Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter’s Dead (1991)

[Youre My Boy Blu!]

Originally Posted by RachaelLane1984

Yeah, that's true. As Married With Children continued it took the "dumb blonde" stereotype a bit too far I thought with making Kelly so stupid that she couldn't read or spell and yeah your right as her intelligence dropped the character became much more slutty.

I agree 100% with what you said about Applegate I do agree that it was a good role because it gave her an opportunity to show that she could do more than just play an "airhead" which again she was known for at that time on Married With Children so perhaps in way this saved her from being sterotyped in the future. What do you think?

Unfortunately, her efforts may have fallen on blind eyes.
Afterall, up until the last season of MWC she appeared in Gregg Araki's Nowhere as Dingbat, which from my recollection was among the worst airhead roles she probably ever played.
For the record, the movie Nowhere is an underground classic and I enjoy it, but in terms of her role, it didn't do her any favors.
It was later followed up by a role opposite of Mark Whalberg in The Big Hit as a *****y control freak, exhibiting tendencies of an airhead.

2003 probably may be best represented as pivotal year where she appears in the forgettable "View from the top", in which she plays one of several airhead flight stewardess, but then turns in a small but more dramatic role in Wonderland.

It really may not have been until the following year in 2004 that she was able to deliver on what DTMTBD promised as she appeared as Veronica Corningstone on Anchorman. That role allowed her to assert intellectual dominance over other characters, even though those characters were idiots, she was clearly the smart one even though the characters mistook her for being naive and/or stupid.
The only other two movies I recall seeing her in after that was Going the Distance and Hall Pass. Both movies that put her in control of a character that wasn't dumbed down.

I don't know her full range, and maybe I'm just being a little too generous with my compliments but I wouldn't be surprised if she proved herself equally as capable as Jennifer Connelly, another actress who'd typically been identified for her beauty before her acting ability.