Why Phoebe Cates Disappeared From Hollywood
by Valerie Ettenhofer · /FilmFor a few years in the '80s, it felt like Phoebe Cates was everywhere in Hollywood. The child of an entertainment-focused family (her dad was a prolific producer of stage and screen), Cates made her on-screen debut in 1982's "Paradise," a controversial film that's best-remembered as a sort of off-brand "Blue Lagoon" story that featured Cates' underage character nude (the actress was 17 at the time of filming). According to Cates' costar Willie Aames, the nudity in question was filmed by body doubles, but the discourse surrounding the movie would inform Cates' place in pop culture before she even came of age.
Cates' most famous roles would come soon after, and by 1994, she would largely be retired from acting entirely. So why did Phoebe Cates leave Hollywood? The answer is hers to share, and interviews she and her family have given both during her on-screen career and after it ended have been pretty enlightening. To understand why the actress left the screen, though, it's worth examining what made her famous — and her enduring, if objectified, place in pop culture today.
Phoebe Cates' Hollywood history
Cates' most famous role by far is her turn in "Fast Times At Ridgemont High," Amy Heckerling's coming-of-age classic from 1982. Filmed when she was just 18 years old, the initially X-rated movie quickly became famous for (among other scenes) a fantasy sequence in which Cates' character, Linda, unclips her red bikini top poolside. The topless moment quickly became the stuff of legends, and although the movie itself was much more realistic about sex and growing up than that male-gaze moment would imply, the pool scene has become a major part of the "Fast Times" legacy.
"Paradise" and "Fast Times At Ridgemont High" were Cates' first two roles on screen, but she continued acting regularly throughout the '80s and early '90s. Some of Cates' other early roles, like the sex comedy "Private School" and the TV drama "Baby Sister," typecast her as a sexually curious teen, but she also had major roles in Joe Dante's "Gremlins" films, the imaginary friend comedic fantasy "Drop Dead Fred," and the Michael J. Fox-led drama "Bright Lights, Big City." She also played a celebrity searching for her birth mother in the ABC miniseries "Lace."
Other Phoebe Cates credits include "Date With An Angel," "Shag," "I Love You To Death," and "Heart of Dixie." Cates' last film role before retiring came in 1994, when she played faux-royal Princess Caraboo in the historical comedy of the same name. Despite having a pretty stellar knack for nabbing lead roles, Cates stopped appearing in movies after this, but briefly came out of retirement for a role in 2001's "The Anniversary Party," from her "Fast Times" co-star Jennifer Jason Leigh. You can also hear Cates' voice in the video game "Lego Dimensions."
Cates stopped acting when she had kids
By the early '90s, Cates had married actor Kevin Kline, with whom she co-starred in "Princess Caraboo." The pair had two children, and Cates stopped acting around the time of their birth and focused instead on parenting them. MovieFone reports that Cates turned down a part in the 1991 Steve Martin comedy "Father of the Bride" because she was pregnant, and Kline once told Playboy (via the New Zealand Herald) that though the pair had a plan to trade off between parenting and acting gigs, Cates never went back. "We have agreed to alternate so that we're never working at the same time," he explained, "[but] whenever it's been her slot to work, Phoebe has chosen to stay with the children."
Cates' kids have both forged their own paths as artists. Owen Kline directed the 2022 movie "Funny Pages" and has acted on screen in movies like "The Squid and the Whale," while Greta Kline performs music under the name Frankie Cosmos. Her song "Fool" is fantastic, by the way.
She has plenty of interests outside of acting
Before she worked in Hollywood, Cates already had burgeoning careers as both a model and a ballet dancer, though an injury cut the latter path short, according to People. The former star has never seemed particularly beholden to sticking with one pasttime, and has been frank about the shortcomings of each of her careers with the press. In 1982, she told People that modeling "was just the same thing, over and over," admitting, "after a while I did it solely for the money." In the '90s, Cates began acting on stage, and told Bobbie Wygant that when performing in plays, she "felt a certain freedom and a certain connection with acting that I had never really felt before."
Reading Cates' interviews, it's easy to get the sense that she never glamorized her own Hollywood career, or saw it as the be-all, end-all of her life. She admitted in her People profile that she took her role in "Paradise" despite qualms about the nudity after her father made some choice comments about her options. "'How can you even question a lead in a feature film?'" she recalled him saying. "What are you going to do, model for the rest of your life? What are you so hung up on nudity for?'" Given the fact that Cates was at most 17 at that time, it sounds like she, like many child stars, made some major decisions about her future from a young age. Cates' daughter has also spoken about her mother's perspective on celebrity, telling The West Australian that her parents "weren't ever, like, into celebrity culture."
The actress was sometimes typecast in the '80s
Though Cates doesn't seem to have spoken about this much herself, the unfortunate reality is that she seemed to be typecast after she exploded on the scene with early roles featuring teen nudity. Cates was able to break the mold a few times with roles that showed a wider range, but in a sex-soaked '80s, she seemed to be commodified based on her looks and youth. Of course, those properties aren't intrinsic and permanent, and once Cates got married and had children, her window for playing teen vixens vanished.
In 2005, Cates told NBC's "The Big Idea" that "acting wasn't really an option for [her]" anymore, but didn't explain why. In 2001, she told Fox News that "some people have trouble with" her decision to focus on her family, and Kline noted that she brought the kids with her to the set of her last project, "The Anniversary Party." Owen and Greta appeared in the film, and Kline said it was "a matter of 'Phoebe doesn't leave her kids, so if you want Phoebe, the kids have to be there too.'" Cates has never explicitly said that Hollywood failed to make room for her as a mother, but plenty of other actresses have spoken up about their own experiences within the sexist moviemaking system. It's very possible that Cates straight-up doesn't want to act at all anymore for reasons that are unrelated to Hollywood's systemic flaws, but if she ever changes her mind, hopefully she can work on another production that allows her to put her family first.
What's Phoebe Cates up to now?
In 2005, Cates added another line to her wide-ranging resume, opening the Upper East Side store Blue Tree, according to ABC News. The outlet described the store as a "gift boutique," and Cates gave ABC viewers tips about choosing the right gift for their loved ones. The high-end store is still in operation, with Cates describing it on its website as "a general store but according to me."
As previously mentioned, Cates has also acted on stage, with her IMDb biography noting that she "has remained active in theater." Per the New Zealand Herald, Cates has also worked with charities related to Type 1 Diabetes, which her son has. And finally, she may be retired from screen work, but Cates did take the time to celebrate one of her most-loved roles several years ago: In 2015, she appeared at a "Gremlins" anniversary Q&A at New York's Anthology Film Archives.