Christine Taylor Reveals How 'Sure, Jan' Scene from “A Very Brady Sequel ”Stays True to Maureen McCormick's Marcia Brady

Angela AndaloroTue, May 26, 2026 at 5:36 PM UTC

0

Christine Taylor as Marcia Brady in "A Very Brady Sequel"
Credit: Paramount Pictures -

Christine Taylor played Marcia Brady in 1995's The Brady Bunch Movie and 1996's A Very Brady Sequel

While many focused on the parody aspect of the two films, Taylor explained she was a serious fan of The Brady Bunch who felt an obligation to handle the comedy in a way that honored the character, made famous by Maureen McCormick

Taylor and McCormick recently got together, illustrating the special bond between the Marcias

Christine Taylor knew Marcia Brady long before signing onto The Brady Bunch Movie.

Appearing on the McBride Rewind podcast's May 26 episode, the actress, 54, revealed she was a huge fan of The Brady Bunch growing up.

"That was my go-to. I would come home from after school, go right to the TV, get my snack, and I'd watch Brady Bunch episodes every day of the week and became obsessive about that show," she shared.

"So, I started to, I think, craft my Maureen McCormick, Marcia Brady impression at a very young age without even knowing that there was a future to be had in it. I just loved her," Taylor added. "I loved the show. I loved the episodes. I love the dialogue. So it was taking shape in that way for me before I even really knew it. It was just what I loved."

— sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Before the opportunity for The Brady Bunch Movie or A Very Brady Sequel, came to be, Taylor got another opportunity to play Marcia Brady.

"I happened to do a stage production in Westwood called The Real Life Brady Bunch. And it was a great, this group out of Chicago, really funny group of people. Andy Richter was part of it, Jane Lynch. They both played Mike and Carol and they needed to fill the Marcia role for like a month. And my roommate at the time said, 'They're casting a Marcia Brady thing on stage. You got to audition for it,' " Taylor recalled.

"So I called my agent and I went in and auditioned and got that. And it was right around the same time that they were going to be doing a movie version at Paramount. And so I was really like the right age. I mean, I was obviously like maybe 21 or 22 when I auditioned for it, so I was a teensy bit older than teenage, you know than 17 ,18. but we were all kind of playing a little younger."

Maureen McCormick as Marcia Brady
Credit: CBS via Getty

Taylor admits that while making the movie, "Nobody expected that movie to be as big as it was. I mean, for a studio movie, it was not a big budget. They cast a lot of unknowns. You know, Shelley Long was the big name. Even Gary Cole, at that point, had really only done drama. He was not known for comedy."

Advertisement

Taylor was excited to try out the comedy herself, channeling a character she knew so well. Her costar Jennifer Lee Cox was equally set on honoring the original.

"Jennifer, who brilliantly played Jan, and I were the only two who were fans of the original. We were obsessive about it. So everything we did in that movie came through the lens of Jennifer and I saying, 'Well, she would never say it that way,' or 'We got to change that line,' or 'We got to fix that because that's not right.' "

Taylor uses a viral scene in A Very Brady Sequel — where Marcia cooly tells Jan "I've never heard of a George Glass at our school" the set up for the always relevant "Sure, Jan," meme — as an example.

The actress noted, "Because I was corrected... in A Very Brady sequel, the line where I say, 'I've never heard of a George Glass at our skewl.' Like the director stopped me and said, 'Can you just say school? No, we don't know what you're saying. Can you just say school?' And I said, 'No, I can't because Maureen McCormick said 'skewl' It was a very specific way of saying it."

"So, I fought for those moments where I knew it was the way Maureen did it and she did it so perfectly and I needed to nail that. I needed to nail it with love and with affection."

Taylor focused on those moments especially throughout the films, wanting to deliver "something that felt like Maureen would be okay with and proud of and happy with."

The actress believes the success of the films was surprising and a testament to the power of the original series.

"I think it appealed to kids who had grown up watching it... there was a lot of innuendo and a lot of sort of double entendres throughout," Taylor said.

Referencing a recent social media debate on whether the films were just poking fun at the original in a derogatory way, Taylor noted, "The answer is... I think, to me, it's tricky because of course that's the perception of it. But for those of us who loved it so with all of our hearts, I had to feel like this was a way of honoring something that was so iconic but doing it with some laughs along the way."

on People

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”