Little House on the Prairie star Melissa Gilbert recently opened up about the “weird” expectations fans of the show had for her to “be” her character, Laura Ingalls Wilder, nearly into her 40s — because at the time, fans “believed” that celebrities who weren’t in the tabloids were essentially the same in real life as they were on screen.
“So here you are, America’s sweetheart, literally. Maybe a few years ago, they let you take the pigtails out, but now you’re 19, you’re a real-life woman, and you’re out in Hollywood,” Patrick Labyorteaux, who played Andy Garvey on Little House said to his costar during the July 8 episode of his podcast The Patrick LabyorSheaux with Patrick Labyorteaux.
The actor, 59, then asked if it was “difficult” for her to have “real-life relationships” where people “didn’t expect” her “to be Laura” — and Gilbert, 61, didn’t mince words.
“It was weird,” the actress explained. “I think people still, almost into my 40s, always kind of half expected a 12-year-old to come in with a fishing pole [and in] gingham. And that, at that time, to me, felt like a weakness.”
However, she said she eventually made that expectation a “strength” for her in that she could use the “shock factor” to her “advantage” when people realized “she’s a full-grown adult with opinions and ideas that are smart and work.”
Labyorteaux also noted that the show was a haven for kids, being that there were so many kids on the series. “All the kids that I keep talking to from the ’70s acting always wanted to be on Little House mainly because there was a bunch of kids on the show. It wasn’t just one kid amongst a bunch of adults and so I think that helped us,” he said.
“Our set was as kid-friendly as a set could be at that time,” Gilbert added. “Even with all the adult shenanigans going on, we were sort of protected from a lot of that. I didn’t know half the stuff that the grown-ups were doing until they started writing books about it.”
