Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' Original April O'Neil Reveals Why She Wasn't In The Sequel

Variety sat down with Judith Hoag to get the skinny on exactly what happened on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that led to her not being invited back for the sequel. The actress revealed to the trade that she was never even approached about the idea of reprising her role from the first movie, and she blames it on her own personal complaining - particularly about the six-day schedule and the amount of violence in the movie. Said Hoag,

"I thought the movie suffered because of that. It was something I spoke to the producers about, I think they thought I was too demanding, and moved on."

But those weren't the only issues encountered on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set. The actress and the crew also had multiple issues with just the look of the character. Steve Barron wished to replicate April O'Neil's look from the cartoon- where she wore a yellow jumpsuit and a big head of red hair. The production was able to handle the creation of animatronic Turtle outfits, but this costume was apparently just too much to handle.

"They had this really horrifying white jumpsuit and dyed it yellow. It was nixed... I remember just hating my hair in the movie. They gave me this really horrible perm and it never cooperated."

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was one of the biggest roles in Hoag's early career, and while not coming back for the sequel certainly didn't help her career, she has gotten steady acting work on both film and television since, including starring on the country music-themed show Nashville. She also harbors no ill-will towards the franchise. She has watched the original with her kids, and even has plans to see the new one. "I will see it out of curiosity," Hoag said. "You want the franchise to keep going forward and do well."

I mean, if we carried things to their sensible conclusion, the Teenage mutant ninja turtles would be the Cokey Cokey Cokey Cokes.

The latest season of the Toys That Made Us has a TMNT episode, and it is also a highly informative installment on the general history of the turtles. Good 'sode.

The latest season of the Toys That Made Us has a TMNT episode, and it is also a highly informative installment on the general history of the turtles. Good 'sode.

That was what inspired all this.

I love that they spent a little while giving Kirby credit for the inspiration... those guys were the dream come true.

And yet you went with the weird April ONeil thing and let me hike my leg and pwn with my epic Netflix announcement post.

Both of those Aprils are hot and you know it.

Did you check out MOVIES THAT MADE US? Good?