In the years since its 1989 release, the dark teen comedy Heathers has become much more popular than it was upon hitting theaters. Few people know that better than Lisanne Falk, who played Heather McNamara, a.k.a. Yellow Heather. These days, the actor participates in fan events for the movie about deadly high school social politics, so she's seen firsthand how passionate people still are about the film and how more, younger viewers are joining the ranks of Heathers fans everyday.
Falk hasn't been acting onscreen in recent years, but she's been outspoken about her early career and shares updates about her life on social media. Read on to find out more about the 57-year-old today.
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She was "determined" to win a part in the movie.
New World PicturesFalk, who got her start as a child model, has shared that, when she found out about Heathers, she knew she had to be in the movie. Prior to the dark comedy, she had appeared in movies including In the Mood, I Love N.Y., and Less Than Zero. Falk was initially asked to audition for a smaller role in Heathers, but her agent wasn't happy with it.
“I said I’d do any part in this movie, I was determined because it was so different to most of the auditions I was going on,” Falk told Yahoo! in 2018. “My agent tried to dissuade me from taking the small role, but I didn’t listen and literally a week after they booked me they asked me to do Heather McNamara. I guess it was my destiny to be ‘Yellow’ Heather.”
She just returned to acting after years away.
Ron Galella, Ltd./Ron Galella Collection via Getty ImagesThe last credit listed on Falk's IMDb page is for a short film in 2002 titled Casablanca. Prior to that, she had acted regularly throughout the 1980s and '90s, including in a role in the 1989 classic, Say Anything. Her final feature film was 1998's Shattered Image.
That said, she seems to be back at it recently. In June 2022, she posted on Instagram that she was being featured in a short film. "Good fun getting back in the saddle and being in front of the camera again talkin’ New Yawk with my costar Charlie Merriman," she wrote next photos to photos of the set, herself, and her fellow actor.
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She's married and a mother.
Lisanne doesn't share many details about her personal life on social media, instead opting to post her appearances at fan events and other updates. But, in a 2019 Instagram post, she did note that she had been married 19 years and had a teenage daughter.
She posted a major life update that same year, when she shared that she'd been granted British citizenship. "Today I pledged my fealty to the Queen and country. Thirteen years later, I am officially British (and always American)," she wrote.
She's heavily involved with the Heathers fandom.
Falk attends various special events related to Heathers, where she meets fans and talks about the movie. In a 2019 interview with LRMonline, she talked about attending a 30th anniversary screening of the film.
"I was so lucky. I was there with [director] Michael [Lehmann] and [writer Daniel Waters]. It was amazing," she said. "I’m so happy to be a part of that. I just love to support the movie and anything having to do with it. And the audience. To see it in the theater with an audience now was definitely different than when it first came out, because audiences were not sure what to make of it, and now everybody knows all the lines. It’s like THE cult movie. They know when the jokes are coming and when to laugh."
She also shared that being a mom to a teenager made her view the high school-set film differently.
Falk explained, "Now being an adult and a mother of a teenage daughter, the line that her mother says, when teenagers complain that they want to be treated like human beings, it’s usually because they are being treated like human beings. That’s a line that I probably didn’t even notice 30 years ago that I just absolutely love now."
