As the teenage witch, she was America’s sweetheart for seven seasons as audiences watched her character develop from a naive high school kid to a working woman. She won over the hearts of teen boys and girls alike as Sabrina, the Teenage Witch in the sitcom Sabrina, the Teenage Witch.
But, in a recent podcast, she addressed a photo shoot that took away her role in a major franchise. She describes what followed as the “worst day” of her life after reflecting on what happened.
Melissa Joan Hart Reveals Why She Was Almost Fired from Sabrina the Teenage Witch
During an appearance on the Pod Meets World podcast on Monday, Melissa Joan Hart, who played the title character in the fantasy comedy Sabrina the Teenage Witch, claimed that a photoshoot she did for Maxim magazine nearly led to her removal from the show.
“We were premiering ‘Drive Me Crazy’ in New York and my lawyer comes up to me on the red carpet and basically is like, ‘You did a photo shoot for Maxim magazine?’ I’m like, ‘Yes, I did,’ ”
“They’re like, ‘Well, you’re being sued and fired from your show, so don’t talk to the press. Don’t do anything.’” the 47-year-old recalled.
Hart claimed that the magazine’s use of the name of her “Sabrina” character breached the clause of her contract with Archie Comics, the publisher of the comic book series the sitcom was based.
With an apologetic letter, according to Hart, she was able to resolve the conflict and keep her job on “Sabrina.”
She Lost her Role from this $830M Franchise
The October 1999 issue of Maxim magazine featured Melissa Joan Hart as its cover star. The actress wore black lingerie and a white sheet over her bare chest. The cover’s headline read, “Sabrina, Your Favorite Witch Without a Stich!”
As soon as she got into her limo on that particular night, she got a call saying that she had been fired from Scary Movie, the franchise that has made over $830M worldwide with five entries, she said she had been cast in as the “vivacious, big-br*asted one that’s murdered or something in the beginning” of the film.
She then got a phone call on her cell phone from her mother, her producer, who was like, “‘What did you do?’” And Hart was like, “‘I don’t know, whatever my publicist told me to do at the photo shoot. Like I did a photo shoot for Maxim!”
“It’s Maxim, of course you’re gonna be in your underwear,” she was told.
Scary Movie was released in 2000 and was created by comedic brothers Marlon and Shawn Wayans. The role that was supposed to go to Hart ended up going to Carmen Elektra.
Sabrina the Teenage Witch is streaming on Hulu and Drive Me Crazy is available to rent or buy on Prime Video.
Source: Entertainment Weekly
