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Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen Share Professional Update in Rare Interview
Thirty-one years ago, Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen brewed up Double, Double Toil and Trouble.
By this time, the then 7-year-old twins were already the youngest self-made millionaires. After launching their careers at the ripe old age of 8 months with the role of Michelle Tanner on Full House, Mary-Kate and Ashley quickly grew their empire. The child-stars-turned-fashion designers created their own company Dualstar, which would go on to produce all of their straight-to-VHS movies—including, of course, Double, Double Toil and Trouble.
The TV movie premiered on ABC October 30, 1993 and has gone on to become a somewhat overlooked Halloween film, aside from the Olsen twins’ loyal fanbase who grew up obsessed with the sisters’ songs and movies. But Double, Double Toil and Trouble is filled with lots of ’90s nostalgia, WTF moments and a cast that also includes Eric McCormack (though he previously admitted he’d never actually seen the film).”No, I never have,” the Will & Grace alum, who wasn’t a big fan of his longer ‘do in the movie, told Entertainment Weekly in 2021. “It’s hard to go back and see…certain looks. And also, I was probably a year-and-a-half into television, so I was still trying to adapt my stage acting to the camera. Maybe I was terrified to go back and watch it.”
With Halloween right around the corner, let’s these Double, Double Toil and Trouble…memories bubble to the surface.
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1. The title of the movie comes straight from Act IV, Scene I of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, naturally.
2. This is the logline for the movie, per IMDb: “On Halloween night, two precocious little girls try to save their parents from the greedy clutches of their nasty old Capitalist aunt. Magic abounds and they meet new albeit strange friends along the way.”
3. That “nasty old Capitalist aunt” is Aunt Agatha, who is actually a witch (though she does love money). Cloris Leachman chews all of the scenery and then some more for dessert as both Aunt Agatha and Aunt Sophia, the “good” twin and witch who is trapped in a mirror. Fun fact: The original writer of Hocus Pocus actually wrote the role of Winifred Sanderson with Leachman in mind. Bette Midler eventually got the part instead, turning in a truly iconic performance in the movie that also came out in 1993.
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4. The father of Kelly (Mary-Kate) and Lynn (Ashley) is portrayed by Eric McCormack pre-Will & Grace fame and basically kicks off the parade that is the Olsen twins’ streak of hot fictional dads over the years. (Future DILFs include Tom Amandes, Steve Guttenberg, Matt McCoy, etc.)
5. The movie begins with the twins attending a Halloween party, where a large group of children are treated to a magic show by Oscar the Clown (Phil Fondacaro)…and not one child cries in the presence of the clown, which we call foul.
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6. Later, when Kelly and Lynn’s parents decide to go to Aunt Agatha’s house to ask for a loan so they don’t lose their house, they leave their 7-year-old daughters unattended in the car. We repeat: two 7-year-olds were left unattended in car. (As soon as they are gone, Lynn immediately climbs over to the driver’s seat, pretending to drive.)
7. The girls then meet their second new friend: Gravedigger (Wayne Robson). Yes, that is the character’s credited name, and yes, he is digging a grave when he meets the girls, spooked by the fact that they are twins.
8. When Gravedigger tells the girls the tale of Agatha and Sophia and the power of the moonstone, we are treated to flashbacks where the Olsens play the younger versions of Leachman’s characters. The wigs still haunt us to this day.
9. “Mom, when I get older, can I get a nose job?” A question a 7-year-old calmly asked her parents.
10. The twins head out in questionable costumes (eventually switching with two other kids’ outfits to run off on their adventure without being detected).
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11. Agatha keeps her precious money in a literal sack…and it’s all singles. We guess this is what “filthy rich” people do? Can any filthy rich person please advise?
12. Meet Friend No. 3: aka Mr. N (played by Designing Women star Meshach Taylor, who passed away in 2014). Mr. N, short for Plato Naufzagger, is a man who lives under the bridge in town and decides to tag along with the girls once he hears about the moonstone, which could be worth a pretty penny. Even though he initially wants to steal a moonstone from two 7-year-olds, he eventually learns friendship is the most valuable treasure of all.
13. The new trio decides to visit psychic Madame Lulu. During this meeting, viewers learn Mr. N is not really British (but uses a fake accent anyway for the remainder of the film) and the medium is not really Romanian, but from Brooklyn. Stakes.
14. The 1993 graphics and special effects were also really something.
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15. For some reason, Mr. N has “SOLE” written on the bottom of his shoe, which we see when he, Lynn and Kelly hitch a ride on the back of a pumpkin truck. During the drive, the girls sing the not-at-all-annoying tune “I know a song that gets on everybody’s nerves,” which they definitely sang behind the scenes as well.
16. After causing a huge pumpkin crash, Mr. N and the girls randomly stumble upon a very small house in the middle of the woods that would most definitely be featured on an HGTV show today. (It’s house No. 3…yet there are no others around and no street, so…?) This is where we reunite with Oscar, now out of his clown costume and make-up, who agrees to join their adventure after hearing the whole witch backstory—no questions asked.
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17. While getting ready for the gathering, a.k.a. the annual witch meet-up, Agatha takes out a tube of mascara, which somehow colors her entire head of hair black. (Can’t she just use her powers for this? Just sayin’!)
18. Oh, it’s probably important to note that the moonstone used as a prop is green, which is the stone of feminine energy. It can protect women and children, stimulate emotional balance and self-love, and help relieve menstrual cramps. (We’ll take the lot!)
19. After the group steals the moonstone (by having Oscar sit on Mr. N’s shoulders and pretend to be a very powerful being who could double its powers if Agatha just handed it over), the witches chase them and one trailing behind yells, “I’m in heels, ya know?” Reader, she is not in heels.
20. HOURS after their kids have switched costumes and run off to find a witches gathering so they can steal a moonstone and save their house from foreclosure (you know, casual), the parents of the year realize Kelly and Lynn are gone. And when they go to the cops, the officer is waaay too chill about two 7-year-old twins being missing, telling them to just retrace their trick-or-treating route and come back to file a Missing Person report at the 24-hour mark.
21. OK, prepare for the return of Gravedigger, who finally joins in on the adventure when he happens to live in a billboard exactly above the witches’ gathering. Listen, they had 90 minutes to cram all this in and sometimes corners need to be cut. Just go with it.
22. After Lynn is taken by Agatha, the group heads back to her house with the moonstone to try and free Aunt Sophia. But there is only one window open at the very top of the house, so there’s only one thing to do: Blow up every balloon Oscar has in his clown car and fly him right up there.
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23. Thanks to the power of twin love, Kelly and Lynn are able to free Sophia from the mirror and banish Agatha into to stop her wicked ways. Their parents show up soon after.
24. Aunt Sophia, high on getting out of the mirror after almost seven years, tells everyone: “This is a second home for all of us. We’re a family now.”
25. This TV movie is Emmy-nominated, folks: Composer Richard Bellis was up for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music Composition for a Miniseries or a Special.
(This story was originally published Oct. 30, 2018 at 11:54 a.m. PST.)
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