Rachel Leigh Cook and daughter Charlotte in 2021.Photo: Vivien Killilea/Getty Images
The actress, who recently celebrated her 43rd birthday, opens up to PEOPLE about her new family Halloween flickSpirit Halloween: The Movie, in which she plays the mother of a teenage boy who locks himself inside a Spirit Halloween store with two friends — only to face evil forces they have to band together to fight off.
And according to Cook, it’s the first film she has done for her two kids: sonTheodore Vigo, 7, and daughterCharlotte Easton,9.
“I was really excited to show it to them because they really wanted me to do the movie,” Cook says ofSpirit Halloween, which costars veteran actorsChristopher LloydandMarla Gibbs, as well as Donovan Colan, Marissa Reyes, Jaiden J. Smith and Dylan Frankel.
Rachael Leigh Cook inSpirit Halloween: The Movie(2022).Scary Fun LLC
“And I know that every actor, [like] myself, in their 40s is like, ‘I made this one for the kids.’ But this is my first ‘I made one for the kids’ moment,” she adds.
And while Charlotte thought the movie “was awesome,” Theodore “said it was a little scary, but he’s 7,” Cook notes.
“That’s just my kids,” she adds. “Everyone should just take temperature with their kids and what their tolerance is for these things.”
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Poster forSpirit Halloween: The Movie(2022).Strike Back Studios
An official synopsis forSpirit Halloweenreads, “When a new Spirit Halloween store opens in a deserted strip mall, three middle-school friends who think they’ve outgrown trick-or-treating make a dare to spend the nightlocked inside the store Halloween night.”
Cook tells PEOPLE that part of what drew her to making the film is that it felt “effortlessly classic” and because “it has that organically nostalgic feel because it takes place in a town that doesn’t feel like it’s covered in billboards.”
She also has made multipleChristmasfilms — including Hallmark’sCross Country Christmas(2020) andTis the Season to Be Merry(2021) — and felt like tacklingHalloween, especially considering her personal appreciation for the spooky holiday.
“I love Halloween,” Cook says. “I think it’s, afterThanksgiving, my favorite holiday, because I get to put my kids in cute costumes.”
Cook says this is the first year her daughter Charlotte — who recently celebrated her 9th birthday with friends, with a limo ride and trip tothe Cheesecake Factory! — wants to dress up as “something scary” for Halloween: Roblox character Jenna the Killer.
“I was like, ‘That sounds aggressive. You just turned 9, but okay. I’m not getting in trouble around here. Be a nice kid,’ " the actress jokes. “But no, it’s funny.”
As for theirtrick-or-treating plans, Cook says, “We’ll go around. They’ll get a bunch of candy. I’ll have to tell them not to eat it. They’ll be up too late and a little bit sugar high.”
“They’ll get mad at me. I’ll yell at them to go to bed and then eventually they will. That’s basically our tradition. That’s what we do,” she quips.
Cookfinalized her divorce from now-ex-husband Daniel Gilliesin March 2021 after more than 16 years of marriage.
She laterrevealed she had a boyfriendin September 2020, just over a year after she and actor Gillies, 46,announced their split.
And asked whether she has any plans to add to her family again one day, she tells PEOPLE, “I don’t see it for me” — but she isn’t 100 percent sure.
“I gotta watch out for my own spontaneous side, and I gotta make that decision with eyes wide open. And my boyfriend has to realize how totally insane kids can be, I think, in person a little bit more before we can think about making that step,” Cook says.
Spirit Halloween: The Movieis now streaming on VOD.
source: people.com
