The actress additionally recollects her fondest recollections capturing with the late Debbie Reynolds, and shares whether or not she’d ever need to do one other Halloweentown movie, whereas additionally opening up about married life along with her Halloweentown II costar, Daniel Kountz
It has been over 25 years for the reason that first Halloweentown hit Disney Channel — and Marnie Piper herself, Kimberly J. Brown, nonetheless will get stopped on the road, with excited followers reciting quotes from the late ’90s and early 2000s TV motion pictures, and asking her “each day” if there’ll ever be one other movie.
Whereas selling her partnership with STEM insect repellant in an interview with TooFab, the 39-year-old former little one star mirrored on the franchise’s legacy, and the way Disney Channel Authentic Films are nonetheless liked right now.
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Halloweentown’s Legacy
“I’m so honored,” Brown stated of the franchise’s legacy. “We had been simply speculated to make one Halloweentown film again within the day. Folks ask me on a regular basis, ‘Was there a plan?’ ‘No, we had been making one film.’ Disney Channel was very younger and wasn’t in each family but. It has been so superb to get to look at the film develop and the channel develop through the years. It is actually due largely to the superb followers. They’ve liked and embraced the films so arduous through the years.”
“We received to do sequels. Now they’re on Disney+. I meet generations of households on a regular basis — grandmothers and daughters displaying their children. It is such an honor to be part of individuals’s traditions that approach. We might’ve by no means imagined that the films would nonetheless maintain a spot within the season on this approach. It is actually simply so superb.”
At 13, Brown was forged as teen witch Marnie Piper in Hallloweentown, with the late Debbie Reynolds starring as her grandmother, Aggie. She reprised her function in Halloweentown II: Kalabar’s Revenge (2001), throughout which she met her now-husband Daniel Kountz, and Halloweentown Excessive (2004).
Brown took a glance again at when she was first forged in Halloweentown, and recalled a few of her fondest members working with Reynolds, who handed away in 2016.
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“I’ve liked Halloween since I used to be a child, so I used to be actually so thrilled. Particularly then — now supernatural, witches and these kind of subjects are seen extra in scripted TV motion pictures — not a lot then, so it was actually distinctive and particular. Like, ‘I get to learn for a teenage witch?'” she stated. “As a child, like, Oh my god, to get to faux to try this was additional thrilling to me. And with the manufacturing design of every thing, it actually felt at instances like we had been some place else, like in a Halloweentown. Simply leaning into that in my childhood creativeness, it was simply thrilling to me to get to take pleasure in it personally in a solution to and do the work.”
Working with Debbie Reynolds
As for starring alongside Reynolds, Brown stated it was “actually an additional particular privilege.”
“You hear such a legend goes to play your grandma and you do not know how it is going to be. She was simply the nicest, kindest, funniest — I imply bawdy humorousness — every thing. We had the very best time. She at all times handled me as a peer, all of us children, even once we had been younger. She actually needed to impart as a lot knowledge as she might.”
The actress stated she “wished [she] might have walked round with a tape recorder” to report “every thing” Reynolds stated.
“She advised so many tales, and also you suppose you are going to bear in mind them. … You become old, and your reminiscence does not work in addition to you need it to,” she advised TooFab. “I want I had simply recorded every thing as a result of every thing was so wealthy and filled with historical past. She was the very best.”
“Her favourite solution to introduce herself to followers [who] would collect round set, she would stroll over and say: Whats up, I am Princess Leia’s mother,” Brown added, referring to Reynolds’ late daughter, Star Wars actress Carrie Fisher. “The group would get a kick out of it! They liked it.”
STEM
Marnie Immediately & Sequel?
Brown additionally shared the place she thinks Marie can be right now, so a few years later.
“I believe she would’ve at all times needed to proceed in a progressive [way], like, let’s take steps ahead, and do every kind of latest issues,” she stated. “I believe she would both be mayor, or operating for mayor, or in some type of management place, possibly educating a brand new class of witches or one thing too,” she stated. “I really feel like she can be wanting to take a seat in that seat for Halloweentown and be in cost in that approach. I believe she would love that.”
And in right now’s age of reboots and revivals, Brown revealed that she’s “completely” right down to do one other movie sometime.
“I believe there [are] a ton of prospects of the place Marnie and the fam might be now. Disney is aware of I am right down to do one other,” she advised TooFab. “It is as much as them to make that call. Actually, followers ask me each day — messages, in-person, every thing. So yeah, we’d all like to do one other one.”
Fan Shock Over Co-Star Marriage
In the meantime, Brown additionally opened up about her relationship with Kountz. The 2 shared the display screen collectively in Halloweentown II, however did not reconnect till years later in 2016 and started courting. The couple introduced their engagement in 2022 and tied the knot in April.
And whereas they’ve been collectively for a very long time now, followers who had been unaware nonetheless get shocked frequently once they see them on social media, which Brown stated is “the good factor.”
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“We might’ve by no means imagined the superb response and assist that we have gotten again from the followers once we first made it public,” she advised TooFab. “There [are] nonetheless individuals until at the present time — and we now have been collectively for eight years — [who] will see a put up and be like, ‘Oh my god! Are you collectively?’ And that is nonetheless a lot enjoyable. So yeah, it has been actually unbelievable to get to share on this with the followers a bit, too, and we’re so touched at their response through the years. It is actually superb.”
As for what she’s loved most about married life to date, Brown stated she and Koutz love that they’ll formally consult with themselves as “husband and spouse.”
“We could not wait to try this, and we type of cheated somewhat bit beforehand and would reference one another as that,” she shared. “We simply love that. I do not know. There’s one thing so official about attending to name him my husband now as a substitute of my fiancé. That is been an surprising little enjoyable half about it.”
Bug-Free Halloween with STEM
In the meantime, Brown additionally spoke to TooFab about her partnership with STEM, together with a few of her high ideas and hacks for prepping and adorning for Halloween whereas additionally holding the bugs away.
Whereas she stated that she likes “pretend bugs for décor” as a result of they add to the “spookiness,” she is not a fan of the “actual ones” — and we now have to agree.
“Through the years with of adorning with the enjoyable issues with fall florals and jack-o-lanterns, issues like hay bales, individuals do not understand that these sorts of décor can encourage the actual creepy-crawlers. So, amongst my ideas, I believe it is actually vital to have merchandise like STEM Kills Ants Roaches and Spiders spray as a result of it helps you handle the actual creepy crawlers. It is to be used each for indoors and for open air which is good. I used to be much more enthusiastic about this partnership as a result of they’re doing their enjoyable Halloween promotion,” she stated, including that followers can go to stembugout.com and “take an image of your pretend creepy crawlers,” and “it’ll magically flip into a reduction code.”
Brown stated she likes that the merchandise are made with important oils in order that they’re protected to make use of round pets, particularly Luna, her Goldendoodle.
See extra from Brown within the full interview the highest of this put up!