Melissa Joan Hart Recalls Being Body Shamed and Nearly Fired Twice in One Day Ahead of 1999 Premiere

Melissa Joan Hart looked back on her awful experience at the 1999 premiere of Drive Me Crazy, which happened to be the night she was under the impression she was losing two jobs.

The Clarissa Explains It All alum, 49, joined the Betches Picture Day show on Tuesday, December 9, where she was shown a slew of old photos of herself throughout the years. When a shot featuring her at the film’s red carpet premiere next to Britney Spears came up, Hart revealed what was going on behind the scenes.

“If you look at my eyes, they’re very bloodshot because this was what I would consider, if you read my book, one of the worst days of my life at the time,” she began.

Hart explained on the Betches Picture Day show that she initially had to leave the Drive Me Crazy premiere to fly to Vancouver for a role in Scary Movie. However, while she was already crying because she was leaving her family, she explained she also got a troubling call in the limo that brought more tears.

“I was supposed to be this small part in the beginning, that’s like the Drew Barrymore knockoff part,” she admitted, “but they decided, when I did the fitting, that I didn’t have big enough boobs for that part.”

“I’m driving to the airport and back in those days you had the cell phone in the limo, and I got a call, and it was like, ‘Turn around, go back to your premiere. You’ve been fired from the movie,’” Hart continued.

The silver lining of getting to go back to the premiere didn’t last long: When Hart arrived, there was more bad news waiting for her.

“I was already crying and waiting for everyone to finish the movie and come on over,” she recalled. “And when they get there, my lawyer meets up with me first and says, ‘Because of your cover of Maxim magazine, you’re being fired from your show.'”

In 2023, Hart explained on the Today Show that the team behind Sabrina the Teenage Witch wanted to fire her from over a racy Maxim cover that used the titular character’s name, a legal no-no at the time. Though an apology letter eventually smoothed things over, Hart believed that she’d lost two big jobs in one day.