Have you ever wondered what happened to all the young stars of your favorite commercials
of yesteryear? While some of them have lived fairly normal lives outside the spotlight,
others went on to become major stars.
In 1981, Burger King aired a commercial with a little girl sporting pigtails and purple
overalls who delivered an adorable monologue, with a side of shade thrown at a rival chain.
"Do I look 20 percent smaller to you? I must, to McDonald's."
This cute tot then went on to explain that McDonald's made their regular burgers with
20 percent less meat than Burger King. This goofy commercial might seem relatively harmless,
but the Golden Arches company actually ended up suing Burger King over its claims about
its competitor. There even emerged a rumor that the actress who played that girl was
banned from eating at McDonald's, although that wasn't exactly true.
Getting caught up in a fast food rivalry didn't prevent that little girl from growing up to
be a major star. In case you haven't recognized her already, that's Sarah Michelle Gellar,
who's since gone on to star in numerous TV series and start an online bakery business.
She even returned to her commercial roots in 2019 for a spot that aired during Super
Bowl 53, as she appeared in Olay's "Killer Skin" ad, which spoofed slasher movies.
"That's bananas! That's you? What?!"
"Wow. Your skin's glowing."
Long before Elijah Wood transformed into a hobbit named Frodo Baggins in the Lord of
the Rings trilogy, he made a memorable impression on TV viewers in old school commercials. For
example, he once promoted cheddar cheese as the star of an ad for America's Dairy Farmers.
Although the spot has aged about as well as milk, it's easy to see how the adorable young
actor catapulted into fame.
Thanks to his big personality, Wood continued to star in commercials, while also securing
roles in films like Back to the Future Part II. Then in 2001, when he was 20 years old,
he landed the biggest role of his career when he headed to Middle Earth. Since then, he's
mostly steered clear of big blockbuster hits, instead favoring roles in a variety of genre
flicks. In a 2019 interview with IndieWire, he explained,
"It's such an organic process. My intention is not to circumvent agents, but it's just
interesting to find work where it kind of comes to you. Some of these things are the
ones representative of a portion of my taste and the kind of movies I really like to make."
Throughout the 90s, Mattel made sure that kids were always aware of the latest Barbie
doll. At one point in that decade, the company introduced the Glitter Hair Barbie and showed
her off to TV viewers in her very own commercial. With long hair and sparkly gel, plenty of
doll lovers were immediately sold on this new edition. At the time, Barbie fans were
probably too distracted by the new doll itself to notice the dark-haired girl saying "wow"
throughout the ad. But before long, millions of people would know her very well. In 1998,
she started to play Jackie on That '70s Show, and soon enough Mila Kunis became a household
name.
Just before landing her first commercial, Kunis secured a manager by the name of Susan
Curtis. As the actress recalled to Interview Magazine in 2012,
"She took me on my first audition the next day, and I ended up getting it. It was a Barbie
commercial. That's how it started."
She also revealed,
"I did the pilot for [That '70s Show] when I was 14, so from 9 to 14 I probably did 20
commercials."
Since breaking out on that sitcom, Kunis has enjoyed a long and steady acting career, with
starring roles in the likes of Ted, Friends with Benefits, and Bad Moms. In 2015, she
married her former '70s Show co-star Ashton Kutcher, and they've since welcomed a daughter
and a son.
In a 1990 commercial for the Atari Lynx, a young Tobey Maguire asks his teacher for a
bathroom pass so that he can get in some gaming while at school. Watching the old-school ad
today, it's immediately apparent that both the video game industry and Maguire have changed
a whole lot since then. In 2002, he scored the biggest lead role of his career as the
titular superhero in Spider-Man. As the actor tells it, he always knew he'd make it big.
In 2013, he told The Guardian,
"I'm self-aware enough to understand that it's statistically very hard to achieve the
position I'm in. But I also think I have a lot of ingredients that are right for the
path that I've chosen. I find the way, like water; I like to be productive. I'm constantly
reflecting on personal progress. And since I was around 15, I knew I'd be successful.
Since I was 17 or 18, I always knew I wanted to live a great version of my life. And so
I got those ideas, and they have been north stars to me."
In recent years, though, Maguire's acting career has cooled down a bit. He had major
parts in 2013's The Great Gatsby and 2014's Pawn Sacrifice, but his only movie role since
then was a voice part in 2017's The Boss Baby.
Tobey Maguire was a hit with casting directors because he looked much younger than he actually
was. But there was another child actor in Maguire's circle who was able to pull in even
more work, and that actor was Leonardo DiCaprio. As The Guardian reported in its 2013 interview
with Maguire, the two actors go way back, as they met while they were teenagers during
auditions in the 90s. DiCaprio won out on many of those gigs instead of Maguire. But
it doesn't sound like there was any bad blood between the two of them, as DiCaprio would
later recommend his friend for parts when he was able to.
In a 1994 chat with Interview Magazine, DiCaprio revealed that he appeared in about 30 or 40
commercials before starring on the ABC sitcom Growing Pains, including spots for the likes
of Bubble Yum and Kraft Singles. DiCaprio and his fellow former child star may be friends
now, but don't go mistaking one for the other. As Maguire told The Guardian,
"Our lives are very different."
As different as, say, Nick Carraway and Jay Gatsby, the characters they played in The
Great Gatsby. DiCaprio has since grown out of his boyish 90s look, but he continues to
secure lead roles in major films like The Wolf of Wall Street and Once Upon a Time in
Hollywood when he's not busy with his environmental activism. Although we like to still think
of him as a bubblegum-popping teenager.
"Bubble Yum is the fun that never blows out. Big mouth bustin' Bubble Yum: keeps it poppin'!"
Long before Mean Girls and even The Parent Trap, Lindsay Lohan was already working on
her showbiz career, as she started acting and modeling when she was just 3 years old.
By the time The Parent Trap came out in 1998, she'd already been featured in more than 100
print advertisements and 60 old school commercials, including one for grape JELL-O.
Although Lohan's dedication to her career culminated in her becoming a huge star in
the early 2000s, it wasn't long before she began earning a reputation for her off-screen
behavior. A series of drug- and alcohol-related offenses and criminal activity made her a
significant hiring risk, so many of the powers that be in Hollywood became less and less
willing to hire her. Despite those struggles, she's attempted several comeback attempts,
including the MTV reality show Lindsay Lohan's Beach Club in 2019, although that lasted for
only one season.
In the 90s, curly-haired, dimpled little Hallie Eisenberg stole everyone's hearts in a series
of soda commercials in which she wouldn't accept Coke as a substitute for her beloved
Pepsi.
"I ordered a Pepsi, pal."
But that wasn't her first onscreen gig. Before that, she appeared in an ad for Blue's Clues,
but her stardom really hit a new level after she starred in the Pepsi campaign. It led
to even bigger roles, like the 1999 movie Bicentennial Man and the 2000 TV film The
Miracle Worker.
Eisenberg's two older siblings also have some acting credits to their names. You might not
be too familiar with her sister Kerry, but you almost certainly know her brother. In
case you couldn't already figure out by their shared last name and the physical resemblance,
that older bro is Jesse Eisenberg. While Jesse's acting career is still going strong, Hallie
hasn't starred in anything since 2010, although occasionally she shares photos on Instagram
of herself and her brother traveling together.
In a 2005 interview with Movie Web, Dakota Fanning declared,
"[Acting] is what I want to do for the rest of my life and I hope to get to, and this
is definitely something that I really love."
With recent projects like the Quentin Tarantino film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and the
TNT drama The Alienist under her belt, she's clearly still passionate about her showbiz
career. But, you may wonder, how did her career begin? As she explained in that Movie Web
interview,
"When we lived in Georgia my mom put me in plays at school, and one day they told her
you should get her an agent, so we got one, and then came to California for six weeks
during pilot season and it all pretty much took off from there."
Although moving out west jump-started Fanning's career, her first gig was actually in the
southeast when she was just 5 years old, as she appeared in a Tide commercial that was
shot in Florida. From there, she went on to guest star on episodes of such popular TV
shows as ER and CSI. Then her big break came when she starred alongside Sean Penn in 2001's
I Am Sam, and she's been working steadily ever since.
Before Jenny Lewis became an indie rock icon, she was a child actor. Back in the 80s, she
showed up in commercials for cereal and Barbie dolls. And then she made it to the big screen
in movies like Troop Beverly Hills and The Wizard. Then in the 90s, she tapped into her
musical talent and became the lead singer for the band Rilo Kiley. She comes from a
creative background, as her parents were also artists. As she revealed to NPR in 2019,
"[My mother] was a lounge singer in Las Vegas, where I was born, with my father who was a
virtuoso harmonica player."
In one particular old school commercial for Corn Pops, a young Lewis interacts with her
onscreen mom just like a typical teenager would. But her life with her real parents
was very different, as her mother struggled with addiction her whole life. For her part,
Lewis has found joy in the life of an artist. As she explained to NPR,
"The joy for me, is in the creation and the collaboration and the process. Then, the catharsis
on tour, being able to feel these songs and finally understand the meaning [...] And I
think we, as artists, open that channel and it's a little bit magical."
Before becoming the face of Welch's Grape Juice, Travis Tedford starred as Spanky in
1994's The Little Rascals. According to Welch's then-senior vice president and creative director
Mimi Cotter, there were other children who were better able to read the lines, but, as
she explained to The New York Times,
"There was a quality about him that was so compelling. He's very authoritative and mature
on one hand, but a little boy on the other."
Everett Baldwin, who was Welch Foods' president and chief executive at the time, described
Tedford as:
"A link to the fond childhood memories our consumers have of Welch brands, which have
been in homes for generations. But since we like to be modern, too, we felt that was properly
addressed by a kid describing our products, and relishing them, today."
"When you just gotta have a drink, you just gotta have a drink, see?"
In a 2013 Reddit AMA, Tedford noted that he was given, quote, "a s--- ton of grape juice"
for starring in the commercial. He also revealed perhaps a little too much information as he
admitted that he had diarrhea for months. The former child actor is no longer in showbiz,
but he is lucky enough to receive royalty checks for The Little Rascals.
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