‘Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century’: Kirsten Storms Recalls Beating Out Allison Mack for Lead Role (Exclusive)

Zenon: Girl of the 21^st Century and its two sequels are some of the most beloved Disney Channel movies, but Kirsten Storms, who played the titular role, reveals she almost wasn’t cast as the headstrong teen.

“I went through, like, seven callbacks,” Storms recalls. “The director and the producer were at odds with who to hire. The other person was Allison Mack [who went on to play Chloe Sullivan in Smallville, then spent time in prison for her involvement in the cult-like NXIVM organization]. The director wanted Allison Mack, and the producers wanted me.”

Not one to back down from a challenge, Storms gave it her all and wound up landing the role. “I went into it knowing I was not the director’s first choice, and it’s just in my personality to want to prove him wrong about his thoughts on if I could do it or not,” she explains. “That’s a great motivator for me always, and I just worked really hard.”

That it has become a cultural touchstone for millennials and the generations after is still surreal to Storms. “I never in a million years would have expected the reaction that movie got from people,” she marvels. “I do my best and hope for the best instead of expect it.”

Though Storms has been playing General Hospital‘s Maxie Jones for the past 20 years, Zenon remains one of her most recognizable roles, and she’s touched that it still holds a special place in fans’ hearts. “For the most part, it’s people my age who are in their 30s,” she says. “I do get a lot of messages from people saying they had their kids watch it with them recently, which I think is great. But, yeah, all the time, maybe even more than General Hospital, I get Zenon conversations going. It’s very cool and I’m very thankful for that, obviously.”

While there are scores of people for whom “zetus lapetus” is especially meaningful, Storms’ 11-year-old daughter Harper Barash, whom she shares with former Days of Our Lives co-star and ex-husband Brandon Barash, isn’t as passionate about the original, Zenon: The Zequel, or Zenon: Z3. “Harper is the type of kid who watches stuff and gets really engrossed in the story, so she actually does not pay attention to anything I’m in when it’s on TV,” Storms relays. “I tried playing Zenon for her, and I watched her glance up at it and check out what I was doing every little bit, but she was chatting with her friends on her iPad. And I looked at her, and I was like, ‘Are you not getting into this because you know that’s me, and this is not real?’ And she was like, ‘Well, I mean, no offense, Mom, but yeah.’”

However, Storms reports that Harper is a fan of Disney fare in general. “We’ve watched everything else on Disney+ that’s age-appropriate for her, like, 20 times. And she fangirls when she sees Carolyn Hennesy [who played Mrs. Chesterfield on Jessie and is Storms’ GH costar]. Her face gets red. But she won’t watch Zenon or focus on it for more than three or four minutes at a time.”

Twenty-six years after the first movie premiered, Storms appreciates the impact it had on her life, as well as the audience’s. “That franchise has been the highlight of my acting career,” she declares.

Zenon: Girl of the 21^st Century, Streaming Now, Disney+