'Cedar Cove' star Andie MacDowell was a 'hard rocker' in high school

Andie MacDowell, who currently stars on Hallmark Channel’s sun-soaked series Debbie Macomber’s Cedar Cove, may have grown up watching Little House on the Prairie and The Waltons, but there was definitely a wild streak. After explaining that she still doesn’t sit down long enough to watch a lot of TV—unless it’s binge-watching the first season of Girls with one of her daughters —the subject turns to daughter Margaret Qualley working with Liv Tyler on The Leftovers.

“She went to see Aerosmith. And I did go see Aerosmith when I was in high school,” MacDowell says. “I was a hard rocker when I was in high school. Not very me now, but I was diggin’ it, big time.” What does she remember about her concert experience? “I’ve been very open and honest with my children on what not to do. I told them the truth: there are a lot of things I wish I hadn’t [done]. I was straight by the time I was in the eleventh grade—and that’s a pretty scary comment—but I did go see Aerosmith in the tenth grade,” she says. “I was not legally drinking, but I was drinking. We drank tequila, and there were three of everybody by the time I got to the concert. I went to the bathroom, and I thought it was very strange that everybody parted when I walked in. But thank goodness I got that out of my system really fast, and by the time I was in my senior year, I was making really good grades and I had my act together….We’re laughing about it now, but it really was sad. I regretted it.”

What else can you learn about MacDowell through pop culture? Watch the video and read the full transcript below. Debbie Macomber’s Cedar Cove airs Saturday at 8 p.m. ET on Hallmark.

EW: What TV shows would you watch as a child?

MacDOWELL: My mother and I used to watch Maude, and I think she loved Maude because my mother wanted to see strong women out there with a voice. Marcus Welby, M.D., The Waltons, Little House on the Prairie. Honestly, I didn’t sit around and watch a lot of television. I’ve always been a very active person. But if you could get me to sit down, I loved watching Maude with her.

What book did you pretend to read in high school but didn’t?

Book that I pretended to read in high school…You mean that one paper that my sister helped me write? She was already in college, and I think I was probably just being lazy. And my English teacher knew it, too. She said, “I’m giving you a B for this, but you had help writing this.” It was definitely an A+ paper. [Laughs]

What’s your prized pop-culture possession?

I used to try to keep some small thing from a movie that I’ve done. I have a doorbell thing that was from Multiplicity, and it has moved with me: I had it on my house in North Carolina, and it’s now on my house in Montana. I do have that, it’s just a funky little man and you ring a bell. That I have, and you do think about it when you see [it], “Oh yeah, I remember that’s from Multiplicity.”

What’s the scariest movie you’ve ever seen?

Carrie. I watched Carrie and went to the bathroom and all the sudden had this terrible fear, and I literally ran through the room and dove on the bed because I was afraid somebody was gonna come out from underneath the bed and grab me. I was so convinced. I was so scared. Get in the bed, put the covers on me. [Fake screams] Terrified. Oh my gosh. So scary.

Final score: Scaredy-cat