Lifetime’s recent drama Would You Kill for Me? The Mary Bailey Story tells a shocking story about three generations of women who plot to kill an abusive man. But fans were more shocked to learn who played the grandmother in the film: Sabrina the Teenage Witch and Clarissa Explains It All star Melissa Joan Hart.
Hart, 47, recently responded to the widespread shock at her playing Grandma Ella in the Lifetime film.
“While I’m proud of my performance in my most recent movie #WouldYouKillForMe, I couldn’t be more flattered that people don’t think of me as a grandmother (no matter how possible it is at the age of 47),” she wrote in a post on Instagram. “It’s also refreshing to go viral for my work and not something controversial.”
She then added, “I guess now Clarissa can Explain AARP or play the Middle-Aged Witch.”
Fans across social media were shocked when a clip from the movie first began circulating.
“She not even old. How is this remotely feasible. Soccer mom/PTA mom? yes. GRANDMA?!?!?!? No,” one fan wrote.
One fan noted that Hart playing a grandmother at her age is “demonstrative of how the film industry sees women” though it “isn’t impossible to be a grandmother” at that age.
“You know who else is 47 years old? Ryan Reynolds, Cillian Murphy, Alexander Skarsgård, and Colin Farrell; are they being cast as grandfathers?” they wrote.
Would You Kill for Me? The Mary Bailey Story is based on the bestselling memoir from Mary Elizabeth Bailey, author of My Mother’s Soldier.
The film, which was executive produced by Hart, explores the three women’s perspectives after they conspire to kill the increasingly abusive man her daughter married.
Would You Kill for Me? The Mary Bailey Story, which released in October, is available to stream on the Lifetime Movie Club app and to rent on Amazon’s Prime Video.
