by - Melissa Joan Hart said she’d rather revive Clarissa Explains It All than Sabrina The Teenage Witch.
- She said women shouldn’t feel like they “don’t belong” in a “male-dominated world.”
- Hart regularly works with the AHA to promote heart health.
In a recent interview with Insider, Melissa Joan Hart recalled the details of a since-defunct revival of the popular Nickelodeon series Clarissa Explains It All, in which she played a quirky teenager navigating high school.
“I think Clarissa is divorced and moving to California with her two kids and living with her aunt on the beach in California,” Hart said of the scrapped reboot, which The Hollywood Reporter first reported on in 2018. “So I’m putting it on I don’t know. It wasn’t my favorite way.”
While no other revival is currently in the works, Hart would rather revive Clarissa Explains It All than her other beloved series Sabrina The Teenage Witch.
“Whatever I say, I’m obviously going to piss off half the people,” Hart admitted, adding that she thinks it would be “more fun” to revisit Clarissa’s life because the end of the Nickelodeon season show was ambiguous.
Melissa Joan Hart on “Clarissa Explains Everything”.
Nickelodeon
“I feel like ‘Sabrina’ wrapped up really well when she rode off on the motorbike with Harvey. I think the ending on ‘Sabrina’ was so iconic that I don’t want to go back and try to recreate that and have a different good ending,” she said, reflecting on the ABC series she starred in from 1996-2003 played along.
More recently, Hart has promoted her partnership with CycleBar and the American Heart Association, encouraging women to keep their hearts healthy even after American Heart Month ended in February.
The actress-director’s connection to heart health awareness extends beyond her last name. Her niece and nephew both underwent open heart surgery when they were young and she is grateful that today they are both happy and healthy.
“The American Heart Association says nearly 80% of Americans don’t get enough exercise,” Hart said, citing a statistic confirmed by the CDC in 2013. The CDC also reported that cardiovascular disease is the number one killer for many communities in women trapped in the United States. “Let’s take care of our hearts, ladies!” said Hart.
Melissa Joan Hart on stage at the American Heart Association’s Go Red For Women Red Dress Collection 2018.
Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images for AHA
Part of keeping them healthy while working in the entertainment industry is also maintaining their mental well-being. Hart said she regularly catches up with friends over coffee on what she calls “Women’s Wellness Wednesday.”
“We’re very real and authentic with each other and that gives us the freedom to understand each other better and to feel like there’s a safe place and some of the things that are going on in our lives are venting,” she said and admitted that usually engages them in a pre-chat workout.
When she’s not in front of the camera, Hart directs and produces projects through Hartbreak Films, her and her mother Paula’s company.
She encourages women trying to advance in their industry to remember that “everyone has impostor syndrome” rather than thinking “it’s a male-dominated world and I don’t belong here.”
“If you prepare properly and someone feels like you deserve that job, then you deserve to be there and you’re just focused on doing your job as well as you can,” she said.
