Brittany Ashton Holmes: What Happened To The Little Rascals Star?
Brittany Ashton Holmes was a star in The Little Rascals in 1994 but the actress did very little in Hollywood after that movie.
There is a good chance that the name Brittany Ashton Holmes does not ring a bell when it comes to the entertainment industry. Her Hollywood career included one very popular movie, but overall, the run was brief in the mid-90s.
After choosing to walk away from a possibly successful and long career, Hollywood only saw her one more time, nearly 20 years after leaving Tinsel Town. So, what was Brittany Ashton Holmes’ popular film, and was there a specific reason she walked away from her career?
BRITTANY ASHTON HOLMES PLAYED DARLA IN THE LITTLE RASCALS MOVIE
Although there isn’t much known about Brittany Ashton Holmes as a child, there are some things we do know. She was born in Los Angeles, California on February 27, 1989, and was merely five years old when she auditioned for and got the part of Darla in 1994’s The Little Rascals feature film reboot. This would be her one popular film.
Along with Brittany Ashton Holmes, The Little Rascals introduced newcomers Travis Tedford as Spanky, Bug Hall as Alfalfa, Kevin Jamal Woods as Stymie, Jordan Warkol as Froggy, Zachary Mabry as Porky, and Ross Bagley as Buckwheat.
The film was directed by Penelope Spheeris, who co-wrote the screenplay with Stephen Mazur and Paul Guay. They based their story on the series Our Gang, created by Hal Roach, and made popular in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s.
Spheeris, Mazur, and Guay borrowed from many The Little Rascals shorts to craft their story that centered around Spanky and his “He-Man Woman Haters Club.”
Alfalfa, who is also part of Spanky’s “club” is becoming more and more interested in Brittany Ashton Holmes’ Darla, which is starting to cause troubles within the club. When the club members attempt to split up the two, the rift eventually causes the clubhouse to burn down.
Darla, in the meantime, mistakenly believes that Alfalfa is ashamed of being with her, so she sets her sights on Waldo, the very unpopular rich kid who is new to the group.
There are plenty of Little Rascal gags that follow as Alfalfa tries over and over (failing almost each and every time) to woo back Darla. Does Alfalfa succeed and will the He-Man Woman Haters Club make a comeback?
ORIGINAL THE LITTLE RASCALS CAST WASN’T HAPPY WITH THE MOVIE
The Little Rascals film was known for bringing out new and young talent like Brittany Ashton Holmes and Bug Hall, but it was also known for the numerous high-level cameos throughout the film. These cameos included stars such as Ashley Olsen, Daryl Hannah, Lea Thompson, Mary-Kate Olsen, Mel Brooks, Raven-Symoné, Reba McEntire, George Wendt, and Whoopi Goldberg.
Former President Donald Trump even makes an appearance in the film, making it one of the rare times he has appeared in a film when he wasn’t playing himself. In this, Trump plays the character Waldo Aloysius Johnston II.
One more person the producers had reached out to was George McFarland, who was Spanky in the original Little Rascals. Sadly, McFarland passed away during the film’s pre-production. He was only 64 years old when he died. Brittany Ashton Holmes and the rest of the cast weren’t able to work with him.
Not all, though, was okay with the production of the film. Apparently, the few surviving members of the original Our Gang crew were not pleased that Universal gave off a ho-hum attitude when it came to having them involved with the production. You can count Tommy Bond as one of the surviving members, at the time, who was not pleased in the least.
“I feel we should have been included, I think we all felt a little hurt that we weren’t.” ” Tommy Bond (Alfalfa) on original cast not being included in remake
“I feel we should have been included,” said Bond in a 1994 Los Angeles Times article. Bond famously played the nemesis of Alfalfa, Butch, in 27 shorts. “I think we all felt a little hurt that we weren’t.”
He continued, “I talked to Bill Thomas Jr. (son of the late Bill (Buckwheat) Thomas), who’s a police officer in Los Angeles,” Bond explained. “He contacted (the studio) and was invited down to visit the set, but he felt they didn’t want us involved. None of the original kids were. However, it’s their nickel, they can do what they want to do.”
Eugene Jackson was another surviving Our Gang original who was less than pleased with how Universal handled the originals. “I tried to get in touch with them,” Jackson said.
“I called the studio, casting, whatever, told them who I was, offered to be a consultant or something, nothing happened. I called for months, when I first heard about it. I haven’t seen the movie yet, but there’s a lot of us still around . . . Butch, you know. They could have had us at least sitting around, or just walking by.”
Most of the originals had passed on by this time though, including Darla Hood, who played Brittany Ashton Holmes’ Darla character first. In fact, Hood was in the process of putting together a Little Rascals reunion in 1980 when she underwent an appendectomy. Shortly after the procedure, she passed away from heart failure at the young age of 47.
BRITTANY ASHTON HOLMES – LIFE AFTER THE LITTLE RASCALS
It’s not like she didn’t try. More to the point, it’s not like her parents didn’t try to help Brittany Ashton Holmes find more movie roles. In 1995, Brittany was seen on an episode of Ellen, the sitcom led by Ellen DeGeneres. Right after that, Brittany Ashton Holmes grabbed a small part in the Showtime series, Red Shoe Diaries where she played the young daughter of two divorcing parents.
The following year, in 1996 when Brittany Ashton Holmes turned 7, she took on three projects. All three were TV movies, Death Benefit, Circuit Breaker, and Humanoids from the Deep.
She officially walked away from Hollywood after that, appearing one time randomly in 2014 in another TV movie, We Hate Paul Revere.
BRITTANY ASHTON HOLMES IS NOT ACTIVE ON SOCIAL MEDIA
While Brittany Ashton Holmes has completely divorced herself from Hollywood, it also appears she has done so with social media. There was a point, though, when she was fairly active on her MySpace account.
It was also here that she commented on her time as an actress, stating: “I was an actress when I was little and did this movie called ‘The Little Rascals’. It’s, like, really embarrassing to watch and I don’t want to act anymore.”
THAT LITTLE RASCALS’ REUNION
2014 was the 20th anniversary of The Little Rascals and for the celebration, a Los Angeles-based studio, 22 Vision, got the idea to bring the entire 1994 Little Rascals cast back together for a fun photo shoot.
For the most part, it was an easy task finding the actors from the film…except for Brittany Ashton Holmes. Not only was she difficult to track down, but once she was found, the studio had a hard time convincing her to come out for the photo shoot.
Brian Pocrass, 22 Vision’s founder, claims the dominoes started to fall once they were able to convince a few cast members, but Brittany Ashton Holmes was by far the most difficult. Pocrass says that Holmes was very guarded after they tracked her down, but eventually, she decided to be part of the reunion.
Not only did 22 Vison do a photoshoot, but they also put a fun reunion video together of the shoot including clips of Brittany Ashton Holmes discussing the film. Coming back to “Our Gang” Brittany said upon seeing her old friends, “Everybody still has that core rascal inside of them.” One of the things that Holmes says she loved was her red sparkly dress.
“I liked wearing that red, sparkly dress. The whole movie was a dream,” albeit an embarrassing one. But it was nice to see the gang back together and from all appearances, Brittany Ashton Holmes looks like she made a great choice to hang out with Our Gang.
Obviously being part of the photoshoot did nothing to convince Brittany Ashton Holmes that a return to Hollywood would be in her best interest. It has been eight years since that 22 Vision photo shoot and before you know it, it will be The Little Rascals’ 30th anniversary. Wonder if she will be as difficult to find and convince to be part of that reunion.
