Entertainment

Remember 'Curly Sue'?!

by Emily Lackey

Do you all remember that scene in Curly Sue where Sue sings “You’re Nobody ‘Til Somebody Loves You”? If you’re anything like me and everyone else who has ever seen that movie, you probably died crying. Like, just dropped dead right there from the sheer emotion of it, even though you were something like eight years old and unsure of all these things that you were feeling. Well, get ready to have Curly Sue make you cry all over again — tAlisan Porter, the woman who played Curly Sue in 1991, is all grown up, and she auditioned for The Voice. And, believe me when I tell you that this audition is a major tearjerker: Not only is Porter all grown up with a stunning singing voice, but she's also had a lot of experiences between when we last saw her and now. So what has Porter been up to since Curly Sue?

During her audition, Porter gets into some of it — in the clip, she's seen mentioning that she got sober eight years ago, and has since married the love of her life and had two children with him. Sure enough: In 2012, she married Brian Autenrieth, an actor who has been in a number of projects, including Days of Our Lives.

Career-wise, since Curly Sue was released in 1991, Porter has been involved in a number of acting projects herself. She was in Undressed, Shrink Rap, and Meet Dave to name a few — but, that said, for the most part, her acting career has been quiet since her last project in 2008. Her most recent public work has actually been as a singer and songwriter — which makes sense, considering she's auditioning for The Voice. In 2010, she wrote two songs for Secrets of the Mountain and performed them as well: “Tomorrows a Better Day” and “This Time.” Before that, she wrote and performed a song from the Van Wilder: Freshman Year soundtrack in 2009, “Light Up the Sky.” So, clearly, music has been a part of her professional work ever since Curly Sue.

And I’m so happy to see her long career and hard work coming together in this amazing audition on The Voice. I mean, just listen to that girl sing! It seems to me that everything has been leading her to this moment on that stage, because she absolutely nails it.

Tune in to the Season 10 premiere on February 29th to see more of Porter and all the other contestants auditioning for The Voice.