They Thought I Was You

We are SO sorry we left you all on a cliff this week, but your suspense is finally over-- Part 2 of our interview with actress Rachel Roth (Winning London, So Little Time) is here!

In this half, we hear Rachel's feelings on Robert Thorne, how a dinner with Mary-Kate and Ashley in London started a real life relationship with them back in LA, and what it was like hanging out with them at home with their "annoying" little sister Lizzie. Rachel describes being in the orbit of these tycoons at this epic time in their teen fame, and the sadness she felt at the incredible pace  Mary-Kate and Ashley were expected to work.

Rachel also talks about working with them again on So Little Time and her little-known but groundbreaking LGBTQ role on the Fox sitcom Titus. This interview gets very, very real and gave us a sober understanding of the darker sides of Mary-Kate and Ashley's world in 2001.

HUGE thank you again to Rachel for talking with us, and for sharing some amazing BTS photos from the set of Winning London that you can see on our Instagram. You can also watch the video version of this interview on our Patreon here!

Find us on Social Media!
Instagram: @theythoughtiwasyou
TikTok: @theythoughtiwasyou
Becca: @beccaroth
Lani: @laniharms
Rachel: @rachiemcroth

Thoughts/questions? Email us at: [email protected]

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We are pinching ourselves. We had the honor and privilege to talk with the most incredible guest from Mary-Kate and Ashley's cinematic universe. This guest was one of the only female friends Mary-Kate and Ashley ever had in their full-length movies and one of the few actors asked back for multiple projects. Driven, sensitive, and out to save the world-- today we talk with Rachel Roth (Winning London, So Little Time)!

We had the most incredible conversation with Rachel about how she started acting at 6 years old (because according to the Sound of Music, that's how old you have to be to act), and her life as a teen actress in the late 90's and early 00's working for all the kid's channel heavy hitters: Nickelodeon, Disney, and of course, Dualstar. She tells us about her experience auditioning for Winning London, learning she wasn't the first choice to play Rachel, her whirlwind 48 hour notice that she would be filming in London, and how her relationship with Mary-Kate and Ashley shaped her outlook on Hollywood.

This conversation was too good (and too long) to fit into one episode, so we leave you on a cliffhanger until part 2 next week, but let's just say, something's up with Robert Thorne...

HUGE thank you for Rachel to talking with us. We hope you enjoy this conversation as much as we enjoyed recording. You can also watch the video version of this interview on our Patreon here!

Find us on Social Media!
Instagram: @theythoughtiwasyou
TikTok: @theythoughtiwasyou
Becca: @beccaroth
Lani: @laniharms
Rachel: @rachiemcroth

Thoughts/questions? Email us at: [email protected]

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We are officially BACK! And what better way to kick off our new season than with Mary-Kate and Ashley doing the thing they love most: fashion!

On February 28th, 2001, Mary-Kate and Ashley debuted their much-anticipated fashion line at Walmart with a half hour fashion show on Fox (ABC?) Family called "Fashion Forward." The show was hosted by the twins and their costars from Winning London, Eric Jungmann and Brandon Tyler. It also featured musical performances by an obscure band called Gotti 13, "behind the scenes" of the making of the show, and interviews with Mary-Kate, Ashley, and their costume designer Judy Swartz.

Lani taped this TV special when she was a kid, but Becca had never seen it until now as an adult. And we'll just say, some things don't hold up so well. The pushing of heteronormativity on pre-teen girls is especially jarring to watch now and leads us to a long discussion on what exactly was meant by "Real Fashion for Real Girls." We also talk about what the Mary-Kate and Ashley Walmart line meant to us as kids and the great power of celebrity clothing lines.

Also, we've officially launched our Patreon! You can now support us and have access to monthly bonus episodes, video versions of our weekly podcasts, early access to content, and sneak peaks of future episodes! We're so excited to have you on this journey with us :)

EPISODE LINKS:

Watch Fashion Forward on YouTube:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Article, "The Olsen Inc" (Jan 30th 2000)

Support us on Patreon here

Find us on Social Media!
Instagram: @theythoughtiwasyou
TikTok: @theythoughtiwasyou
Becca: @beccaroth
Lani: @laniharms

Thoughts/questions? Email us at: [email protected]

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Hello again! We're still not back yet. But we are very close to coming back, and we stumbled upon a piece of Olsen history that we simply could not wait to share with you.

Our friend & listener @OlsenSistersFrance shared with us that in 2006, Mary-Kate and Ashley... had a podcast  That's right, our brilliant twin icons had the knowhow in 2006 to start a podcast before podcasts were even a thing! @OlsenSistersFrance found the first episode in her digital collection and shared it with us, and we were shocketh.

This podcast was called the mary-kateandashley.com podcast (major flashbacks to SpringDance.com amiright?), and before you get your hopes too high-- it wasn't hosted by Mary-Kate and Ashley. But they are interviewed (separately) in the podcast about what they were up to as two 20-year-old, busier than ever, Hollywood veterans.

The podcast is hosted by Trish Nelson who also interviews Vanessa Hudgens and Zac Efron about High School Musical, and Dylan and Cole Sprouse about their boys' magazine and which Olsen twin they most identify with.  We don't know much else about this podcast or how many episodes it had, who knew about it, or how successful it was. But we're eternally grateful to know that it existed.

We'll be back in just a couple of weeks for season 3, so get ready! And until then, enjoy this slice of forgotten Mary-Kate and Ashley history.

Find us on Social Media!
Instagram: @theythoughtiwasyou
TikTok: @theythoughtiwasyou
Becca: @beccaroth
Lani: @laniharms

Got any more into on the mary-kateandashley.com podcast? Email us at: [email protected]

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SURPRISE! Today we have a special bonus episode in honor of last weekend's premiere of Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness starring everyone's favorite little sister, Elizabeth (Lizzie) Olsen.

Today's impromptu conversation came about when Becca and Lani were in a planning meeting for season 3 of the podcast and realized they both had VERY different opinions about Lizzie Olsen and her place in the Mary-Kate and Ashley Universe. Instead of waiting for our future deep dive into Elizabeth Olsen (oh yeah, it's gonna happen), we decided to go on record right now and state how we both feel about Lizzie and what her success as an A-List movie star means to us as Mary-Kate and Ashley fans.

Does Lizzie Olsen have the career we always pictured for Mary-Kate and/or Ashley? Is Lizzie the dark horse Olsen? Could Elizabeth Olsen have made it without Mary-Kate and Ashley? We dive into all these questions, and Lani even sprinkles in her hopes for Wanda in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (but don't worry, no Dr. Strange spoilers).

We hope you enjoy today's spontaneous mini ep, and let us know your thoughts on Lizzie Olsen! But most of all get ready, because we're coming back for an epic season 3 in just a few short weeks.

Find us on Social Media!
Instagram: @theythoughtiwasyou
TikTok: @theythoughtiwasyou
Becca: @beccaroth
Lani: @laniharms

Thoughts/questions? Email us at: [email protected]

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We made it to the end of season 2!

Season 2 was more exciting than we could have ever expected. We talked to Brigitte (THE Brigitte, the supermodel from Passport to Paris), a viral YouTube creator who met Mary-Kate and Ashley on a cruise, and an incredible collector and expert of all things Mary-Kate and Ashley. We've also connected with so many more Mary-Kate and Ashley fans and gotten closer our podcast's biggest goal-- proving that we are not alone ❤️

So as a terrifying treat, we decided to spontaneously rank all of Mary-Kate and Ashley's feature films that we covered this season: Billboard Dad, Switching Goals, Passport to Paris, Our Lips Are Sealed, Winning London and Holiday in the Sun.

We cannot stress enough how difficult this was and how unofficial this ranking is. We reserve the right to change our order in the future, and trust us, we WILL be ranking all of Mary-Kate and Ashley's films once we have finished them. But after finishing this golden era of MKA classics, we just couldn't help ourselves.

Let us know if you agree or if you hate us now! And before next season, don't forget to rate & review, tell your other Mary-Kate and Ashley fanatic friends about the pod, and catch up on any episodes you missed.

We're coming back for an epic season 3-- get ready!

Find us on Social Media!
Instagram: @theythoughtiwasyou
TikTok: @theythoughtiwasyou
Becca: @beccaroth
Lani: @laniharms

Thoughts/questions? Email us at: [email protected]

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Just over 21 years ago on March 27th, 2001, Mary-Kate and Ashley released their 3rd teenage fantasy travel film, Winning London, and winter wear would never be the same again.

Much to their nerdy fans' delight, this movie was about two twin sisters, Riley and Chloe's school trip to compete in the Model UN Championship in London, England. Not only would we finally see Mary-Kate as a type-A overachiever, but we also got to see Ashley as a free-spirited slacker. Mix this twin swap with a European backdrop and the cutest boys of any of their movies (fight me), and you have an instant Olsen twins classic.

Becca and Lani reflect on what this movie meant to us as tweens (spoiler alert: we were obsessed), how it holds up 21 years later, and dissect Riley and Chloe's character archs. We  speculate over how much of this movie was an advertisement for their clothing line and  TV show coming out later that year (I mean, they used the exact same names in So Little Time, c'mon), and ponder yet again whether or not Dualstar helped shield them from the exploitation that other teen stars like Lindsay Lohan and Hilary Duff experienced.

But most of all, we express gratitude for having this fun, wholesome, nerdy, (and sometimes horny) movie as tweens. It taught us to be ambitious, stay humble, and not be ashamed to order cokes at a teen club. Also, don't clean up after lost boys.

So go rewatch this comforting, feel-good, rainy day, crystal dove of teen films, and join us on this delightful trip up Abbey Road and down memory lane.

Watch Winning London here
(Courtesy of our Olsen angel @SimplyOlsen)

Find us on Social Media!
Instagram: @theythoughtiwasyou
TikTok: @theythoughtiwasyou
Becca: @beccaroth
Lani: @laniharms

Thoughts/questions? Email us at: [email protected]

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In April 2000, Mattel released the very first of what would become the most successful celebrity fashion dolls of all time-- the Mary-Kate and Ashley dolls.

Becca and Lani knew these dolls were a part of the Olsen twins' history, but we didn't realize the enormous scope of these dolls' success until we started researching. We decided we needed to bring in an expert to educate us on all things MKA dolls, so today we are joined by Mary-Kate and Ashley superfan, expert and doll collector Derrick Dobson!

Derrick shares with us what the Mary-Kate and Ashley fandom meant to him growing up, how his sisters (gasp) destroyed his original Olsen collection and made him start over, and walks us through the history of these dolls from their inception to their final and unreleased dolls.

He explains how heavily involved the girls were in the styling and curating of these dolls in the first two years of their release, but how after 2002, their involvement wained and so did the quality of the product. We also discuss the press tour that Mary-Kate (who had just broken up with her boyfriend) and Ashley (whose business savvy was beginning to flourish) went on to promote these dolls on Donny & Marie, Rosie O'Donnell, and the Today Show.

Move over Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, because Mary-Kate and Ashley's dolls are about to blow you out of the water. And if any of you out there know where to find "It's Your Look" dolls, please message Derrick ❤️

Follow Derrick's Doll Collection:
@derricksdollcollection

LINKS WE TALK ABOUT:
Fashion Doll Retrospective, A History of Mary-Kate and Ashley's Dolls
Mary-Kate and Ashley First Doll Commercial
Mary-Kate and Ashley Spa Day Commercial
Mary-Kate and Ashley Curl & Style Doll Commercial (2003)
Mary-Kate and Ashley on Donny & Marie (2000)
Mary-Kate and Ashley on Rosie O'Donnell (2000)
Mary-kate and Ashley on the Today Show (2001)

Find us on Social Media!
Instagram: @theythoughtiwasyou
TikTok: @theythoughtiwasyou
Becca: @beccaroth
Lani: @laniharms

Thoughts/questions? Email us at: [email protected]

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Mary-Kate. Ashley. And Simon in the middle??

On November 20th, 2000, the day before "Our Lips Are Sealed" was released on VHS, Mary-Kate and Ashley made their highly anticipated guest appearance on the hit WB family drama, 7th  Heaven.

Centered around a minister and his hot family, 7th Heaven was the longest-running series in the network's history, and "the Camdens" were as wholesome as you could get. But for their 96th episode, Mary-Kate and Ashley (aka the Murphy sisters) would walk on set as... the bad girls.
 
And the press had a field day. Multiple news outlets ran features on how the 14 year-old twins would play "twin temptresses," "more bad than [Simon aka Aaron Carter] can handle." Lani, who had never seen an episode of 7th Heaven in her life, made sure to set her VCR to record this historic moment, and Becca, who was already a casual viewer of the show, made sure not to miss it.

So we rewatched this episode for the first time since that fateful day in the fall of 2000, and realized... our girls are barely in this episode! They're not at all the main storyline and hardly get any airtime until well over halfway through.

But as with all things Mary-Kate and Ashley, we'll take what we can get. Seeing them as "bad" girls is a delight, but seeing them as objects of the male gaze is... unnerving. We unpack what that felt like watching this episode as children, roll our eyes out of their sockets at Matt Camden's runaway bride, and puzzle over what 7th Heaven was in our culture.

Where can you go when the world don't treat you right? The answer is... this podcast.

CNN "7th Heaven" interview
E! News Daily "7th Heaven" interview
7th Heaven "Gossip" Commercial

Talking about their transition from film to fashion (Sept 2009, we mistakenly said 2014 in this episode):
MK&A Fashion Television Part 1
MK&A Fashion Television Part 2
MK&A Fashion Television Part 3

Find us on Social Media!
Instagram: @theythoughtiwasyou
TikTok: @theythoughtiwasyou
Becca: @beccaroth
Lani: @laniharms

Thoughts/questions? Email us at: [email protected]

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Once a year starting in 1994 and ending (we think) in 2001, Mary-Kate and Ashley would set sail with a boat full of fans on a "Sail with the Stars" cruise. They would advertise these cruises at the beginning of all of their VHS tapes, and Lani and Becca dreamed of one day going. Sadly, it never happened for either of them. Which is why they were thrilled to finally talk to someone who was there, dancing and PJ-partying with Mary-Kate, Ashley and Lizzie Olsen. On a boat.

Today we are joined by our friend and writer/director/comedian/musician Rob Tanchum. Rob has not one but TWO photos with the Olsen sisters that were taken on their "To Russia with Love" cruise in the summer of 2000. Last year, Rob made a song inspired by these photographs called "Mary-Kate and Ashley," that became a sensation on YouTube, Twitter & Reddit.

Rob tells us all about how he SNUCK INTO THE CRUISE EVENTS with his frosted-tipped friend, got caught up in drama with Lizzie Olsen, and approached Mary-Kate and Ashley at the bar of the cruise ship with his peace sign necklace.

This conversation is the closest Becca and Lani will ever get to being on a Mary-Kate and Ashley Cruise, so hearing these stories were truly a dream come true. Enjoy!

Listen to Rob's song here
Watch clips from the cruise here
Vanity Fair Article on "To Russia with Love"

Follow Rob:
Soundcloud: Rob Tanchum
YouTube: Rob Tanchum
Instagram: @RobTanchum
Buy the Mary-Kate and Aaaaaaaashley shirt here

Find us on Social Media!
Instagram: @theythoughtiwasyou
TikTok: @theythoughtiwasyou
Becca: @beccaroth
Lani: @laniharms

Thoughts/questions? Email us at: [email protected]

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