'Little House on the Prairie' star Melissa Gilbert says being 'raggedy and dirty' landed her iconic role

Fox News

08-06-2025

Melissa Gilbert ditched the Hollywood glam to star in "Little House on the Prairie."
The actress, who starred as Laura Ingalls, recently appeared on the "Hey Dude… The 90s Called!" podcast and opened up about what it was like auditioning for her role in the film, which paved the way for the series.
"Little House on the Prairie" aired from 1974 to 1983.
"I would change into my audition uniform, which was just overalls and a flannel shirt and tennis shoes," the 61-year-old recalled, according to People magazine.
"And whatever dirt was on my face at the time or food or whatever, it was just left there. My mom would throw my hair into pigtails, and then I'd just go in and sit on the floor and do my homework until they called me in.
"That's what happened with the 'Little House audition,'" Gilbert told the outlet. "The first audition, it was like a room full of girls with their mom primping and making barrel curls on their fingers, you know, and straightening their pinafores. And I came in all raggedy and dirty and messy.
"It worked."
The star described how the audition process was competitive, but ditching the Hollywood glam proved to be key. Gilbert later found out she got the role from Michael Landon's daughter, Leslie.
"I was at school one day, and I was in the lunch area. And this girl in an upper grade walked over to me, and she said, 'Are you Melissa?' And I said, 'Yeah, I am.' And she said, 'I'm Leslie Landon. And my dad says you're gonna be Half Pint.'"
According to the outlet, Leslie heard the news at a family dinner the previous night. It was there where the patriarch declared, "We found our Laura."
"There were no cellphones, obviously, back then," said Gilbert. "So, I run screaming to the office and tell them I have to call my mom immediately. My agents didn't know yet. My mom didn't know yet. Leslie got in so much trouble. We've been really close friends ever since that day. … That was just the beginning of a friendship that was filled with a lot of misadventures too, for, now, 50 years or more."
WATCH: 'LITTLE HOUSE' STAR MICHAEL LANDON WAS STUBBORN ABOUT HIS HEALTH: DAUGHTER
It was a lucky break for Gilbert, who was previously rejected for a role in a remake of "A Miracle on 34th Street," a part she really wanted.
"I was really sad, and I remember my dad. … I was sitting in the garage," she said. "My dad used to build furniture when he wasn't on the road when he wasn't working. So, I was in his tool shop, and he said to me, 'Listen, just because you didn't get this, it's OK. It just means something better is gonna come along.'
"I remember crying and saying, 'There's nothing better! What's better?' And two weeks later, 'Little House on the Prairie.'"
In 2024, Gilbert told Fox News Digital she had to leave Los Angeles to age gracefully.
"I looked at myself in the mirror several years back," Gilbert recalled. "I was living in Los Angeles, and I did not recognize who I was. I had overfilled my face and my lips. My forehead didn't move. I was still dyeing my hair red. I was driving a Mustang convertible. I was a size two in an unhealthy way. I looked like a frozen version of my younger self, and that's not who I was.
"I was stuck," Gilbert admitted. "I could feel myself fighting it. And I said to myself, 'It's time to age.' I had to leave Los Angeles to do that — not Hollywood — Los Angeles specifically."
Gilbert said she and her husband, actor Timothy Busfield, moved to his home state of Michigan after their wedding in 2013.
They lived there for five years. She felt free to finally age.
"I stop coloring my hair," she explained. "I had [my] breast implants removed. I decided to just be the best, healthiest version of myself without this pressure to look a certain way, and it paid off in a huge way.
"I finally found my feet as a woman, fully, 100% strong in my own knowledge, in my own accomplishments. Everything got easier. And a bonus? I have a lot more free time not staring in a mirror, sitting in a dermatologist's chair or sitting in a hair chair."
In 2019, Gilbert and Busfield bought a rustic cottage on 14 acres in the Catskill Mountains. Life today is "incredibly fulfilling," she said.
"It's remarkable," Gilbert gushed. "I love being this age. There are things about it that are not a lot of fun. I don't like it when my ankles ache in the morning or my skin's drier. Aging is not for sissies, but it is certainly better than the alternative. And I've never felt better in my skin."