

can't remember what publication it was in.)

What was it like acting with Austin O'Brien instead of Macaulay Culkin?

"It's a lot different! Austin is very laid-back and calm and Mac's just

very wild and plays pranks on everyone!"

Which other actors would you like to work with?

"Winona Ryder would be awesome! And Elijah Wood - he's a friend of

mine, so that'd be fun!"

How did you meet him?

"Last July 4 (that's the USA's big party day!), I couldn't get back to

a family reunion. So, I was invited to a party in Hollywood where there

were all these stars, like Tom Cruise, and Elijah was there and we made

friends!"

What are your favorite sweets?

"You can only get them on the UK - it's Cadbury's Flakes! Oooh, I love

those so much and you can't get them in America."