Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen are millionaires with their own company, but how did they get to where they are today, and why did they really quit acting?
The twin sister team of Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen is undoubtedly one of the most well-known of our time. The Olsen Twins were the 90s and early-2000s' powerhouses in the child / pre-teen entertainment industry. After winning the hearts of television audiences as the infant Michelle on Full House, when they were just six months old, the two went on to act in various films as kids and eventually teenagers. In reality, the "Mary-Kate and Ashley" films essentially developed into a separate genre. They starred in movies including It Takes Two, Holiday in the Sun, When in Rome, and New York Minute, which is presumably where you might have seen them. As fans will remember, Ashley typically played the more feminine, sweeter roles while Mary-Kate typically played the sporty, tom-boy ones.
Ashley Olsen seems to have stopped acting full-time around 2004. She made two small appearances since, one in The Jerk Theory (2009) and one in I’m Still Here (2010), but has not done anything on camera thereafter. Mary-Kate Olsen, on the other hand, continued acting after 2004, with an uncredited role in Factory Girl (2006), an eight-episode arc in Weeds (2007), in the film Help (2008), in the TV show Samantha Who? (2008), and, finally, as a witch in the Beauty & the Beast-inspired film Beastly (2011). Since then, neither Olsen twin has been in a movie or television show. Ashley did appear, by voice only, in the 2021 podcast Just Headlines for an episode that talked about Full House and co-star John Stamos.
It seems like acting is not something the twins are focusing on. The truth of the matter is they don’t really seem to want to be in the Hollywood spotlight at all as grown-ups. Is there a reason we never see them in interviews, even just talking about their illustrious careers? What have these women been doing with their time? Why did they really quit acting? Read on to find out exactly what happened with Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.
The Lack of Passion for Acting
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen became household names as endearing toddlers on Full House. As stated in a VH1 documentary, their family founded Dualstar when they were just six years old, and towards the end of their time on Full House, they were earning around $80,000 per episode. During their time on Full House, they also appeared in the 1992 television film To Grandmother's House We Go, then Double, Double Toil and Trouble in 1993, followed by How the West Was Fun in 1994. Over the next 10 years, the sisters gained a following for making adorable films about twins. According to The Telegraph, they were the youngest self-made millionaires in America at the age of ten. Their film projects led into their teenage years, where the films began to explore more about growing up, like Billboard Dad in 1998, Passport to Paris in 1999, and Holiday in the Sun in 2001. Of course, that is nowhere near all the films the Olsen twins have starred in, which include more than 50 acting credits each.
So, why did this dynamic duo stop acting? The answer is simple: they lost passion for the work. In a 2013 interview with Allure magazine, Ashley Olsen said, "I was reading scripts, and ultimately I just said to the people who were representing me, I need to do things 100%. I don't feel like I can give you 100% of my time.” Since the twins had been so focused on their acting careers from an early age, it left little time for anything else. Ashley went on to say, “What we did know was that we wanted to take that time to take a break from what we were previously doing and to explore things that interested us, and explore what life has to offer (creatively). We wanted to explore making something of ourselves."
Freedom to Pursue Other Projects
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen assumed full control of Dualstar when they came of age at 18. After years in the spotlight, the sisters seemed to be shying away from fame. Their focus shifted from acting to college and other possible projects. In 2006, Mary-Kate and Ashley founded the fashion label, The Row, according to i-D, a side project while attending New York University. "It had to be comfortable on all bodies. It really had to have all the elements that we continue to put into our projects and design. The fabrics had to be luxurious and perfect and, hopefully, have longevity," Mary-Kate said when asked about their quest to create the perfect white tee shirt. The brand took off, and their clothes were shown in intimate, low-key shows. With the success of one fashion brand, they eventually launched two more clothing lines: Elizabeth and James, and Olsenboye. The twins even chose not to return to acting when the Netflix reboot of Full House, entitled Fuller House, which continued the story of the Tanner family from the now-grown older kids' perspective.Growing up in Hollywood life has to have been difficult for the Olsen twins. Because of Mary-Kate and Ashley's childhood celebrity, their family faced certain pressures. Their parents, who divorced in 1996, were allegedly driven apart by disagreements over how to manage the girls' lives as celebrities, but not much information is known about their parents since they seem to remain out of the public eye. Furthermore, the pressures of being famous presented their own set of difficulties. The sisters mentioned having 12 interviews scheduled the day before a school paper in a 2000 discussion with Life & Style.
Overall, it seems taking a step back from acting has served them well. In an interview with Vogue Australia, the twins revealed that they devote all of their energy to the business. "There is a lot of pressure we put on ourselves," Mary-Kate said. "I feel like we're really lucky that we have a great partnership and that we can rely on each other for support, because I can imagine it can be so lonely." They'll always have each other to lean on, thankfully. And if anyone wants the perfect blend of the late-90s and early-2000s nostalgia, Mary-Kate and Ashley’s films are still able to be viewed today.
