Even though Fairuza Balk seemed to be everywhere back in the '90s, she's slowly faded out of the
spotlight since. With the exception of some indie films and an ongoing role in Ray Donovan,
things have been fairly quiet for Balk. So, what is Fairuza Balk really up to now?
Fairuza Balk's family connections and artistic upbringing seemed to make her
destined for a life in the spotlight. She started her career in 1983,
and in 1985, she landed the coveted role of Dorothy in Return to Oz.
According to The Washington Post, Fairuza grew up in Vancouver. Her mother, Cathryn Balk,
was a former dancer, and her father was a California-based musician.
Fairuza's grandmother was also creatively-inclined;
Fairuza once posted an old newspaper clipping of her on Instagram, writing -
"She was one of the youngest dance teachers in the state of [California]."
Cathryn placed Fairuza in a range of artistic classes as a child, including dancing, violin, and
acting classes. No wonder this young triple threat was ready to step into Judy Garland's shoes!
After playing Dorothy in Return to Oz, Fairuza Balk's life changed forever. In 1985,
she was interviewed by The Washington Post – and she was just 11 at the time. Balk revealed that
her friends at home had started asking whether she was rich and she was getting stared at in public.
"You will be rather attractive… one day."
As an adult, Balk had a more nuanced understanding of just how huge the role was,
saying in an interview with Dread Central.
"It was massive; I think I was chosen out of something like
50,000 kids for the role of Dorothy, which is still really amazing to think about."
Balk went on to explain that as a kid, she'd never realized how popular the film was.
"Throughout the years, fans would send me letters or even these incredible gifts with
their stories about what the movie meant to them and I was absolutely shocked."
Balk continued to act throughout her childhood, impressing critics and filmmakers alike. Notably,
in 1986, Balk played the starring role of Mildred Hubble in the beloved TV movie version
of The Worst Witch, a children's book about a school for witches.
Balk also starred in the 1989 film Valmont, alongside Colin Firth and Annette Bening.
In this film, she played a much more grown up role as Cecile,
a young convent girl who is seduced by Firth's character. Milos Forman,
the film's director, said to Roger Ebert that she wowed him in the casting sessions, gushing -
"She was perfect, and strangely enough, she was also the biggest pro of them all."
It seems that after her first roles, Balk was solidifying her reputation in the industry,
and laying the groundwork for a spectacular career.
After working consistently for ten years, Fairuza Balk landed the role that would define her career.
In 1996, she starred in The Craft as Nancy. However, as Balk revealed in a
2017 interview with Entertainment Weekly, things could have gone very differently.
Balk explained that at the time, she was already signed up to do the film Basquiat.
Balk had hoped to make both roles work, but when Julian Schnabel, the director of Basquiat,
found out that she was considering doing another role, he phoned her, furious. Balk recalled -
"He hung up after cursing me out, and I called my agents and they said, 'We accepted The Craft.'"
And, as things turned out, Balk couldn't have made a better decision for her career. The Craft was a
massive hit, beating Clueless in its first weekend at the box office and becoming a cult classic.
As Balk explained to the Los Angeles Times, the success of The Craft was a big surprise, saying -
"At the time when we made this, I really had no idea it would land so
hugely and it would be so influential to people."
Apparently, after The Craft, Balk acquired a whole new legion of
fans who were completely obsessed with her character from the film, saying -
"I've had meetings with fans and letters and emails where [they
tell me] Nancy really affected them deeply in their lives."
Thanks to the film's cult status, Balk has become an icon for multiple generations with some fans
really deeply identifying with her character,
and explaining that she'd helped them get through difficult moments.
"I know I'm a little crazy… I don't mean to be.”
After finding success as a child star and then a young actress, Fairuza Balk found
even more success as a voice actress. Her first voice role came in 1999 on the hugely popular show
Family Guy. Balk voiced the character Connie D'Amico in her first two appearances on the show.
In 2002, Balk played the voice of Mercedes Cortez in the video game Grand Theft Auto:
Vice City. Then, in 2003, she voiced Penny in Justice League and Lady T'Lak in the video game
Lords of EverQuest. Two years later, she voiced three characters in What Is It?,
a little-known surrealist film by Crispin Glover.
After this two or three year stint working mainly behind the mic as a voice actor,
Balk returned to more on screen roles. It's hard to say why her voice acting
career was so short-lived — but it's clear that the actress met with a lot
of success in the short period that she did take on some voice roles.
Throughout her career Balk has gone on to appear in a number of other films and TV shows,
but while she continued acting, she largely stepped away from doing press events. As
Balk explained to the Los Angeles Times, this wasn't all together an accident, revealing -
"In my late 20s, I stepped away from doing a lot of press
because people just kept taking my words and rearranging them the wrong
way and just depicting me as this crazy bad girl and it just really got old."
Balk went on to explain that she didn't really feel cut out for the world of Hollywood, saying -
"Some of the elements of that game are things I just couldn't do."
"I took a lot of roles that would challenge me,
you know, because I've been doing it since I was a little girl."
Eventually, the pressures of the acting world began to threaten her well-being
and mental health. For Balk, the obsession with her career meant
that she had compromised other aspects of her life, adding -
"At a certain point, you have to remember that there is life
outside of 'Get the job, do the job,'" When Fairuza Balk realized that her acting
career was taking over other elements of her life, she stepped back and turned her
focus to other artistic projects, sharing in an interview with the Los Angeles Times -
"I started looking into and spending more time
on other art forms that I really enjoy and I'm far happier for it."
To that end, the actress began to spend her time painting, writing,
making music, and creating mixed media projects.
During the 2020 pandemic, Balk also spent more time with her father,
who had suffered from some health issues. During that time, Balk explored even more
forms of art with her father, who apparently taught her both silversmithing and goldsmithing.
"I've been up there in the mountains learning how
to work with metal - we're getting into blacksmithing and it's amazing."
Wow, sounds like she really has been delving into loads of new art forms.
In addition to experimenting with new art forms, Fairuza Balk has used her time away from acting to
connect with nature. By the looks of things, the natural world is one of her greatest passions.
In 2019, Balk set off on a springtime road trip across America,
taking to Twitter to describe what she's witnessed, like -
"All the wild flowers are blooming and it's all so green. Georgia has entire miles of Purple wisteria
Additionally, Balk's Instagram is filled with odes to the natural world. In February of 2020,
she posted a closeup picture of a tulip, writing -
"The inner private universe of a tulip. Fascinating nature everywhere."
It's lovely to see that Balk's time off has given her the space to appreciate nature.
Furthermore, when the young Balk was interviewed for The Washington Post as part of the promotion
for Return to Oz, she expressed her love of animals — and that hasn't changed.
Since 2016, Fairuza Balk has been recording and
releasing her own music on Bandcamp under the name Armed Love Militia.
In 2019, Balk released an EP with three songs, including the song "White Lillies,"
which she wrote as a duet with her friend Mel Sanson. Feroce reviewed the song, writing,
"In a nutshell the track is down to earth,
mellow, and every aspect of the track is beautifully defined."
For Balk, the folk song tells the story of someone mourning a lost love. As she put it, they are -
"Eternally searching for them through eternity,
calling out to them through song like a Siren to try and find them again, to be reunited."
In the end, Balk was pleased with the song — even though it took eight years to record, saying -
"This felt beyond right and it was like breathing a huge sigh of relief that it was finally done."
It's clear that making music is an important creative outlet for Balk. As she wrote on Twitter,
"It's exposing your soul, your true inner heart."
When a sequel of The Craft came along in 2020, fans were thrilled to discover that
the original Nancy would be making an appearance. For Fairuza Balk, deciding
whether to return to the world of The Craft wasn't easy. As she told Entertainment Weekly,
when she was initially approached about a sequel by producer Jason Blum, her response had been,
"Eh, I don't know."
However, when Balk met the director, Zoe Lister-Jones,
she was sold by her idea to make the film about -
"Women supporting women as opposed to women fighting women."
For Balk, this signified a shift from the first film,
which changed her mind. Lister-Jones also spoke to Entertainment Weekly,
and explained why having Balk on board was so important, sharing that -
"Nancy is everything. She is The Craft to me."
In the film, set 20 years after the events of the first movie, Nancy is living
in an insane asylum. It is revealed that she is the mother of the central character.
Even though Fairuza Balk is open about having taken a step back from acting, she certainly
hasn't given it up altogether. In 2015, she took on a recurring role in season 3 of Showtime's Ray
Donovan. At the time, Balk was thrilled to be a part of the series, taking to Twitter to gush -
"I'm going to be on Ray Donovan and I'm really looking forward to it. Great cast on this show."
Balk played Ginger in the show, a sex worker who befriends Mickey, Ray's dad.
In 2020, fans learned that Balk would also be appearing in the series Paradise City
as Lizzie Thomas. The show also stars Andy Biersack, Bella Thorne, and Cameron Boyce.
According to the first official trailer, the series deals with a rock star who seems to
have ties with the occult. Black magic in Hollywood? Sounds right up Balk's alley. By
the looks of things, we'll be seeing plenty more of Balk on our screens in the future.
Even though Fairuza Balk stepped back from acting in the early 2000s,
she certainly hasn't given up the profession altogether. In fact, her 2020 roles in The Craft:
Legacy and Paradise City might just be the beginning of a serious comeback.
She shared as much in an interview with the Los Angeles Times, saying -
"Acting, hopefully, I'll be able to do for the rest of my life,"
She added that while she's definitely slowed down,
she's really just become more selective in choosing parts. It sounds like Balk's future
roles will have to be worthwhile if they're going to make the cut!
Apparently, we might even get to see more of Balk as Nancy from The Craft in the future. According
to Entertainment Weekly, the film's director, Zoe Lister-Jones, has toyed with the idea of creating
another sequel. When asked if she'd be interested, Balk was non-committal, saying she'd do it
"If it would be a challenge and something fun."
Let's hope the third installment of The Craft gives Balk a version of Nancy she can't refuse!
Check out one of our newest videos right here! Plus,
even more List videos about your favorite celebrities are coming soon.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel and hit the bell so you don't miss a single one.