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Melissa Joan Hart is proud of her faith — but has good reason for not limiting herself to Christian-based films.
“When I did [the 2015 movie] God’s Not Dead 2, a lot of people asked me, ‘Are you going to only do Christian roles now?’ And I was like, ‘But what does that look like?’ Because, you know, in the story of Jesus, someone plays Judas,” Hart, 49, exclusively told Us Weekly while discussing her partnership with Ancestry.com.
“As an actor, I like to explore all the different reasons why people do things for good or for bad,” she continued, “I’ve played evil [people], I’ve played hoarders, and I just love diving into the psychology of, ‘Why would someone do that? Let me discover why, and then let me try to portray it as honestly as possible.’ And I think that goes across the board in everything.”
Hart explained that she doesn’t “necessarily look to play roles that are Christian,” and is instead interested in finding new ways to tell a “human story.” The star of legendary sitcoms like Clarissa Explains It All, Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Melissa & Joey, she has also always been drawn to comedy — and is more than willing to put herself out there in “funny” or “inappropriate” situations, pending there’s a moral baseline to go along with it.
“As long as there’s the proper amount of punishment and goodness coming out of people, then it’s OK,” she said. “It’s OK to play certain roles, as long as there are repercussions for certain behaviors, and then there are rewards for being a good person.”
There are, however, certain parameters for her career choices when it comes to how those decisions may reflect on her family. The eldest of eight kids, Hart said she’s always prioritized making sure her siblings will feel “proud” of what she’s doing, which ensured her children would one day feel the same. (Hart and husband Mark Wilkerson share three kids: sons Mason, 19, Brady, 17, and Tucker, 12.)
“Will my siblings be proud of this? Is this something that’s gonna embarrass them? Is this something and that I knew someday would reflect on any children? If I could look at it from the perspective of my siblings who were alive, then that would translate to the children I haven’t had yet,” she said, explaining her thought process. “So that I could make sure there was nothing I was shy about.”
At the same time, Hart is aware that her kids aren’t exactly fully dialed into what their mom does for a living. “When I was writing my book [Melissa Explains It All: Tales From My Abnormally Normal Life], my husband was like, ‘You sure you want to write that down? Our kids are gonna read that someday.’ I’m like, ‘No, they’re not. My kids are never gonna read my book. OK?’ They might be like, 50 and go, ‘You know what? My mom’s gone now,I’m gonna read my mom’s book. But by then, they’ll be big enough and they can enjoy it.”
Hart added that her memoir is also “honest,” which is important too. “There’s being honest about your real experiences and your life and your mistakes, because we’ve all made them,” she said. “And as a Christian, I’m a sinner. We’re all sinners. We don’t go to church because we figured it all out. We go to church because we’re trying to figure it out. We go to church to repent and to ask for forgiveness and all the different things so and confess and all that.”
While Hart may not be limiting herself when it comes to her career, faith is still the No. 1 priority for her and her family. Earlier this year, her middle son, Brady, revealed his decision to rededicate himself to Christ with a baptism.
“He has a great youth pastor that has inspired him,” Hart told Us. “He’s got teachers at school that are constantly talking to him about faith, friends that he talks to about faith. And it started to really mean a lot to him in the last year. It started to really resonate with him.”
The Sabrina alum confessed that the day of the service, she and Wilkerson couldn’t hold back their emotions, which Brady was quick to chastise.
“People were handing us tissues! My husband and I sat in the front. We always sit in the back of the church,” she said with a laugh. “We were sitting in the front of the church, right in the aisle, and just bawling. And [Brady’s] like, ‘I looked over at you guys. You were a mess.’ Like, sorry!”
Brady’s involvement with the church is just one of the many things keeping Hart and her kids busy this holiday season, which is why she looked to Ancestry.com to her gifting needs, providing a unique present for loved ones that feels personal.
“I feel like it’s gotten so hectic and crazy and insane — the stress, the chaos, the Instagrammable moments, of, ‘We have to have the perfect Christmas card,’ and the cookies and the baked sales and and even, like, the coat drives and all the things,” she explained. “And potlucks and parties and cocktails. It’s a lot. I was just looking to simplify the holidays. And with ancestry, it was great.”
A subscription-based online genealogy service, Ancestry.com provides access to a vast collection of historical records, tools to build family trees and DNA testing to help users discover their family history. Hart explained that after using it on her own lineage, she realized it’s a “great gift” that can also be a “safe topic to talk about” at the dinner table.
“I just think it’s super fun. And, I mean, at the center of the holidays, should be family, and I think that that’s what Ancestry does,” she told Us. “I love that and might connect you to, like, past generations, but it’s also there for the future generations. I love adding pictures and records that I have so that someday when I’m gone, my great grandkids can see all these records from generations past. You get to pass it on.”
