Famous for her work on Mean Girls and Party of Five, actress Lacey Chabert isn’t as young as she once was.
She looked like she would keep shining at the height of her Mean Girls popularity, but co-star Rachel McAdams went on to become the movie’s Hollywood favourite, starring in films such as Spotlight, Wedding Crashers, and The Notebook.
Even Amanda Seyfried and Lindsay Lohan, who starred in Mean Girls together, managed to maintain their prominence; Seyfried was cast in highly regarded roles, while Lohan was just Lindsay Lohan.
What, though, has Lacey Chabert been up to in the intervening years? Actually, she’s discovered her calling elsewhere.
This is how Lacey Chabert has managed to succeed over the years.
A change in priority
In September 2016, Lacey Chabert gave birth to her first child, a girl called Julia Mimi Bella.
E! News reports that the actress entered full nesting mode in anticipation of her daughter’s arrival, organising the nursery and even having a pre-interview conversation with her furry companion, a chihuahua named Kitty.
Even though Chabert was clearly thrilled to have daughter Julia, it’s possible that becoming a parent caused her priorities to change.
This was made clear when Chabert spoke about the difficulties of juggling life as a working mother in the entertainment industry and her new professional path during the press tour for her 16th—yes, you read that right—Hallmark film in the autumn and winter of 2018.
In November 2018, Chabert stated to the Clarion Ledger, “If you had told me two years ago that this is what my career would look like today, I think I would’ve been surprised, but it’s such a great fit for who I am and where I am in my life right now.”
She will always be associated with Gretchen Wieners
The catchphrase “that’s so fetch” was first used by Chabert, who played the legendary Gretchen Wieners in Mean Girls. Maybe she’s still viewed by Hollywood as that stupid adolescent whose dad invented Toaster Strudel?
After all, it’s really simple to get typecast in Hollywood — just take a look at the perpetually quirky Helena Bonham Carter or the beloved romantic actress Jennifer Aniston.
In Chabert’s instance, a single film still encompasses her entire career identity, at least in terms of her more mainstream work. Chabert stated to Entertainment Weekly in 2014, a decade after the Mean Girls premiere, that “People tweet me every day hundreds of times, if not thousands of times [with] lines from the movie.”
To be fair, though, she’s not bothered by the association. Indeed, Chabert stated to Star in December 2018 that she “would love to be a part of it” if a sequel were ever developed. Make Tina Fey a call right now!
The Hallmark films starring Lacey Chabert…
As of this writing, Lacey Chabert had starred in well over 20 Hallmark Channel programmes.
For any channel, let alone one that specialises in the campy, sugary sweet fare that no mother on earth could resist, that’s a lot of productions. But if you’re hoping for an Oscar nomination or the next huge blockbuster smash, Hallmark isn’t exactly the place to go.
A few other well-known people that have acted in Hallmark films are Jennifer Love Hewitt, Danica McKellar, and Dean Cain.
When did you last see them in a movie with an A-list cast? Nevertheless, Chabert is clearly pleased with her new network and the heartwarming shows it produces—which she referred to as “like comfort food” in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
It’s also no accident that she creates a lot of holiday-themed content for Hallmark. “I love Christmas. Anyone who knows me will tell you how obsessed I am about it,” Chabert said to the Clarion Ledger. “I wish it was longer than just a month out of the year. So it’s natural that I would enjoy making Christmas movies.”
Perhaps Lacey Chabert’s beliefs kept her from greater parts
There is a belief in Tinseltown circles that having a strong Christian faith doesn’t always translate into success (Mel Gibson and Candace Cameron Bure come to mind).
In 2014, Hercules TV series actor Kevin Sorbo said to CNS News, “I think being a conservative in Hollywood and being a Christian in Hollywood, you get attacked.” Chabert starred in Christian Mingle that same year, which only received three “rotten” ratings overall from critics on Rotten Tomatoes.
Is it feasible that Chabert’s public declaration of her religious views is a contributing factor in her lack of success in Hollywood?
