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‘She Was Really A Little Girl’: Dean Butler On Kissing Teenage Melissa Gilbert while shooting Little House On The Prairie
Dean Butler defends the age gap kiss between 15-year-old Melissa Gilbert and him while shooting Little House On The Prairie show.
Actor Dean Butler, who played the role of Almanzo Wilder in “Little House On The Prairie”, has now released his new memoir titled, “Prairie Man”. In the memoir, he opened up about his rise to fame and the age-gap scene in the show that is still considered questionable.
Butler also touched up on struggling with anxiety after knowing that he would be kissing his 15-year-old co-star, Melissa Gilbert. The actor was 23 at the time and he added that she had her first kiss both on-screen and in real life. Many are talking about his take on the entire experience as it comes across in seemingly a defensive way. Read ahead to know more about it.
Dean Butler talks about Kissing teenage Melissa Gilbert
Talking about the same, the actor told Fox New Digital, how it’s difficult in today’s time. He stated that one can't do that today as there would be way too much “blowback” that they did. He added that it was handled so “tastefully” that the audience forgot about the age gap.
The actor said, “She was really a little girl.” He added that Melissa was sophisticated and skilled as an actress. “But as a young woman, she was very inexperienced, “ said Butler. The performer said that it was much harder for Melissa than it was for him.
Further in the interview, the Forever star said that many young actresses might have “folded” under pressure. Gilbert did not have any experience as she had never been on a date or kissed a guy.
Butler added, “So to ask her to step into that when she had no real-life experience? It does speak to Melissa’s gumption and her courage.” He further continued that the actress pulled all her anxieties aside and went ahead with the scene. “She knew what she had to do to be the Laura (name of her character ) that she was supposed to be,” said the actor.
Gilbert’s mother cried due to the kiss between Dean Butler and his teenage co-star
In his memoir, he wrote that there were almost 100 people who were around them on set, but it was the actress’s mother, Barbara Abeles who broke down in tears.
The actor wrote that he had a sense that her mother was not fully supportive of his presence in the series. He added, “Her unhappiness culminated, perhaps, in not being able to bear seeing me kiss her daughter. It was a protective displeasure; Barbara knew her daughter. I didn’t, and in some sense, I’m glad."
He expressed how the audience noticed the scene and age gap. After the episode was aired, a mother who was upset after watching it, wrote to the Midwest newspaper about the casting director Susan Sukman. She wrote that Sukman should be “burned at the stake” for paring the teenage actress with a “grown man.”
Butler mentioned to the publication that he received some letters and comments about the age gap. He added that there were concerned mothers and seeing the young actress with someone way older than her. in a romantic relationship was challenging for some people.
The actor said some people understood “the spirit of the program.” Butler expressed that people who were well versed with the book know that there was a 10-year age gap between the two romantic leads when they got married. The male character is 29 and the female is 18.
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