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Joanna Cassidy portrayed Rose Lindsey, the cool boss with tons of life experience to share, in Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead
The 1991 film also starred Christina Applegate, Keith Coogan, Josh Charles, Concetta Tomei, and more
Cassidy tells PEOPLE her memories of making the funny film and shares her surprise that she said the film’s most memorable line
Joanna Cassidy will never forget the special time she had filming Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead.
Cassidy, 81, recently caught up with PEOPLE for the film’s 35th anniversary, reminiscing about her time as the cool, confident Rose Lindsey in the 1991 comedy classic.
The film is set in the summer when Mom goes on a European getaway, leaving an elderly babysitter in charge of her five kids. When the babysitter dies, the kids find themselves faced with a choice: call Mom and ruin her trip and possibly their summer, or try to make it on their own.
They choose the latter, with recent high school graduate Sue Ellen (Christina Applegate) stepping up to embellish her first résumé and land a dream job that’s demanding but pays well, if she can hack it.
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Joanna Cassidy as Rose Lindsey in “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead”
Credit: Warner Bros./courtesy Everett Collection
Fans remember the character’s golden rule, for Sue Ellen to reply to any request with, “I’m right on top of that, Rose.” Cassidy tells PEOPLE that she never imagined the film gag would take off the way it did.
“I had no idea that that line, ‘I’m right on top of that, Rose,’ I had no idea it would end up going where it went. I mean, it’s huge. I have people all the time saying that to me. It doesn’t seem to die,” she laughs.
“Twenty years ago, I was in the Turks and Caicos and that was before it was built up. People were running across the street, the little dirt road saying, ‘Are you Joanna Cassidy? I’m right on top of that, Rose!’ It went on. It’s unbelievable. It has a life of its own.”
Cassidy says she feels “fortunate and blessed” that people have come to enjoy the film so much.
“Sometimes, the people in a film, it’s almost like a chemical equation where the energy is all there. I remember our makeup artist was an artist. She literally was a painter and then she kind of did makeup on the side. So the artistry was all there. The producers were fun and not complicated. It was an adorable movie to do,” she says.
“Everyone was just at the perfect time in their life to do a movie like that. All the elements came together, and it doesn’t always work like that. It’s a rare beast,” Cassidy continues.
“I get a little bump in my heart when people say that line to me and it’s just so endearing to me that people have a special memory that film makes; so many people happy. It just doesn’t work like that all the time.”
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