She broke an entire generation's collective heart in 1991's "My Girl" before Hollywood
broke hers. Has Anna Chlumsky found a way to mend it after all these years?
Anna Chlumsky's first acting role came in 1989, when the then nine-year-old played an unnamed
school child in John Candy's "Uncle Buck." Two years later, she landed her big break
with "My Girl," the touching drama about a troubled child and her single father.
"Would you think of me?"
"For what?"
"Well if you don't get to marry Mr. Bixler."
"I guess."
The role brought the young Chlumsky instant fame. Suffice to say,
it was a shock. In a 1991 appearance on "Cinema Showcase," she said:
"I think about how everyone dreams about being a
star in the movies. [...] And sometimes I just want to enjoy my privacy, too."
For Chlumsky, growing up in the public eye proved to be far from easy. In 2022,
she spoke to the Independent about being a child in Hollywood and said:
"When you suddenly put professional, financial, adult and public — often
sexualised — pressures on them, you not only open them up to a world that is commoditising
and objectifying them. You're also setting them back from their ability to develop."
Chlumsky also sees the dark side of the media's obsession with her as a child. She explained:
"It was only as an adult that I discovered any sense of reliability
or security. When I was a child those did not exist, because I was for sale."
As Anna Chlumsky got older, she found the pressures of Hollywood difficult
to grapple with. She felt uncomfortable in her body. She was sent to numerous
dermatologists to "fix" her skin. She was told she needed to work out on set.
"It was just such an extreme uphill battle to just, you know,
like, believe in yourself at all, as a human."
Work also began to dwindle. After starring in a sequel to "My Girl" in 1994,
Chlumsky appeared in a few movies, none of which made much impact.
By the time she was 18, Chlumsky was fed up with life as a former child star. So,
she decided to leave the industry behind entirely. She was still trying to audition
for films when she began college, but one day she realized she didn't have to do it.
After that, she began ignoring her agents and skipping auditions. As she settled
into college life, she discovered a new world of possibility away from
the pressures of Hollywood. As she explained to The Guardian in 2014:
"That was when I started to go, 'Oh, there's so many other things.'"
After Anna Chlumsky decided to leave Hollywood, she threw herself into her
degree. She studied International Studies at the University of Chicago. While there,
she picked up a new skill set and a new type of confidence, telling The Chicago Maroon in 2017:
"I started to realize it's not about the stuff you already know, but it's about if you can make
an argument, and if you can pay attention to what you're reading and make sense of it. I
think I gained the confidence that you need in your own brain, in your own ability to learn."
Not only did Chlumsky find a new passion at college,
but she also found her future husband. She met Shaun So on campus and has
been with him ever since. In a 2014 op-ed for Glamour, Chlumsky wrote:
"We'd met in 2000 at the University of Chicago at a rare dance party on
the quad. We fell for each other quickly and knew we'd stay together after I graduated."
So went on to join the Army Reserve while working at the Department of Defense. In
2004, he was deployed to Afghanistan. While it was difficult for the actor,
she was dedicated to her relationship. So returned in 2006; they married two
years later, in 2008. The couple now has two children, Penelope Joan and Clara Elizabeth.
For Chlumsky, So has come to represent stability and comfort. She told The Guardian:
"What's nice about being with your college sweetheart is that we kind of
grew up together. You're not meeting each other with preconceived notions of how you are now."
After graduating, Anna Chlumsky landed a job as a fact checker at Zagat Survey,
a restaurant review website.
"We didn't get to do the eating, it was all the public eating,
and they would just tell us what they thought was good."
This was followed by a job as an editorial assistant
at HarperCollins. The actor explained to Slate:
"When I graduated from college I thought I was over with show business and was pursuing
other things. [...] I went to HarperCollins and edited science fiction and fantasy."
Even though Chlumsky loved her job, she still didn't feel satisfied. In fact, she still
felt almost as unhappy as she had as a young woman pursuing acting. She told The Guardian:
"I thought all the angst had to do with having been in showbusiness — as an adolescent,
anything negative I could trace back to being in showbusiness.
That's why I left it. [...] So then to continue to feel that way was like,
aargh! And so much of that has to do with being in what I call the pre-life crisis."
So, after a few years in publishing, she rethought things again.
Anna Chlumsky's inspiration to return to acting apparently came from a very unexpected place.
After a rough morning at HarperCollins, a psychic approached her on the street.
"Then she said, 'You're not done. You still wanna do this.' And then I was like, ughhhh."
Chlumsky ended up having her palm read and after ten minutes,
she was convinced it was time to re-enter the industry.
"Just try for a year, and if I don't 'make it'
"If I can't pay rent by a year, I'll fall back on editing."
So, she took a course at a New York drama school. At first,
trying to rebuild her career was tough. Chlumsky confessed to Interview Magazine:
"It was a complete shift — going from a kid to an adult is a big difference. [...] But I also
was so completely enamored with the profession once I got back into it that, [...] I still
would rather be doing this, and have it be this scary, than doing anything else."
Chlumsky slowly began picking up roles. In 2007, she appeared in the indie film
"Blood Car" and landed cameos in "30 Rock" and "Eight Days a Week."
In 2009, Chlumsky landed a role in Armando Iannucci's political satire,
"In The Loop." The role was a dream come true for the actor. She gushed to Vanity Fair in 2019:
"It was the best moment of my career to date. It was heaven;
it was a joy to work with them. [...] So I just loved it."
A few years after "In The Loop," Anna Chlumsky finally got the role she had been waiting for
when she reunited with Iannucci for the HBO comedy series "Veep." In "Veep," Chlumsky played Amy,
the assistant to Vice President Selina Meyer, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus.
Chlumsky was thrilled. She told Deadline in 2014:
"We're unlike any television show that I've heard of (because) we
actually workshop the episodes first. [...] It's all about collaboration,
which is probably the reason why I have vowed that I will follow Armando Iannucci anywhere."
"I think that each candidate has merits and demerits and I don't
know my left butt cheek from my right butt cheek but I believe
in listening to both butt cheeks and then farting out my a--hole mouth!"
The show also ended up transforming Chlumsky's career and giving her
the stability she had been craving. When "Veep" came to an end in 2019,
Chlumsky didn't have to wait long before she was cast in yet another major role. In
Netflix's "Inventing Anna," based on the real-life story of scammer Anna Delvey,
Chlumsky played Vivian, the reporter who exposed the so-called fake German heiress.
Chlumsky first got involved with the project while still finishing up "Veep" press. She
told W Magazine about her first meeting with series creator Shonda Rhimes, saying:
"I read through enough of the script for me to be absolutely intrigued and in love with
the character and in love with what Shonda was doing with this story. [...] I loved the
facets that she was engaging in, and after that meeting, I desperately wanted to play Vivian."
It was Chlumsky's first time playing a character based on a real person. She met that real-life
journalist, Jessica Pressler, and worked with her throughout the filming process.
Of the series' fictionalized take on real world events, Chlumsky told Elle Australia:
"We were really swimming amid the murkiness of what's real and not real. [...] We all had to
really remember that we were constantly doing that dance together. It was sort of thrilling,
it felt a little dangerous even, it was fun."
As of May 2023, Anna Chlumsky isn't attached to any future projects — but it's clear that
her career will only continue to blossom. As the actor explained to Harper's Bazaar in 2022,
there's still a lot she wants to do — including directing. She teased:
"I've got some wild aspirations. I've got this nagging dream to direct opera someday,
or there's documentaries that I want to exist in the world that I don't think anybody else will
make. I'm going to have to, someday, in the latter half of my life, figure out how to do that."
And, of course, she wants to keep acting. But,
she knows that there's a whole new world of characters to play, explaining:
"I'm at an interesting place where, like, all of those roles that made me want to
act when I was in my early twenties — I'm past them now. It's kind of a fun
moment in my life where I'm discovering all of the roles I'm going to be right for now."
Even though she had a shaky start in the industry after being plunged into childhood stardom, now,
Chlumsky couldn't be happier. After all, she has a successful career, a jam-packed resume,
and a thriving family. Plus, she's no longer being objectified by the media for her "My Girl" role,
although she's still dealing with the effects of that trauma. She told Elle:
"I'm very happy. I have a beautiful life. And I trust not one soul,
and I have a very complicated relationship with personal agency."
Chlumsky explained to Harper's Bazaar that while she has found happiness, she still has work to do:
"I do love my life now. It's a great life, but therapy is necessary."
Chlumsky has certainly come a long way — and we have a feeling we'll be seeing a lot more of her.