Where is Tara Reid now? ‘American Pie’ star reveals how ‘party girl’ tag and being unmarried hurt career
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Tara Reid was considered one of the most promising Hollywood stars in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The actress earned immense fame for her role in the ‘American Pie’ franchise and appeared to have a bright future ahead. However, a string of unfortunate choices and the “party girl” image negatively impacted her career.
“I’m not married, I don’t have kids… and I think, in Hollywood, if you don’t have kids or you’re not married, you’re judged,” Reid told Derek Warburton for a Mr Warburton Magazine interview, according to Page Six. “So they still think you’re that party girl from 40 years ago. But all of a sudden, if you have a kid and you get married, ‘Oh she grew up, she’s great'," the actress mentioned.
Tara Reid rose to fame in the 90s
Reid has been a lifelong actress and she started being in front of the camera since she was a child. She began acting when she was just six years old, appearing as a regular in the ‘Child’s Play’ game show. Reid also appeared in over 100 commercials and starred in the sitcom, ‘Saved by the Bell: The New Class’ as a teenager.
Reid even studied at the Professional Children’s School in New York, alongside Sarah Michelle Gellar, Macaulay Culkin, Jerry O’Connell, and Donald Faison. She made her film debut in 1987 with ‘A Return to Salem’s Lot’ and earned her breakthrough in 1998’s ‘The Big Lebowski’. Reid rose to immense popularity and garnered mainstream success after appearing as Vickie in ‘American Pie’ (1999) and its sequel, ‘American Pie 2 (2001)’.
While she did not appear in ‘American Wedding (2003)’, Reid reprised her role in the fourth installment, ‘American Reunion’ (2012). The actress also had roles in other successful films like 'Cruel Intentions' before being hit with a series of critical and commercial mishaps.
What happened to Tara Reid?
In 2002, Reid told The Bryan Time that she is “proud” of where she is at 26. “I’m proud of where I am at 26, so getting older is not so bad. I want to age on film. I want to be the old lady in Titanic one day.” Unfortunately, her career failed to outlive her status as a teen movie queen in Hollywood amid Reid becoming a tabloid fodder for her “party girl” persona, her cosmetic surgeries and her career mistakes. Following her big break in Hollywood, Reid had the opportunity of working with A-list actors like Richard Gere in ‘Dr T & The Women’, Rosario Dawson in ‘Josie and the Pussycats’, and Ashton Kutcher in ‘My Boss’s Daughter’.
However, neither of those films experienced critical or commercial success. While ‘Josie and the Pussycats’ only made $14.9 million at the box office against a $22-39 million budget, ‘My Boss’s Daughter’ led to Reid being nominated as Worst Supporting Actress and Worst Screen Couple at the 2004 Golden Raspberry Awards. The following year, she even earned the Stinker Award for Worst Actress in the Razzies, her only accolade since winning the Young Hollywood Award for ‘American Pie'.
One of her career mistakes also included her one-season travel show, ‘Taradise’. However, Reid’s wrong choices were not limited to her career. She also ended up in troubles for her love of partying and a series of botched plastic surgeries. In 2008, Reid checked into the Promises rehab in Malibu for a two-month detox. Nearly two months before getting admitted to the facility, she dubbed herself as a “social drinker” who only enjoyed the occasional glass of wine while speaking to People.
In a 2006 issue of US Weekly magazine, Reid said, ‘Taradise’ was “probably the stupidest thing I ever did… I didn't know it was going to ruin my career.” She also opened up about her personal life and said she was “devastated” after the wardrobe malfunction incident at a 2004 party for Diddy where one of her breasts became visible to the public eye. The actress admitted that she consulted a plastic surgeon in 2004 and “asked for big Bs” but instead, “he gave me Cs, and I didn't want them.”
Reid noticed deformity in her nipples right after the surgery. “After six months of ‘it's going to get better', it started to get worse and worse. I never thought I would have nipples that looked like this,” she said at the time. She also had an embarrassing moment at a red carpet event. “I was smiling like a fool and people were snapping away. When I realized it, I cried and begged the photographers not to print it, but it was everywhere … I was on the Web sites as having the ugliest boobs in the world,” Reid revealed.
The actress also said she did body contouring done by the same surgeon and was unhappy with the results. “My stomach became the most ripply, bulgy thing. I had a hernia, this huge bump next to my bellybutton. As a result, I couldn't wear a bikini. I lost a lot of work,” Reid added. She went under the knife once again to fix her previously botched surgeries and eventually had to see a therapist for nearly a year to get help for her confidence issues.
What is Tara Reid doing now?
Reid eventually decided to get back into acting and starred in six installments of ‘Sharknado’ from 2013 to 2018. Critics ended up enjoying the film, with Rotten Tomatoes describing it as “so bad it’s good.” The actress initially thought that ‘Sharknado’ was the “worst movie” she ever read but eventually expressed that she was proud of her role in the franchise.
Back in 2021, Reid confirmed to ET that 'American Pie 5' was in the works. She also expressed her excitement about reuniting with her old castmates. “We have to get all the actors and at the same time to get our schedules together,” she said. “We all stay in touch in different ways… When you grow up with someone and you get your first breaks with someone, you can never forget that,” Reid mentioned.
This year, she appeared in a film called ‘Air Force Z’ and starred in one episode of the CBS Sitcom ‘Ghosts’. The actress also appeared in the Marc Jacobs Heaven Campaign and is set to star in the new comedy series ‘Walking In L.A’, as per Page Six.
‘I was an easy target’
During her recent interview, Reid said she was the ‘It Girl’ in the Hollywood of the late '90s and early 2000s before being labeled as a surgery-obsessed party girl. “I was the first one that kind of started this image, but the difference with me is that I never did sex tapes, I never did anything wrong. I never even got a speeding ticket,” she stated.
The actress claimed she “got punished” by the media for simply “popping bottles and having a great time.” “I was just on an attack. Anything I did was on tape, it was pretty awful. And that’s why I left. It wasn’t because I was just a girl, it was because I was an easy target,” Reid explained.