Christina Applegate Talks About Being ‘Proud’ Of Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead But Also Reveals Why She Nearly Turned Down The Film

Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead is considered a classic ‘90s comedy these days, and it, along with Married… With Children, (another part she struggled with) is a big part of what made Christina Applegate a star. But things could have turned out very different for the Anchorman star.

Applegate recently talked about on her podcast MeSsy with Christina Applegate & Jamie-Lynn Sigler about how she almost turned down the role as the teenager-turned-temporary caregiver in one of those wild movies about kids getting into all kinds of ridiculous situations. Here’s why she’s glad she changed her mind and how proud she is of the cult classic today.

Applegate Thought The Movie Was ‘Too Commercial’

On the podcast, a listener wrote in to ask her to talk about the role and the movie, adding that it was one of their favorite movies of all time. As a child of the ‘80s and ‘90s, that is something I definitely understand. I remember going to the theater at the mall to see it, because all the best movies were at the mall in 1991. It was one of the must-see movies of the summer, yet it barely made any money.

Applegate admits on the show that she could get snobby about accepting roles (she famously turned down Legally Blonde), saying:

I didn’t wanna do it, because it was a commercial film. I was so into indies back then. I was like, [in nasally voice] ‘I’m only gonna do independent film acting, and this is a studio.’ I was such a f—ing asshat. I needed a job, man.

It’s something I think a lot of actors can relate to. A movie like Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead must feel like a complete sellout when you get the script. The title alone makes almost everyone cringe, and there is no way to guess what movies are going to have staying power, much less become the kind of quotable comedy classic like this one would become.

It’s easy to get snarky about the movie as an actor, and Applegate did, especially in an era like the early ‘90s when a new breed of indie directors were bursting onto the scene and putting out amazing movies. Of course, there are other considerations, like money, that always have to be part of the equation for working actors of any level of fame, something Applegate also alludes to:

I was just like, ‘I just wanna do independents’…You know what you do when you do independents? You don’t make any f—ing money. How about that?

Today, Applegate Is Proud Of The Movie

Of course, in the end, Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead had a complete second life at the video rental store and on cable TV. It’s filled with classic and quotable lines, as Applegate concedes, while cringing at her former self at the time:

People quote [it] all the time. ‘The dishes are done, man,’ and all that stuff. I feel very proud now about it. I just hated what an asshole I was at the time.

It also continues to resonate with future generations, as any good cult classic does. Applegate may not have been happy to be in it at the time, but today, it’s clearly a movie she’s proud of, and so is her daughter. Applegate says of the movie:

I’m 53 years old. I was 18 when I did it, I think. 18 or 19, I believe, and people are still quoting that movie. And I’ve watched it with my daughter a gajillion times… She loves it.

For this Gen Xer, it makes me happy to know that she, like so many of us, sees the greatness in Don’t Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead. Sure, it might have been a bomb at the time, but it’s one of those movies where the nostalgia doesn’t get ruined by the movie sucking. Looking back on it, as Applegate says, “it’s the gift that keeps on giving.”