Christina Applegate reflects on career: Anchorman, Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead

Last Updated on November 14, 2022

Christina Applegate was a major “It girl” of the late 80s and 90s, having broken through as the ditzy but sultry Kelly Bundy on Married with Children, which aired on the then-young network Fox. Applegate would eventually find a career in film in comedies like The Sweetest Thing, Bad Moms, and of course, the Anchorman movies. Applegate sits down with Variety to discuss the final season of her show, Dead to Me, as well as the struggles with continuing her career after being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2021.

The actress was asked about her experience working in the popular Anchorman films alongside Will Ferrell, and she had this to say,

Veronica Corningstone was an experience that gave me the confidence to improv, because I had never done that before. And that was so frightening. These guys — let me preface this by saying, the best men I’ve ever known. The most respectful, kind, supportive, talented. And I’m not blowing smoke, because trust me, I can tell you that I’ve worked with some serious fucking assholes that I did not like. This group was so incredible, with Adam McKay at the helm. But it was very improv heavy — I mean, this is the improv gods that I’m working with. So they pushed me to have to think outside of that box, which is a whole other box!

As children of the 90s grew up, they would make the under-appreciated films that they had watched on repeat on HBO more popular through growing pop culture nostalgia. One of Applegate’s films from the peak of her career was none other than Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead (a remake has been planned for awhile), and Variety naturally had to get her reaction to its growing audience and lasting impression. “The cult following of ‘Don’t Tell Mom’ is so surprising because the movie didn’t do well when it came out. I was so like, ‘I only want to do indies‘ — again, being gross. And here was this studio film, and I was like, ‘I’m selling out, man!’ God, I hate that person; I’d do anything to do a studio movie these days. Now, that ‘I’m right on top of that, Rose!’ is still something that people quote all these years later — 30 years later — freaks me out. But it hit a chord.

The final season of Dead to Me will hit Netflix on November 17.

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