You'll Barely Recognize Darla From Little Rascals Now
The 1990s were a great decade of movies that now pack so much nostalgia, it's sometimes too much to handle. Take The Little Rascals, for example, the movie every 90's kid had on VHS, that never got old, no matter how many times we watched it. The Little Rascals was a movie we could relate to as kids, and even though time, of course, passed for the cast just as it did for fans of the film, it's shocking to see them all grown up.
The story centered on Alfalfa (Bug Hall), Spanky (Travis Tedford), and the rest of the He-Man-Woman-Haters Club, but there was one little girl Alfalfa had a soft spot for; Darla, played by Brittany Ashton Holmes. Holmes stole the show with her sassy attitude and belief in standing up for herself, despite being so young. She even snagged a few awards for her breakout performance, such as the Young Artist Award, alongside her co-stars. The 25th anniversary of Little Rascals was in 2019, so that makes us wonder: what is the cast of The Little Rascals up to today up to today, specifically little Darla?
The Little Rascals was just the beginning for Brittany Ashton Holmes
After break-out roles like the one Holmes had in The Little Rascals, childhood stars usually go on to have very successful careers, with other notable roles on their resume. While Holmes did go on to play in a handful of TV movies and even had an appearance in a McDonald's commercial in 1995 (above), she wasn't seen in anything after 1996 until 2014. That year, Holmes played the role of Townslady Britt in the TV movie, We Hate Paul Revere. Other notable roles from the 1990s include Cynthia Coates in Death Benefit, Amy Carver in Circuit Breaker, and "Girl on Boat" in Humanoids from the Deep.
There isn't a lot known about her final role in a movie, and there's not a clear reason why she seemingly retired from acting, but we can guess that it just wasn't her passion to be in the spotlight. And by the looks of it, education was her main focus as she got older.
Brittany Ashton Holmes' true passion steered her away from acting
Even though it looked like Brittany Ashton Holmes (front row, second from right) had a budding acting career in the 1990s, she decided to take a different direction that had to do with her education. Once she was old enough, she pursued a degree in political science, and there's isn't much more known than that.
While E!'s 2020 cast retrospective shed little more light on Holmes current endeavors, the piece did confirm to devastated fans that Alfalfa and Darla didn't end up together in real life. As of 2017, Bug Hall is a married man to a woman named Jill Marie DeGroff, and Holmes apparently has scooped up a husband herself. Besides the MySpace page she had in the early-to-mid 2000s, her social media presence is pretty sparse. There's nothing wrong with not being present on social media, but we're all dying to know if her husband is a fan of The Little Rascals, too.
What drew Brittany Ashton Holmes back to the spotlight?
Brittany Ashton Holmes effectively steered clear of the Hollywood scene, but in 2014, she made an appearance for the 20th anniversary of The Little Rascals movie (screenshot above). She agreed to get back together with the rest of the gang — even Butch (Sam Saletta) and Woim (Blake Jeremy Collins) were in tow — to recreate some of the most iconic shots from the movie. Brian Pocrass, the founder of 22 Vision, the company that staged the reunion, told HuffPost that Holmes "wasn't into" doing the reunion until he convinced her that it "wasn't about the tabloid" and was "more about the film." And once she was reunited with her castmates, Holmes seemed to fall right back into place. She didn't have much to say other than, "The whole movie was a dream."
As mentioned before, Holmes had a small part in a movie in the same year as the reunion, but since then, we'd like to assume she's living her best life, and in incredibly private one at that. But it still should come as no surprise that the little girl who once brought laughs into our homes has now grown into a beautiful, young woman.