Clueless star Breckin Meyer had to follow one major rule as child star or risk his career
Breckin Meyer was still in elementary school when he signed with an agent, appearing in several TV commercials before his big acting break.
The 52-year-old spoke about his early career in the November 3 episode of the One Question with T.K. Coleman podcast, explaining that his mom, Dorothy Anne, laid down one very strict condition for his acting once he turned 14.
The condition came at a time when his older brother had been in trouble at school over marijuana.
"There was a big hubbub in the family, obviously, and he got grounded and all this stuff and kicked out of school for a year, had to go somewhere else," Meyer said.
Advert
His mum then laid down the ground rules flatly.
She told Meyer: "Just so you know, if you ever get caught drinking or doing drugs, I will not take you to any more auditions. That's the end of your acting, until you can do it yourself at 17 and 18. That's the end."
Meyer agreed to his mom's terms, and remains sober to this day.
"It's 2026. I've never had alcohol. To this day. I've never had a drink of alcohol, and I didn't smoke weed until I was 40," he said.
Yet many of his early roles involved him playing stoners, starting with 1991's Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare.
"I played a bunch of stoners growing up, but I just mimicked what I saw other stoners do," he said, joking that he just copied his older brother.
In 1995's Clueless, his breakthrough role, he played Travis Birkenstock, a stoner and skater.
Meyer played a similar role in 1996's The Craft and Escape from L.A., and in 1998 he appeared in the house part film Can't Hardly Wait.
Meyer said the ultimatum was his mom's 'only rule about acting'.
He added: "It wasn't even about acting; that was about her taking me. Meaning, if you're not going to be serious, you're going to [deleted] around and do stupid stuff, I'm not going to support this. If you're really doing it, great."
He decided that 'acting's more important'.
The actor explained that his mom didn't force him into an acting career.
"When I would be on set, when I finally booked a job, my mum was nowhere around," he said.
She was around enough to make sure he was safe but would not get in the way, and he said that ultimately helped him because he ‘wasn’t earning for the family’.
"There was no pressure," he added. Instead, he had the attitude of 'if it stops being fun. I'll drop doing it'. His family got fully behind this attitude toward acting.
Meyer’s more recent roles include 2020’s Unpregnant, 2021’s The Enormity of Life and the upcoming Netflix film Quarter, due out November 13. He will also appear in 2027’s Romy and Michele 2 and is a writer, producer and voice actor on the Adult Swim series Robot Chicken.
Topics: Hollywood, Entertainment
Thomas Bamford
