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Pop Culture | Celebrities | 90s

Rumors Said She Became A Real Witch, But Where Is Fairuza Balk Now?

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We all remember the first time we watched The Craft. It made us all want to become witches, even though I think that probably wasn't the intention.

We all watched Sarah prevent her former friend Nancy from hurting her friends, and saw the effects that all this dark magic seemed to have on them all. It wasn't great, but you know what, we all secretly wished we could have powers too.

The Craft
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Fairuza Balk starred as Nancy, and while the powers seemed to take hold of her and make her lose all control her abilities were impressive. Just... you know... ignore the murders I guess?

The movie may have come out a long, long time ago now, but it seems as though we haven't seen as much of Fairuza Balk as we thought we would. What has she been doing?

Is Fairuza Balk a real witch?

The Craft
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First of all, people thought that the young actress was actually a real witch. That's right, she was so convincing in the movie that people started to believe that she had actually been a practiced witch, and that she was continuing her spells after the movie was done filming.

But she's actually had to address it before because people were so sure that she was practicing witchcraft.

“The true story is I found this occult shop in L.A. and I used to go there to ask them questions and do my research,”

“They were really lovely people. [The woman who owned it] wanted to retire. She couldn’t put the kind of money into it that it needed to keep it up and so it was going to be turned into a Chinese restaurant.

"I thought for the oldest occult shop in the country, that’s a tragedy. There was a man that used to work there and he had an encyclopedic knowledge of the subject and he was a sort of a teacher to me during [The Craft].

"I thought, what a shame this is going to be turned into a Chinese restaurant. So I bought it and put some work into it and helped it survive.”

Fairuza Balk
Columbia Pictures

So while she may own an occult shop, she says she isn't practicing.

“But people of course were like, ‘She bought an occult shop and she’s fully into this and it’s all real.’

"That has taken on its entire own mythology that’s essentially out of my hands.

“You can tell the truth and talk to people but they want to believe what they want to believe. What can you do? I’m not involved with that shop anymore. It was a very long time ago.”

She sold the store in 2001, but it's nice to know she helped it stay alive so it wouldn't get turned into a Chinese food restaurant!

She's gotten into music

Fairuza Balk
Steve Granitz/Wire Image

Since the 90s, she's actually started to branch out into music. She released a single under the name Armed Love Militia in 2010, called "Stormwinds."

She hates Hollywood

She seems to think that the people in Hollywood have "no morals."

"What people choose to do in the name of politics, which is basically in the name of money, there are no morals, there's no integrity at all.

"They'd sell their child down the river for money."

She admitted that Hollywood was hard on her when she was young.

"I struggled a lot with being pushed too hard in my twenties, with people telling me that I had to keep taking more and more movies because that's really one when I'd be relevant.

"Hollywood is designed that way; it's always about the new flavor of the moment and I've always preferred to be a bit more mysterious.

"I'd rather only take on projects that I want to, not take everything that's offer to me so I can be more relevant. There's no satisfaction in working like that, at least for me."

Her memories of The Craft

The Craft Nancy
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It has been a long time since The Craft came out, but she still has so many good memories.

"What I remember really enjoying at the time was doing all the research into Wicca for the role of Nancy because I had no idea that it was something that was all about empowered women.

"That was incredible to see a religion celebrating women as goddesses and then using that as an allegory throughout the movie.

"Especially at that time because younger female characters usually weren't perceived with that kind of power - not in many horror or genre movies at least."

The Craft
Columbia Pictures

She enjoyed the fact that they were all outsiders.

"And I loved how these girls had found their confidence even though none of them were well liked by their peers - they didn't care; they just did what they wanted, and there's something kind of cool and fun about playing in that world."

The Craft
Columbia Pictures

She has actually learned how the movie impacted a lot of fans.

"What's also incredible about The Craft is how it got a generation of girls through a lot of tought stuff that those teenage years throw at you...

"I've heard stories from fans who have told me how The Craft helped them accept themselves of gave them the strength to come out or escape from an abusive relationship or even gave them the courage to stand up for themselves, and I think that speaks volumes for the movie we made."

Plans for the future?

Fairuza Balk
George Pimentel/Wire Image

While you may feel like you haven't seen her much, she has been in a few smaller projects. Most recently she has been in the movies August Falls and Battle Scars, and is currently filming one called Hell is Where the Home Is.

"I always want to stay interested; I never just want to work for the sake of working. There has to be 'something' there for me so that I can grow from the experience."

Even though she loves acting and plans to keep it up, she also wants to venture into writing.

Fairuza Balk
Jeff Vespa / WireImage

"I'd really like to try writing one day though; I'm not sure if I'd be a good writer but I'd like to try and maybe test those waters.

"I just love acting so much and I think that if you can continue to challenge yourself and find new ways to explore archetypes and different characters, then acting can be enough to fulfill you creatively and I think I'm still at that point.

"I haven't really thought much about ever really branching out to be honest, but maybe it's time that I did."

So keep your eyes open, because she hasn't disappeared at all!

But what about the rest of the cast of The Craft? What happened to the rest of the coven since the movie came out?

They actually almost had a completely different cast or the movie, and it's a pretty huge change.

The stars are actually hoping to one day make a sequel. Do you think you would watch that?

Source - Bloody Disgusting / Ranker / YouTube / Dread Central