Taylor Momsen:

A Former “Who” Hits TV

by Lynn B.

Pretty Taylor Momsen played a little “Who” in The Grinch Who Stole Christmas when she was only six. Now turning 13, Taylor, a brunette although we’ve always seen her as a blonde, plays Jane Leeves’ daughter on a new WB sitcom called “Misconceptions” about a single mom who finds out that the clinic donor who fathered her child is really not a brainy socialite but a rough, blue collar guy she would never hook up with! Taylor plays their teen daughter.

You probably remember her most recently from the last Spy Kids film in which she played half of the evil team of young spies competing with Juni and Carmen. When we caught up with the busy.. almost teen in Pasadena, California recently, she was really stylin’ in brown satin cap, jeans, knit top, pink shrug, black choker necklace and a ton of multicolored bead bracelets. So what is it like to be on the brink of teenhood and on a new TV show? Stay tuned and find out…

AGW: Cute outfit.

Taylor: Thanks. I like fashion a lot. I like Pucci for all the patterns. I love vintage but I also love modern style. I mix everything. It’s my own style.

AGW: Did you start out modeling?

Taylor: Yeah, my mom and I were in New York for the summer and I modeled for Ford. One time, I would not stop talking at the photo shoot so someone there said to my mom ‘I think you have her in front of the wrong camera. You should go meet these people’. My mom had no idea what she was getting into and I got my first commercial.

AGW: You’ve been in the film business forever.

Taylor: Yeah. I started acting when I was three years old. I didn’t know what I was doing but I was having a lot of fun. Now that I’m almost thirteen in July, I’m making the acting decision for myself and I really love it. I definitely want to continue acting.

AGW: What do you like so much about it?

Taylor: I love people. If I do something good and people enjoy it, I like making people happy. I love the whole experience. You make little families on set which is awesome. You get to meet new people. I feel really blessed to have the opportunity.

AGW: Do you get to go to regular school?

Taylor: I did go to regular school. I’m not homeschooled. I went to private school. I was born in St. Louis, Missouri. I grew up there and I would fly out to L.A. to film. I never moved here. I came out for pilot season and I ended up booking “The Grinch”. I have normal friends. We moved to Washington, D.C. and now I go to public school and have a lot of friends there and they’re totally supportive. When I first moved there, they’d seen “The Grinch” and they were like ‘Oh, that’s so cool!’ but now they just know me as Taylor and I like it that way because I want to be accepted for myself.

AGW: What’s it like to be a 12-year-old almost 13 year old today?

Taylor: I like it. I’m having fun. I have a really good family and a little sister who looks up to me and that’s great. She’s nine. There’s no big issue for me personally. My motto is just have fun with it. If you’re not having fun then you shouldn’t be doing it. School, you have to do and that’s not always fun but acting, you shouldn’t do it if you don’t love it.

AGW: Do you have a favorite subject in school?

Taylor: I like chemistry. I like to do experiments.

AGW: What will you do about school when the show starts filming?

Taylor: I’ll just enroll in a homeschool system for a semester. That’s what I did when I filmed the pilot. Then I can go back to regular school. I’m in 7th grade right now.

AGW: How are you going to balance doing TV and films?

Taylor: Well, when we go on break I’m free to do what I want just not another TV series. I want to continue acting but I’m also a singer.

AGW: Cool! What kinds of stuff do you like to sing?

Taylor: Rock, kind of edgy stuff and then I do some poppy stuff. I haven’t made a demo yet. I write music myself and I’m learning to play electric guitar right now. My sister is learning the drums.

AGW: What bands do you like?

Taylor: I love the band Garbage. They’re one of my idols. I like different music. I like the Black Eyed Peas and like to dance to their music a lot. I’ve been dancing since three; ballet, jazz, hip-hop, modern.

AGW: Does dancing keep you in shape?

Taylor: I guess. I don’t do a lot of team sports. I do more individual things. I’m learning to skateboard right now. It’s fun.

AGW: Are you allowed to have a boyfriend yet?

Taylor: No. I don’t know if I want one. You date to get married eventually. I’m like 12. I don’t want one yet.

AGW: What actors do you like?

Taylor: I like Chad Michael Murray but he’s a little too old for me.

AGW: So, you are at a transition point in your life.

Taylor: Yeah. I’m entering the teen market now which is a whole new experience. I usually play older than I am. It’s exciting.

AGW: Do you hope to avoid bad press when you get into the teenage years?

Taylor: That comes with it. Everyone will get some type of bad rap at some point. I’m just going to go with the flow. I’m not planning on doing anything bad.

AGW: What advice would you give kids who are being bullied at school?

Taylor: My way is I try to keep a positive attitude about everything. If someone is mocking you or hurting their feelings just think ‘I’m probably not going to have to deal with them after I leave school’. Think about good things you’ve done.

AGW: What do you like to read?

Taylor: I love the Lemony Snickett books, “A Series of Unfortunate Events”. I read those in 5th grade, the whole series. They leave you on a cliffhanger and make you want to read the next book. Now I like a lot of books about things that could actually happen. One of my favorite books is “A Time for Dancing”. I cried. It’s really sad. It’s about two best friends who are both ballet dancers and one gets cancer and ends up dying. I think it’s a true story. There’s a sequel.

AGW: Your show isn’t exactly full of stunts but have you had any accidents?

Taylor: Not really on the set but I fell down the steps at school. I trip a lot. I’m kind of klutzy even though I’m a dancer. I ripped my Achilles heel, had crutches for a year. It was really embarrassing.

AGW: Was making Spy Kids fun? You were the “bad” girl.

Taylor: That was a great experience, totally different from ‘The Grinch’. I was only six then. There were kids on Spy Kids, ‘Grinch’ was a bunch of adults.

AGW: You are in a movie called Doubting Thomas. Who do you play?

Taylor: The movie is about a boy who is a storyteller. He makes up lies and his name is Thomas. It’s Forrest Landis from Cheaper by the Dozen. He gets into trouble. I play the new girl in town and he kind of has a crush on me. Anna-Sophia Robb plays his friend in it. My character is from another country. I have an accent sort of English. I’m brunette in it. They dyed my hair for that.

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