Alyson Hannigan Doesn’t Want Her Teen Kids Watching ‘American Pie’

At the ages of 12 and 15, it’s only natural that Alyson Hannigan’s daughters are kinda, sorta curious about mom’s TV and movie roles. But that doesn’t mean Hannigan isn’t going to put off at least some of the viewing for as long as possible, she told Us Weekly.

When her kids were in middle school, they wanted to check out Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the TV series that starred both Hannigan and their dad, Alexis Denisof. Still a little too young, Hannigan thought, so to hold them off, she instead showed them the music video for George Harrison’s “Got My Mind Set on You,” which featured a teenage Denisof trying to win the heart of a carnival girl.

“I accidentally traumatized them,” Hannigan said. “Something happened when they watched that where they didn’t like seeing their dad — even though he is a teenager, looks nothing like he does now — flirting with somebody else. And they immediately were like, ‘Hmm, we don’t wanna watch How I Met Your Mother.’ Because I’m married to somebody else, and something just switched where they don’t wanna see us with anyone else.”

That’s just one of the reasons — cough — that Hannigan has kept her daughters from watching any of her work in the American Pie films. But she’s worried that a recent lyrical reference may have opened that door. “Taylor might’ve piqued their interest,” she said of Swift’s song “So High School,” which contains the line, “I’m watching American Pie with you on a Saturday night.”

“They haven’t mentioned that they want to see it, but they know how exciting it is,” Hannigan confessed. “That’s the one I dread the most. Hopefully, I can just ride it out until they’re in college.”

In the popular series of teen sex comedies, Hannigan played Michelle Flaherty, the seemingly very demure, very mindful flute player who turns out to be a sexual dominant. She teaches Jim an alternative to warm apple pie in the first American Pie, gives him sex tips in American Pie 2 and engages in some under-the-restaurant-table shenanigans in American Wedding. 

Even Hannigan’s Buffy co-star Sarah Michelle Gellar was a little freaked out by the frank sexuality of the original, politely telling Hannigan that the film was “not really my cup of tea.”

If that was Gellar’s reaction, imagine kids who were weirded out by dad trying to woo another girl in a music video. It’s easy to understand why mom is keeping those American Pie DVDs locked in a cabinet.  

It’s a safe bet that Hannigan won’t send them to band camp either.