The actress also recalls her fondest memories filming with the late Debbie Reynolds and shares whether she would like to do another Halloweentown movie, while also opening up about married life with her Halloweentown II co-star, Daniel Kountz.
More than 25 years have passed because the first Halloween City made it to the Disney Channel – and to Marnie Piper herself, Kimberly J. Brownhowever, it’s roadside stopper, with excited fans reciting quotes from late ’90s and early ’00s TV movies and asking her “daily” if there will ever be another movie.
When selling his partnership with STEM insect repellent in an interview with VeryFabthe 39 years old the former young star reflected the legacy of the franchise and how Disney Channel Original Movies are still enjoyed today.
Everett/Getty Assortment
The Legacy of Halloweentown
“I’m very honored,” Brown said of the franchise’s legacy. “We were simply imagined to make a Halloween City film again that day. People regularly ask me, ‘Was there a plan?’ ‘No, we were making a movie.’ Disney Channel was very young and not yet in every family. It was incredible to see the development of the film and the development of the channel over time. In fact, this is largely due to their excellent followers. They enjoyed and embraced such onerous films over time.”
“We bought it to make sequels. Now they are on Disney+. I meet generations of families every day – grandmothers and daughters showing off their children. It is a great honor to be part of the traditions of the people that this means. We never would have imagined that the films would still maintain a place in the season in this way. In fact, it’s simply incredible.
At age 13, Brown was cast as teenage witch Marnie Piper in Hallloweentown, with the late Debbie Reynolds starring as her grandmother, Aggie. She reprized her role in Halloweentown II: Kalabar’s Revenge (2001), during which she met her now-husband Daniel Kountz, and Excessive Halloweentown (2004).
Brown took a look back at when it was first released in Halloween Cityand remembered some of its most beloved members working with Reynolds, who passed away in 2016.
Ready for your permission to upload Instagram media.
“I’ve loved Halloween since I was a kid, so I was really excited. Especially back then – now supernaturals, witches and a lot of those subjects are seen more in scripted TV movies – not a lot then, so it was really unique and special. Like, ‘Can I learn for a teenage witch?’” she said. “As a kid, like, oh my God, pretending to do this was even more exciting for me. And with the production design of it all, sometimes it felt like we were somewhere else, like in a Halloween City. Just leaning into that from my childhood creativity, it was really exciting for me to be able to enjoy that personally and do the work.
Working with Debbie Reynolds
As for starring alongside Reynolds, Brown said it was “actually an extra special privilege.”
“You hear that a legend is going to play your grandmother and you don’t know what it’s going to be like. She was just the nicest, kindest, funniest – I mean dirty humor – everything. We had one of the best times. She always treated me like a peer, all of us kids, even when we were young. She really wanted to impart as much knowledge as she could.”
The actress said she “wish (she) had walked around with a tape recorder” to report “every little thing” Reynolds said.
“She told so many stories, and you think you’ll remember them. … You get older and your memory doesn’t work as much as you want it to,” she told TooFab. “I wish I had recorded everything because everything was very rich and full of history. She was the best.”
“Her favorite option to introduce herself to followers (who) would collect round sets, she would go up and say, Hey, I’m Princess Leia’s mom,” Brown added, referring to Reynolds’ late daughter, Star Wars actress Carrie Fisher. “The group would have fun with this! They liked it.”
STEM
Marnie Currently and sequel?
Brown also shared where she thinks Marie would be today, a few years later.
“I think she would have always wanted to proceed in a progressive way, like, let’s take steps forward and do all kinds of new things,” she said. “I think she would be mayor, or work for mayor, or in some kind of leadership role, maybe educating a new class of witches or something too,” she said. “I really feel like she would like to sit in that seat for Halloweentown and be in charge in that way. I think she would love that.
And in today’s era of reboots and revivals, Brown revealed that she is “completely” willing to do another movie someday.
“I think there are a lot of possibilities for where Marnie and her family could be right now. Disney knows I’m willing to do something else,” she told TooFab. “It’s up to them to make that call. In fact, fans ask me daily – messages, in person, everything. So, yes, we would all like to do another one.”
Fans’ shock over co-star’s marriage
Meanwhile, Brown also opened up about her relationship with Kountz. The two shared the screen together in Halloween Town IIhowever, they only reconnected years later, in 2016, and started dating. The couple announced their engagement in 2022 and got married in April.
And even though they’ve been together for a long time, fans who didn’t know are still often surprised when they see them on social media, which Brown said is “the best thing.”
Ready for your permission to upload Instagram media.
“We never would have imagined the outstanding response and support we received from fans when we first made this public,” she told TooFab. “There are still people to this day – and we’ve been together eight years – (who) will see a post and be like, ‘Oh my God! Are you together? And that’s still a lot of fun. So yeah, it was really unbelievable to be able to share this with followers as well, and we were really touched by their response over time. In fact, it’s excellent.”
As for what she’s loved most about married life so far, Brown mentioned that she and Koutz love that they go formally talk to themselves as “husband and spouse”.
“We couldn’t wait to do it, and we kind of cheated a little bit beforehand and referred to ourselves as that,” she shared. “We just love it. I don’t know. There’s something so official about now naming him my husband instead of my fiancé. This was a surprisingly fun part.
Error-free Halloween with STEM
Meanwhile, Brown also chatted with TooFab about her partnership with STEM, including some of her top tips and tricks for preparing and decorating for Halloween while keeping the bugs at bay.
Although she said she likes “pretend bugs for decoration” because they add to the “scariness,” she’s not a fan of the “real” ones — and we have to agree.
“As time goes by, adorning fun things with fall flowers and jack-o-lanterns, things like hay bales, people don’t understand that this type of decoration can encourage real creepy crawlies. So among my thoughts, I think it’s really important to have products like STEM Kills Ants Roaches and Spiders spray because it helps you deal with the real creepy crawlies. It should be used both indoors and outdoors, which is sweet. I was even more excited about this partnership because they are doing their fun Halloween promotion,” she said, adding that fans can visit stembugout. with and “Take a picture of your fake creepy crawlers” and “It should magically turn into a shrink code.”
Brown said she likes that the products are made with essential oils so they are safe to use on round pets, especially Luna, her Goldendoodle.
See more from Brown in the full interview at the top of this post!