Brenda Song Is Still Dreaming

In Gia Coppola’s new indie film, The Last Showgirl, Brenda Song flashes a side of her we’ve never seen before. The movie — about a group of performers at a topless Vegas revue who’ve been hit with the news that their show will close after 30 years — opens with the furious click-clacking of dozens of heels hitting metal stairs. Then, Song’s Mary-Anne enters the shot in a sequined bralette and headpiece, making a quip about a lackluster crowd: “Did someone raid a cemetery for this f*ckin’ audience?”

Pamela Anderson toplines the movie as Shelly, a veteran showgirl mourning the job that has carried her through her entire adult life, with Song, Jamie Lee Curtis, and Kiernan Shipka supporting. Mary-Anne is Shelly’s most honest (and hilarious) friend, only dancing in the spectacle “because it’s a job and it pays American dollars.” In an overwhelmingly somber film, Song’s delivery is a comedic balm. “It’s funny because up until these last couple of years I feel like I’ve never sworn on-screen,” Song tells me when I mention that some of her most laugh-out-loud beats in the movie involve her cursing — at an audience, at a door handle. “Coming from a Disney Channel background, I think people are almost scared. It feels weird to see you that way.”

For six years starting from when she was 16, Song played ditzy, iconic-to-baby-millennials socialite London Tipton on The Suite Life of Zack & Cody and its sequel series, The Suite Life on Deck — a role in which the dialogue was, of course, G-rated. “But I’ll be honest,” the star continues, “I think in LA, ‘f*ck’ is a verb. It’s a noun. It is an adjective. It’s natural in my language. Since having children, I’ve had to really watch myself. People like to say that Valley Girls say ‘like.’ I think we say ‘f*ck’ as much as ‘like.’”

The 36-year-old actor tells me this while clutching a latte at a café within walking distance from the family home in LA that she shares with her two children and her fiancée, a man who, incidentally, represents former child stardom more than anyone else in this town — or on this planet: Macaulay Culkin. Song has lived in this suburban part of the city known for its good schools and overall kid-friendliness since she was 19. “I have lived the life of a 30-year-old work woman since I was 11,” she tells me.

Now, of course, she is a 30-something working woman, one who arrives for our interview with her long brown hair in loose waves and wearing a navy short-sleeved knit top; fitted black pants; long almond-shaped gel nails in a deep cherry shade (“called Sangria or something”); and black leather ankle boots from The Row. “I’ve always loved Mary-Kate and Ashley. Hello! Who didn’t? They’re like my style icons,” Song gushes about the high-fashion label’s designers, incidentally, also former child stars. (Or, I begin to wonder, perhaps this theme is not actually entirely incidental.) “I love oversized classics with a twist. And now that I’m a little bit older, it’s just about being comfortable because I’m running around.”

She and Mack, as she affectionately calls Culkin throughout our interview, and their two sons, Dakota, 3, and Carson, 2, have opted for a relatively quiet life for two pop-culture figures of their wattage. “We’re basic,” she says when describing their Christmas plans with a content laugh. “We do our lights, we do our Elves on a Shelf, our Advent calendars.” Song’s parents live 25 minutes away — her mom is currently watching the kids — and her brother was California-bound from New York, as were some of Mack’s family. “We always host Christmas. That’s our favorite time. He cooks, I bake. The house is open.”

In 2023, the family made its first official public outing to commemorate Culkin’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. “That was such a special moment. We couldn’t have them miss that,” Song recalls. But “Dak was so scared of all the cameras. That’s one of the reasons why we sort of keep them away [from the spotlight]. They did not understand what was happening.” Another incident at a soccer practice convinced Song that they’d been doing the right thing by laying low. “My son was like, ‘Why is that man taking pictures of you, mama?’” Song says. “You could take pictures of me all day. I don’t care. But when it’s your kids, it’s different. They didn’t ask for this life.”

“I’ve lived the life of a 30-year-old work woman since I was 11.”

Song is relatively inactive on social media, which she cheerfully blames on her kids. (“I literally have 60,000 photos on my phone and all of them are of my children. I have nothing to post.”) But she was never obsessed with immortalizing every waking moment to begin with. “I grew up in front of the camera. I am not someone that, at a concert, takes video because I would much rather enjoy this moment and go back to the feeling than look back at a video,” she says. It didn’t hurt that the actor didn’t own a cellphone until she was 16. Prior to that, her only real gadget was a two-way pager Lindsay Lohan convinced her to buy while they were filming the Disney Channel Original Movie Get a Clue together in Toronto. (“She got it and she made me save up all of my per diem. We went to go get our little two-way pagers together,” Song says of her friendship with Lohan.)

Song’s latest turn as a showgirl is a major career moment for the actor who, since her Disney years, spent two years as a regular on the Hulu comedy Dollface but has largely appeared in made-for-streaming movies or guested on hit shows like New Girl and Scandal. (Though who could forget her literally fiery turn as Eduardo Saverin’s girlfriend in The Social Network?) According to her — and her agent — The Last Showgirl could not have come at a better time.

“I had just dropped off my son at preschool and was with Mack. We were sitting at Costco and it hadn’t opened yet,” she tells me when I ask about landing the part. “Mack was sitting there going, ‘Babe’ — he had never been to a Costco before we started dating — ‘We’re sitting in a Costco. I’m wearing Crocs. Costco’s not even open yet. You’ve tamed the beast, honey.’ And I was like, ‘How dare you, sir!’ And my agent calls me and she’s like, ‘Hey, I have this really great script for you. Do you have a second? What are you doing?’ And I was like, ‘Oh, I’m sitting in the parking lot at Costco before it opens.’ She goes, ‘I need to get you a job.’”

Song’s fans agree: The time is right for a Brendassaince.

Coppola’s vision of Vegas evokes the work of her famous aunt Sofia: It’s a naturalistic but wistful look at the interior lives of women who are always putting on a show — in this case, while wearing archival Bob Mackie outfits, rhinestones, and lashes so fluffy they’re more prominent than their noses in profile. The themes of the movie — the three-way tug-of-war between art, commerce, family; the struggle to find one’s footing in the fickle world of entertainment — will hit home for anyone with creative inclinations. But Song thinks it will especially resonate with any woman who’s ever second-guessed her own ambition.

“I read the script and was just so blown away by how human it was, how raw and how vulnerable,” Song says. “Mary-Anne, to me, was so heartbreaking. I felt like she really represented the working class. She was excited to be a dancer. She had big dreams, big hopes. And somewhere along the way of the monotonous cycle of being in the same show for 10 years…” Her voice trails off. “I did a show for [six] years, so I know what that’s like where even though every show is different, it’s the same and you get stuck in the sort of cycle. Mary-Anne somehow lost that passion and it became just a job to her. She built up these walls because she was just trying to survive.”

“There was something freeing about not being worried every two seconds: ‘Oh my God, this is the least amount of clothing I’ve ever worn in my career. I just had two kids. I feel so insecure.’”

The film shot for 18 days in the bowels of the Rio Hotel & Casino in Vegas this past January, and Song only had a couple of weeks to prep. “I was so nervous because I don’t get cast in movies like this. That’s why I’m so grateful and thankful to Gia for taking this risk. I feel like people usually hire me for what I’ve done, not for what I’m hoping to do,” Song says.

The production was a true indie, with a small budget and compressed timeline, and was shot in beautiful, slow-going super 16mm film. The less-is-more ethos even made its way into the characters’ makeup. “When you didn’t see us in our showgirl makeup, we weren’t wearing any makeup. None at all,” Song says. “The first day we tried makeup on and Gia was like, ‘It doesn't feel real.’ And Pam was like, ‘These women don’t have time for it.’ And Pamela being Pamela, she goes, ‘I’m not doing it. You guys shouldn’t do it either.’”

Even as a child actor, “They put powder on you, they put a little concealer,” Song continues. “In this movie there was no place for it. There was something really freeing about not being worried every two seconds going, ‘Oh my God, this is the least amount of clothing that I’ve ever worn in my career. I just had two kids. I feel so insecure.’ And working with these women — who every day uplifted and supported me, made me feel beautiful — made me feel comfortable.”

“I grew up in front of the camera. I am not someone that, at a concert, takes video — I’d much rather enjoy this moment than look back at a video.”

Song’s career has officially found its second act, but not long ago she wasn’t sure if she’d even continue acting. “I had two pregnancies in the same calendar year. It was a lot,” she says. “Once I stepped into motherhood, it made me question a lot: my place in this industry, my place as a woman, ageism in this industry, society’s pressures of what beauty is, what being young is. Things that I’d never questioned before. And also, my priority is my children, so I can’t just uproot my life and go live in Bulgaria for nine months to shoot a movie. I was like, ‘Does acting still fit in my life?’”

After a lot of deliberation and conversation with Culkin — who, for the record, told her she was “insane” for thinking the best of her career was behind her — she stepped into 2023 ready to work and ready for change, which included parting ways with her managers of 26 years and her publicist of 13 years. “Family life is the most important thing,” she says, “but I’ve always said to be the best parent, the best partner, I have to be the best me. And a huge part of that is work. I have to be able to honor that.”

Next up, Song will star opposite Kate Hudson in Running Point, the new Netflix comedy from Mindy Kaling, Ike Barinholtz, and Dave Stassen about a fictional version of the LA Lakers. Song’s character, Ali Lee — a tightly wound, constantly swearing corporate girlboss — is based on real-life Lakers exec Linda Rambis. Though those who only know Song from her girly-girl Suite Life character might be surprised, Brenda knows ball: “I think on the entire cast, guys included, I am the biggest sports fan besides Dave and Ike.”

She takes the concept of being a “diehard fan” so seriously, in fact, that she was once whisked to the hospital because she began to hyperventilate while watching a game at home. “I have a Lakers championship ring with my name on it,” she says proudly. “When you walked into my dressing room at the Suite Life, you would walk into a life-size cutout of Kobe Bryant. I was all Laker’d out. I watched 82 games a season. They had to put a monitor underneath the stages.”

She grows giddy describing how her Running Point co-stars indulged her expertise. “Kate used to always say, every day she wants to have a little mic and be like, ‘So Brenda, what’s happening in sports today?’ Our characters were kind of like who we were in real life. I’d be whispering to her, ‘Oh, that’s actually so-and-so, this player.’ Or, ‘This term actually means this.’ It was so much fun because I got to really step into something that I love and not a lot of people know that I love.” Song also gets to “rep [her] peeps” and speak a little Hmong in the first episode after Kaling revised her character, originally written as a Korean woman, to reflect Song’s heritage.

“As I’ve gotten older, I feel like the opportunities and the work that I’m doing is starting to reflect where I’m at and where I’m allowing myself to go, and I’m hoping that it just continually progresses,” she says. “I don’t know where my limitations are and I hope I get the opportunity to sort of stretch those limitations and see. I feel like I haven't done my best work yet.”

Though she’s happy about these two “dream projects” and what sounds like an equally dreamy suburban home life, Song confesses that, like so many working parents, the demands on her life can feel like a lot. “I miss back in my early 20s when I could just sit on the couch with my dogs, watch Snapped and watch women kill their husbands and read a crazy thriller and knit all day,” she jokes.

These days, she and Culkin usually wind down with a game of Mario Kart or a little football on TV. “Mack and I are both very antisocial,” she says. “Our kids have more of a social calendar than I will ever have.” Sounds pretty f*ckin’ sweet.