11 Super '90s Celeb Quotes

The 1990s were a magical and almost surreal time. The decade has been coming back in full force, not only with fashion but also with reboots of classic films, and nostalgia for being a '90s kid doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon. You might even be reading this post while wearing a tattoo choker or listening to old Lauryn Hill albums. And even though with the Internet celebrity culture has hit a new wave, celeb madness is nothing new. Though some elements of the '90s have lasted the test of time, others have not aged so well. And digging up old celebrity interviews proves that fame was a just a liiiittle bit different pre-new millennium, and definitely weirder.

A lot of the stars that we know and love today in music, TV, and movies started their careers back in what we now think of as that strange, bygone neon decade, and luckily, with the Web, there are archives of some quintessentially 1990s quotes that celebs just can't get away from. Let's revisit some of the very timely, but now seemingly ancient thoughts that these stars had back when they were just starting out their careers — which they may or may not want to deny ever saying at all.

1. Brad Pitt Giving Dating Advice

"[I've learned] the dating span of good and bads. If Madonna's Truth or Dare is her favorite, run. Run. If she was taking notes during the Sharon Stone cross-your-legs scene in that hit movie Basic Stinky, run. Run!" Pitt said in a 1999 interview with Rolling Stone .

Wow! So many '90s insults in just one sentence. Also, weird misogyny from Brad Pitt?

2. Will Smith & DJ Jazzy Jeff Talking About Their First Album

First of all, I am living for the outfit Smith is wearing in this 1992 interview: an incredibly '90s ensemble featuring a bucket hat and windbreaker in matching colors. The two had to collaborate long-distance between Los Angeles and Philadelphia: “It was more like a fax album,” Jazzy Jeff said. “That’s a plug for telecommunications,” Smith said. My god! A fax machine!

3. *NSYNC’s First Interview On MTV News

OK, first of all, they were doing this 1998 interview on MTV News , which feels archaic enough. This was their very first appearance as a group on the show, and the BEST, most '90s quote in this interview came from Lance Bass who said, when asked about their potential solo careers: “We’ll always be *NSYNC.” Oh, the hope!

4. Britney Spears Talks "Baby One More Time" & Becoming A Star

An adorable, uncomfortable, and shy Britney Spears talked to Rosie O’Donnell in 1999 about becoming a star and still being starstruck by her idols. She was 17 here, and one of my favorite, super '90s quotes from this interview is when O'Donnell asked if Spears was getting crazy fans. “I went home and went to Old Navy, and all these little girls were like, ahhh!” Spears said. She also said she felt starstruck around her idols: “I sat behind Whitney Houston at the AMAs, and I couldn’t say anything to her!”

5. Leonardo Dicaprio On Feeling Blessed To Be Doing Titanic

“When you’re on a ship that looks exactly like the Titanic, and being on it on a every-day basis… there were certain moments where I felt like, wow, I’m really here," DiCaprio told Entertainment Tonight in 1997. "Kate is such an amazing person and our chemistry just happened on screen. As far as doing the love scene... we laughed about it a lot.” Wow, Leo, you are so precious. When are you and Kate Winslet actually going to get together?

6. Mariah Carey On Her Christmas Album

Listen to Carey talk about what is now the best Christmas album of all time, just weeks after it was released. She told ABC in 1994: "It’s pretty amazing (it sold 7 million copies) considering it’s only been out for three weeks. When they told me that, I was shocked!” And her favorite song? “The single that’s out now, 'All I Want For Christmas Is You.' It’s just a cute little Christmas song.” Mariah, how could you have known back then what a phenomenal Christmas gift you gave to the whole world?

7. Keri Russell Talking About That Controversial Haircut

Keri Russell is great on The Americans, but to many Americans, she will forever first and foremost be Felicity Jones from Felicity. If you don't remember, Felicity was a show starring Russell and created by JJ Abrams (that guy is everywhere) that ran from 1998 to 2002. In the summer of 1999, Russell cut off her beautiful, long locks, and people were shocked and pissed to the degree that the show's ratings sank like a stone in Season 2.

In an interview with the Baltimore Sun in January of 2000 when asked about the controversial crop, Russell said, "I think it was a good idea. For the character, I think it was a brave, crazy, sudden, extreme thing. But those are all things that a girl in college would do." Regardless of the fact that she's right, Felicity's haircut has become cultural shorthand for a huge TV mistake.

8. This Totally Naomi Campbell Interview

This excerpt from a model documentary in 1994 shows Christy Turlington and Naomi Campbell chatting about their experiences with fame. Turlington said she could go relatively under the radar when she wasn't on the catwalk, but Campbell was like, no, I am too famous for that kind of plebe anonymity. "I have the opposite problem. I can't walk down the street in London," Campbell said. Thus began the era of Naomi (which we are still very much in).

9. When Alanis Morissette Revealed She Went To Cuba With Leo

You heard right. Everyone's favorite Canadian angry girl crooner Morissette talked to Rolling Stone in 1998, the day before her album Former Infatuation Junkie debuted. First of all, Morissette was only 24 in 1998, so there's some 30 under 30 depressing stats for you. She said in the interview of the break that she took between her albums:

"I went to Cuba. A whole bunch of us went. Artists and actors and people in the political world and people in investment banking, just sort of as a cultural exchange. I was the only Canadian on the trip, so for me, obviously, it wasn't as much of a coup, because I would have been able to go whenever I wanted, but it was amazing to watch the experience through American people's eyes." When pressed by the interviewer, she also admitted that Leonardo DiCaprio was a part of that whole bunch. The '90s were a strange time indeed.

10. Winona Ryder Taking No Crap

Ugh, I am still in the Winona Forever camp. In this interview with Rolling Stone in 1994, Ryder was only 22 years old, but she was already a huge star from films like Reality Bites, Edward Scissorhands, Heathers, and Beetlejuice. The interview is really, really cute (she reads her diary entries aloud), but also incredibly sharp and honest. The best quote comes when Ryder shows her typical fierce edge that seems too big for someone so small:

"Why am so I defensive? I'm defensive because it offends me so much when... OK, I don't want to f*ck this up... I know a lot of young actors who live in these dumps. They have their books scattered, and their mattress is on the floor — and they're millionaires. That's fine. That's their way of living. But the reason they're doing it is that they're ashamed." Call 'em out, baby!

11. Everything About The Friends Cast's 1994 Interview With Katie Couric

First of all, Katie Couric's look in this video hilarious and amazing. Second, the Today show host's 1994 interview with the cast of Friends is the most '90s thing I have ever seen, besides the dancing baby. It took place during the show's first season, and they are all so shy and young and silly. "The show is about six individuals who live in the Big Apple and each have separate careers," David Schwimmer described it, in the most Ross way ever.

I also love when Couric said, "This is a hot show for Generation X," which bothers Courteney Cox, who responded, "I don't know why it's that negative, I guess it implies we're all aimless and sitting around listening to music and watching The Brady Bunch." Sounds like baby boomers hating on Millennials right now, to be honest.

What a time to be starting your career! I'm glad these stars have learned a thing or two along the way about interview presence and poise, but I gotta say, I miss the era of goofy MTV News interviews.

Image: NBC