Danielle Harris

Danielle Harris knows a thing or two about staying alive. As a child actress in the 1980s, she appeared in not one, but two installments of the hit Halloween horror movies. (For an actor in the serial-killer genre, success is surviving until the next film.) While many young stars of her generation burned out, self-destructed or simply faded away, Harris worked steadily—for 23 years and counting. She has starred in studio, independent and television movies; appeared on hit TV soaps and series; and voiced animated roles in The Wild Thornberrys, Rugrats Go Wild and NBC’s Father of the Pride. This fall Harris returns to her horror-movie roots with a role in director Rob Zombie’s remake of Halloween. As for the future, Harris may not know exactly what’s waiting around the corner…but she knows she’ll live to scream another day.

You began acting professionally at the age of seven; when did you realize this was really what you wanted to do?
I think I wanted to do it before I started working. I had been in beauty pageants since I was five years old, and I’d won a pageant that sent me to New York City for 10 days. I was approached by a few modeling agencies, none of which were near the town in Florida where I lived. But later, when my stepfather was transferred to New York for work, I signed [with an agency] and started acting.

Was your family nervous about releasing you into the arms of Hollywood?
No, not at all; I think they loved it.

Working consistently for more than 20 years, have you ever become tired of it all and wanted to change paths?
I wouldn’t say I’ve gotten tired of it as much as I have explored other areas to see if I could. There’s always that time period when you’re transitioning from child to adult, which I think I’m coming out of now. So I woke up one day and thought, "I wonder if I could be a real estate agent," and I got my real estate license and got a job working under the guy who’d sold my home to me. I dressed up in a suit, went to the office, sat there and didn’t know what to do with myself. All my friends at the time were buying homes and I’d been so good at helping them find places to buy, but about a week into actually working in the business I looked around and realized, "I don’t really feel comfortable here." I still have my license; it’ll come in handy when I want to close my own deals.

How have you avoided the pitfalls that have led so many child stars down destructive paths?
First of all, I do not do drugs. I stayed out of that because I was always working. But we were doing all that "young Hollywood" stuff—sneaking into clubs at age 15 and partying. There just weren’t paparazzi then; it wasn’t glamorized like it is now. I feel bad for these girls today; they can’t even be adolescents and get into a little trouble. Also, 15 years ago, I didn’t have any friends who were making 20 million dollars on a movie. Now, 20 million dollars to a 17-year-old…what are they going to do with it? There’s no guidance.

Has it been a smooth ride, transitioning to adult actor? Was there any moment when you felt your career shift?
I feel like I look so young that I’m always fighting people in my career—agents and managers—telling them, "I can play high school! I can play college!" I figure, if I go for an 18-year-old role I’m more likely to get that than one my own age, which is 30. It’s been hard to let go of what I’ve been playing for so many years. But being my age and having grown up in this business, I don’t have that vulnerability that a lot of younger actors do. So when I do go in for college for high school roles, I think, "These lines don’t sound right in my mouth." I can’t say a line like, ‘Dad, come on!’ It doesn’t sound right.

I’m still transitioning; it’s hard with all the competition. I think you either work, work, work when you’re a young kid and then you can’t get a job, or you hit it big when you’re 15 or 16 and take off from there. The hardest part about this business is that it’s not really up to you. And there’s no ladder to climb; there’s no top. You’re always going to want to do something more. I ask myself, "If I really got everything I wanted out of my career, could I walk away?" And I couldn’t do it.

Has being Jewish ever had an impact – positive or negative – on your work?
No one ever really thinks that I’m Jewish. People are shocked at first, but once they get to know me they realize I’m very much a Jewish woman. At a party the other night I was talking about something Jewish, and my boyfriend said, "I don’t even think of you as a Jew. You’re ‘Jew-ish.’" I said, "You cannot tell me, after eating my kugel, that you don’t think of me as Jewish."

Your love for the horror genre—is it rooted in nostalgia, or something else?
A good analogy would be…I grew up eating macaroni and cheese. I love it; it makes me feel good; I get excited about it. I think I really started getting into horror movies when I started doing them, and now I go to see horror movies all the time.

You visit a lot of trade shows for horror movie fans and insiders. Is it fun for you, or just part of the job?
It’s both. I didn’t do them for a really long time, and then started going again a few years ago to get back out there and let people know I’m working on other things, like independent films they might not have seen. That was how I learned about the new Halloween. Somebody said they heard a rumor that I was going to be in the movie—which was news to me—and from there I got in touch with the producer and told him I would love to be part of it. That was the starting point for the new movie.

Devoted, enthusiastic fans seem to come with the territory of the scary-movie genre.

How do you feel about the dozens of fan websites devoted to you?
I have mixed feelings. I think it’s amazing that people take the time to make these websites for me. I actually just got a MySpace page last night; I’d been nervous that if people asked to be [listed on the MySpace page as] my friends and I couldn’t write back to them, they would get mad at me. Also, people on message boards write nasty things sometimes, which upsets me, so I started the MySpace page to clear up some silly rumors. But I have three times as many fans who are there to stick up for me and they’re wonderful.

One fan stalked you and was arrested for bringing a shotgun to your home. How did that experience change your life? Do you feel safe now?
That was over 10 years ago. He became obsessed with me when I was on Roseanne, because my character was a bad-girl next-door neighbor, and he liked that. It’s done and over now. I was scared to talk about it for a while because that would give him notoriety and I didn’t want it to come back and kick me in the butt. But my friends told me to come out and discuss it; I could help other people that way. Every celebrity I know has a stalker, really. It’s not going to stop me from doing what I do, though I worry that he’ll show up to a convention someday. I do feel safe now but I never travel by myself and I always have security—an off-duty police offer within eyeshot—which makes me feel a lot better.

Which co-stars have had a significant impact on you and your career?
When I was a growing up in the business everyone was basically a surrogate parent. I think when you’re a kid you develop quick relationships with everyone from actors to makeup artists to crew. Damon Wayans was one who was very memorable to me; Damon told me, "If you mess your life up and become a River Phoenix, I’ll kick your butt!" Everyone mentored me and parented me at the same time that my own mother did. I became a good kid.

You worked extensively with Roseanne; what was that like?
Roseanne was great. We were doing a TV movie together and she asked me to be a part of her show. I thought she meant one episode; I had no idea I’d be on the 17 shows I ended up doing. I went to her son’s bar mitzvah. She was really amazing to me. I’m working on writing a pilot now and I really want her to play my mother.

Between TV, film and voice-over work, do you have a favorite medium?
I’ve also directed theater and taught dancing, I even got a day job this year working as a representative for a beauty distributing company. (It’s been interesting to walk into famous salons and introduce myself, and they’re like, "Oh my God, the girl from Halloween is our product rep!") But the best job in the world is an animated series. It is a half an hour, once a week, to do an episode. You work five months out of the year, do 20 episodes, and financially it takes care of you for the next three years. And you can go to work in your pajamas; I’m a big advocate for sweatpants and no makeup.

Have you ever made a movie or a TV show that you wish you could un-make?
I know it’s a cliché, but I really have no regrets in life—all I regret is not doing the things I want to do.

What’s next for you?
As much as I say I’d like to do a romantic comedy and get out of the horror genre, I’m not going to fight it. If this is what God has in store for me then that’s what I’ll do. So I’ve got another horror movie coming up after Halloween. If I’m meant to be a horror princess, so be it.

As an adult actor what do you want to be known for?
I just want to be respected for whatever I choose to do. I think it’s all about longevity; I’m not in this business to be a movie star. Who knows what it’ll be in six months; it’s always changing. As long as I can continue to do what I love doing and continue to have a life, that’s what I want.