Tara Reid believes her career would’ve been more successful if she had children.
The 47-year-old actress, who starred as Victoria “Vicky” Lathum in the “American Pie” films, opened up about her personal and professional life, explaining why she thinks she could have made it “bigger” in Hollywood.
“I’m not married, I don’t have kids,” Reid told her longtime friend, Derek Warburton, for the latest issue of Mr. Warburton Magazine. “And I think, in Hollywood, if you don’t have kids or you’re not married, you’re judged. 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,'” she continued, questioning: “What if you can’t have kids or what if you don’t want to get married?
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“You can’t judge people on that anymore,” Reid said, adding, “It’s the one thing that I think is really unfair about our society.”
During her rise to fame, after starring in 1998’s “The Big Lebowski”, Reid was branded the “bad girl image,” which she continues to reject to date. She recalled how tabloid bullying derailed her career despite not doing anything wrong, adding that she’s “never been to jail.” She even joked about being the “godmother” of celebrity attention that stars like Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan dealt with after her.
“I was the first one that started this image. The difference is I never did sex tapes. I never did anything wrong — I’ve never even gotten a speeding ticket,” Reid said. “But what I did get punished for, if I wasn’t at work and I wasn’t shooting, I went to Europe right away. I’d be popping bottles, and having a great time. But who doesn’t do that?
“I was just on an attack,” she said of the negative media scrutiny, which led to unfair treatment within the public eye. “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. I didn’t have the money like Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian [who] had the greatest lawyers in the world. If you try to sue them, you’re gonna get crushed. So what are you gonna do? You gotta go away for a little while.
“I’m still here now. I’m at the second coming of my age,” Reid assured, “and I’ve never been happier… If I didn’t get checked and get hurt and realize what was going on, I would never be the girl sitting here.
“I learned my privacy, I learned who’s my friend, who I need to keep around me, and who I love,” she added.
Upon reclaiming her freedom, Reid has a number of projects coming up, including “Hollywood Heist”, which she stars in alongside Nick Cannon and Alec Baldwin. The crime film is currently in post-production.
