Tori Spelling on Doing Stunts With Alligators, “Donna Martin Graduates” and Her New Lifetime Movie (Exclusive)
Though Tori Spelling may be best known for her ’90s reign as the sweet, naive Donna Martin on Beverly Hills, 90210, her made-for-TV movie credits run deep. Spelling starred in a number of ’90s TV films that still have cult followings today, including 1994’s A Friend to Die For, 1996’s Co-ed Call Girl, and that same year’s Mother, May I Sleep with Danger?, which premiered on NBC, but developed a dedicated fandom through re-airings on Lifetime. Now, Spelling is back on Lifetime as the star of the new film Abducted in the Everglades, which will premiere March 2 at 8pm EST.
We recently sat down with Spelling to discuss working with alligators and the 90210 plotlines she always wanted to do.
So tell me about this new movie you’re in, Abducted in the Everglades.
Tori Spelling: So it’s really hard to figure out. But it’s about an abduction in the Everglades.
Hahaha. That much I figured out! Is it based on a true story?
This story revolves around a mom whose daughter goes on spring break and disappears. It’s basically a mom’s hunt to get her back. It is not based on a true story.
Credit: Lifetime
How was filming in the Everglades?
When I told everyone I’m going to the Everglades, everyone was like, “Oh my gosh, there’s alligators, there’s mosquitoes. Be careful, be careful.” And I was like, “You know what? I’ve been through harder things in real life. This will be a breeze.” It was a really cool, beautiful experience. The movie is so beautifully shot and our director did such a great job. It just was so gorgeous. I mean, it was treacherous at times, but gorgeous.
I heard you did your own stunts and even got to do one with an alligator. Which is funny timing, as I just spoke to Don Johnson about working with an alligator too. How was it?
I did. It was great. I wasn’t scared of them. Everyone’s like, “Are you sure you want to do this?” I was like, “Yeah,” and kind of just threw myself into it. Those things don’t scare me. I guess I wasn’t expecting the speed of alligators. They’re very quick, they seem like they’re just going to float above the water and then all of a sudden they’re very, very fast. So you have to be careful.
What was the most challenging part about making this movie?
Leaving my children.
Oh yeah, I’m sure that was hard. How long did you have to be gone for?
Three and a half weeks. Not too bad, but it’s hard with five kids now, being a single mom. But it was such a great role and it’s something I really wanted to tackle and they understood. Of course, I would love to take my kids everywhere with me if I could. That would be a dream.
How do you like working for Lifetime?
I’ve always been a Lifetime girl, so Lifetime is kind of in my soul since the ’90s. It’s always great.
Speaking of the 1990s… I have a couple of questions about a certain ’90s show called Beverly Hills, 90210.
Oh, never heard of it.
[Laughs.] First and foremost: Does anyone still come up to you and scream “Donna Martin graduates”?
Every single day. It’s so funny because my tagline is “Donna Martin graduates,” but I never actually said it, and I wasn’t even part of it when they were doing the whole chanting of Donna Martin graduates during the walkout. But that’s what people always want me to say back to them. I’m always happy to do it, but it’s just interesting that it wasn’t a line I ever said in the show.
Everett Collection
What was the craziest experience you had during the 90210 mania?
Probably hearing the stories back on set from the boys, because the crazy stories would always happen to the guys. They would come back on Monday and they’d be like, Yeah, this weekend, this happened … the shopping mall. I would just be like, “What? Oh my God.” It was just so much fun to hear everything.
Speaking of the boys, I talked to Brian Austin Green a year or two ago and it was one of my favorite conversations ever. He’s awesome. How was it working with him?
So great. And we’re still best friends to this day, so he’s like my boy bestie. So that’s a very special connection that I’m really grateful for, that 90210 introduced us and brought us together. Obviously David and Donna, but just to still have that friendship decades later is really valuable to me.
He’s really funny and super down-to-earth. I had such a good time talking to him.
Right? He’s hilarious.
Aaron Spelling Prod./Courtesy: Everett Collection
Was there any 90210 storyline you always wanted to do, but maybe it never happened?
Oh my gosh, that’s a good question. I’ve never been asked that one. For me, I think being Donna Martin the infamous virgin, it was always “the grass is always greener.” Donna was kind of always the good girl. There was one dream sequence that Donna got to do in Dylan McKay’s dreams, where she got to make out with Dylan, which was awesome. To be that flirtatious kind of naughty girl [would be the storyline that I would want to have happened]. Yeah. She never got any of the juicy storylines.
That’d be really cool if you rebooted it, but every actor had to switch characters. That’d be cool.
Ooh, that’d be a good one. I’d want to be Valerie or something. She was the bad girl.
Well, you never know. They’re rebooting everything. I think they already rebooted this once. Maybe they’ll reboot it again.
Yeah. Jenny and I created the reboot, which was super clever, but I feel like fans want the OG back.
Shane Harvey/Fox/Courtesy: Everett Collection
Yeah. It’s really hard to redo some of those nineties shows where they just kind of belong in the nineties and it’s hard to modernize them.
True. I agree with that. Our show would’ve been such a different show if there were streaming platforms back then. 90210 was so PC, I think. So ahead of its time in so many ways. I always think, what would 90210 be like if it was made today and it was on Netflix? It would just be such a different show. Well, it would be Euphoria, I guess.
It’d be a totally different show, but that’s kind of what I mean. You can’t remake shows that are really set in a certain time period and won’t work in another setting.
Yeah, exactly.
You can catch Beverly Hills, 90210 streaming on Paramount+ and Pluto TV. Abducted in the Everglades premieres on Sunday, March 2, at 8pm EST on Lifetime, and be available for streaming the next day.
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