Most teenagers lack self-confidence. Most teenagers have not earned personal fortunes of $150 million like Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen have. Apiece, that is.
“It’s not about making money,” Mary-Kate says of their fortune and their new movie “New York Minute.” “That number just shows that we’ve been working for 17 years, maybe.” Good thing, since the film earned only $6.2 million at the box office in its opening weekend.
“We’ve worked for everything that we have earned,” adds Ashley, who despite popular perception does not always finish her sister’s sentences (they deny possessing anything like twin ESP too). “It’s because we have an audience, and kids do respect and like what we’re doing. In a way, it’s like a back-and-forth. We make stuff to entertain people, and in return they buy our stuff.”
And how. The Olsens have been working steadily for practically all of their nearly 18 years. They started, at 9 months old, by sharing the role of adorable “Full House” moppet Michelle Tanner for eight seasons. Then, as co-owners of Dualstar Entertainment, the twins produced and starred in 47 straight-to-video movies and have overseen their own lines of clothing, dolls, books, cosmetics and you-name-it that kindergarten-to-tweenage girls have been scarfing up worldwide. In all, their enterprises accounted for nearly $1 billion in sales last year alone.
Of course, Mary-Kate and Ashley won’t become actual presidents of Dualstar until their June 13 birthday (they’ve also made Robert Thorne, the CEO of their 80-employee company, very wealthy). But they’ve been acting like bosses since they were declared Hollywood’s youngest producers in 1992. How hands-on are the young executives?
“Of course, with 47 categories, there are gonna be things that slip by,” Ashley says in reference to their vast product line. “That’s just what happens when you’re dealing with mass production. But we try to keep things in the line that we approve of. Even if we wouldn’t wear an item that we know our fan base will enjoy, we’ll put it out there for our fans.”
Such is the Olsens’ businesslike presentation. Although the ultra-petite sisters look more girlish than on the verge of adulthood, they tend to come off as poster children for the old all-work-and-no-play adage.
“They’re consummate professionals,” says “New York Minute” director Dennie Gordon. “But once you get to know them and they let their hair down, they’re still little girls at heart. They love to crack up and play practical jokes.”
“Now we’re 17, almost 18, and we’re comfortable making fun of ourselves and poking fun at the countdown ’til we’re 18,” Mary-Kate adds.
“New York Minute” has been carefully designed to ease that transition. Though not their first big-screen test–that was the 1995 flop “It Takes Two”–it’s a more crucial attempt to establish the sister act’s long-term viability, and appeal to both their core fan base [teen girls] and their moms.
“Even if it doesn’t do well at the box office, we’ve come out of this movie with so much more knowledge,” Mary-Kate says. “We’ve played producers almost our entire lives with everything else we’ve created, but when working on a feature and dealing with Warner Bros., other production companies and other details … we definitely learned a lot.” Learning is the current Olsen byword. They plan to attend New York University in the fall and are now in the process of turning two Lower Manhattan condominiums into one massive college dorm for themselves–at a reported price tag of $3.5 million.
“I don’t think it’s about living apart right now,” Mary-Kate says. “Turning 18 and going to college is about finding different interests and living on your own.”
The Olsens host “Saturday Night Live” at 10:30 p.m. Saturday on NBC
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Edited by Cara DiPasquale (cdipasquale@tribune.com) and Ben Delery (bdelery@tribune.com)
