Thirty-four years after My Girl premiered on November 27, 1991, Anna Chlumsky, now 44, walks into a Good Night New York taping and owns it in a knitted striped dress. Remember when Hollywood told her she was “too fat or too ugly”? Yeah, that aged badly. The former child star grew up, got sharper, and proved the industry wrong without begging for approval.
Back in the day, Anna’s life was all about Vada Sultenfuss, the 11-year-old hypochondriac living above a funeral home with her dad, played by Dan Aykroyd. My Girl wasn’t afraid of real feelings. And yes, bees. Macaulay Culkin’s Thomas J. still breaks hearts after all these years. Even Jamie Lee Curtis can’t watch without tearing up. “This is emotional for me because they were so young,” she told Entertainment Tonight. She added, “Watching young actors do an adult’s job, it’s very challenging. It’s hard for me.”
Kids grow up though. After My Girl 2, Anna hit pause on Hollywood and went to the University of Chicago in 2002, earned a degree in International Studies, and tried a completely different path. Publishing jobs at Zagat and HarperCollins gave her the normalcy she craved. During that time, acting didn’t seem like the dream anymore. “You’re living on a risk-reward system, and that can be extremely damaging,” she told People.
But she missed performing. So she trained at Atlantic Acting School in 2005, and the auditions began again. Slowly. Then Veep happened. Six Emmy nominations later, everyone remembered exactly how talented she is. From Amy Brookheimer’s breakdowns to the icy determination of Vivian Kent in Inventing Anna and now crime drama Smoke on Apple TV+, Anna’s doing the best work of her life.
Don’t expect a My Girl 3 reunion though. “I will never, ever do one,” she told Forbes. Her co-star from Smoke, John Leguizamo, was surprised by her answer. “Oh, wow,” Leguizamo laughed. “That’s so definitive. You never say never in this business.”
Jamie Lee Curtis recently rewatched My Girl and felt it hit harder with age. Speaking to Entertainment Tonight, the 66-year-old actress, who played the girlfriend to Dan Aykroyd’s character, found herself overwhelmed watching Anna Chlumsky and Macaulay Culkin carry heavy emotional weight as kids. “This is emotional for me because they were so young,” Curtis said. “. . . I loved My Girl. That was another beautiful, unexpected, beautiful little bit of work and a wonderful character that I got to play.” What unsettled her now is seeing children tackle grief head-on. “Watching young actors do an adult’s job, it’s very challenging,” she said. “It’s hard for me. It’s hard to wrestle with that.”
At home, Anna’s just mom. She and husband Shaun So share two daughters, Clara (born 2013) and Penelope (2016). And no, she’s not pushing them toward child stardom. They can wait until they’re 18. Her rules.
Variety reports Anna Chlumsky has recently signed on opposite Leslie Bibb in Top of the Rock, a Cold War crime series from Iceland’s Truenorth. Set in 1983 at the NATO base in Keflavík, Bibb plays Captain Diane Goodman, a military police investigator. Chlumsky is MP Sarah Ellis. When an American soldier turns up dead, they must work with Icelandic police while espionage, betrayal, and political deceit squeeze your options. Ólafsson didn’t hide the casting goal: “Early on we knew the role of Sarah Ellis would need to be someone with a formidable screen presence,” Ólafsson said. “Anna Chlumsky’s ability to switch between genres is like no other, and she absolutely embodies every character she’s played across her phenomenal career. We’re beyond ecstatic to round out the leads in ‘Top of the Rock’ with two of the most brilliant actors.”
Success hasn’t been a straight line for Anna Chlumsky. But she’s still standing, still glowing, and still owning every room she walks into.
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