“That was a really special time," the actor recently revealed of her time on the beloved Nickelodeon show
 |
| Melissa Joan Hart and her character on 'Clarissa Explains It All' and in 2019. Photo: Nickelodeon/Netflix |
Clarissa Explains It All is just as important to Melissa Joan Hart today as it was 30 years ago.
The 48-year-old actor took a walk down memory lane with PEOPLE at 90s Con in Daytona Beach, Fla., last month as she recalled her time on the show and getting to play the iconic Clarissa Darling.
“That was a really special time,” Hart shared. “It was a lot of hard work … I had a lot of monologues, [the] scenes were long and we had to do them all as a live show even though it wasn't a live show. It was really complicated to get it right."
 |
| Melissa Joan Hart as seen in 'Clarissa Explains it All' in 1991. United Archives GmbH/Alamy |
The Melissa & Joey star went on to explain that “if things weren't right” the actors “had to redo the whole” scene — some of which had been at least “10 pages long” — a far cry from her 2000s Sabrina the Teenage Witch days.
“That's why I loved getting to [do] Sabrina,” Hart said with a laugh. “I was like, ‘We have like two-page scenes and other people speak? Someone says something and I respond? This is really easy!’ ”
Though, she shared that the Nickelodeon show, which ran for five seasons from 1991 to 1994, and her character Clarissa still hold a special place in her heart.
 |
| Melissa Joan Hart in 'Clarissa Explains All' in 1991. Netflix |
“I had so much fun, and I knew she was a special character,” Hart admitted, adding that she thought the series — which delved into everything from dating to how to deal with annoying little brothers — overall was “wonderful.”
She previously told PEOPLE in May that she “definitely jived more” with the character of Clarissa than her teenage witch persona Sabrina, as she had grown up in tandem with the character during the series.
 |
| 'Clarissa Explains It All' cast including Joe O'Connor, Melissa Joan Hart, Sean O'Neal, Jason Zimbler and Elizabeth Hess in 1991. United Archives GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo |
“Being on Clarissa gave me that freedom to sort of figure out who I was while she's figuring out who she is,” she said. “So it's really a blurred line between me and Clarissa, we were the exact same age.”
Hart also revealed that while she doesn’t “talk to any” of Clarissa’s cast, which included Jason Zimbler, Elizabeth Hess and Joe O'Connor, some of her other connections from the series are still going strong three decades later.
“I'm still in touch with some of the crew over there,” the actress said, referring to Michele Roofthooft, who did her wardrobe for Clarissa Explains It All, and her husband David Roofthooft, who was the executive producer's assistant on the show. “They're my son's godparents.”
“They actually got married at the end of the show,” she shared. “And they're still my closest friends."
From Popverse:
Inside the ‘90s Nickelodeon acting method including 'The Cannon Take', as told by Clarissa Explains It All’s Melissa Joan Hart
Nickelodeon had a special acting method for their child performers, which was known as ‘the cannon take’
If you grew up watching ‘90s era Nickelodeon sitcoms, then you know those teenagers had a lot of energy. Shows like Salute Your Shorts, Clarissa Explains It All, and My Brother and Me were fast paced, even in comparison to other sitcoms. The child actors always seemed like they were on a sugar rush, with every performance being pushed to the loudest level possible.
According to Clarissa Explains It All lead actress Melissa Joan Hart, this was by design. “I watch Clarissa and Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and I feel like I watch myself and go, ‘Oh, I could’ve tried a little harder.’ But it was hard at that age to survive it day after day,” Hart says during a panel at Tampa Bay Comic Convention.
“To go through it and kind of have that sort of energy. At Nickelodeon we had to have the energy. They would call it 'The Cannon Take.' We would do one take, and the energy we had to use on Nickelodeon was out of this world. A lot of people don’t like these Nickelodeon and Disney actors because they’ll say that they’re ridiculously over the top, but we were trained that way.”
“Theater is kind of the same, where you want to project to the back of the room. And then you get to more dramatic stuff, tighter close-ups, and then it should be a little smaller. Like if you watch God’s Not Dead 2, that was really hard for me to take it out of my face and just kind of calm it down, because I feel like take it out of my face and just like calm it down.”
If Nickelodeon has any behind-the-scenes footage of their actors being trained in “the cannon take,” they should release it. Trust us Nickelodeon, your viewers would love to see it.
###
Stream all your favorite Nickelodeon shows old and new on Paramount+. Try it FREE at ParamountPlus.com!
No comments:
Post a Comment
Have your say by leaving a comment below! NickALive! welcomes friendly and respectful comments. Please familiarize with the blog's Comment Policy before commenting. All new comments are moderated and won't appear straight away.