Don’t Tell Mom's Simone Joy Jones ‘Can’t Wait’ to Hear from Original Movie's Star Christina Applegate (Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Simone Joy Jones and Christina Applegate.Photo:Rodin Eckenroth/Getty; Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty

Rodin Eckenroth/Getty; Gilbert Flores/Variety via Getty

“I haven’t heard from her, but I can’t wait until we do,” Jones, 25, tells PEOPLE.

When the kids find Mrs. Sturak dead, they decide against telling their mom, who’d surely cut her trip short. But without any money to fund their summer of fun, the eldest Crandell child (Applegate, whose name was Sue Ellen in the original; Jones, whose name is Tanya in the remake) gets a job at a fashion company after fudging a résumé.

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More than three decades after it first debuted, the original remains a fan favorite, but Jones herself wasn’t very familiar with the movie, which also starredJosh CharlesandDavid Duchovny. “I hadn’t seen the film before I auditioned,” she admits.

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“Once I got to see Christina Applegate in the movie, I was like, ‘Oh my God, she’s so cool. She’s everything I want to be,’” continues Jones. “And just watching her go through life in that film was so cool. So to have her essence in my heart, it was just the best gift that I could have got.”

Jones says some of her favorite parts to film were the scenes in which her character is putting together outfits for work.

“For Tanya, it was really cool because part of her arc is that she has to just kind of step into a fashion role with no time or no money. And so just having her create silhouettes from her closet was just really fun and funky and cool, and I adore that part of the movie,” she says.

A 2021 graduate of Carnegie Mellon University, Jones has worked on Broadway in the revival ofThe Miracle Workerand plays Lisa Wilkes on Peacock’s dramaBel-Air, a reboot and update of theWill SmithcomedyThe Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.

source: people.com