Beloved Actress, 42, Is Unrecognizable in Rare Outing While Flaunting Her Natural Look

Beloved Actress, 42, Is Unrecognizable in Rare Outing While Flaunting Her Natural Look originally appeared on Parade.

Legendary actress Erika Christensen, best known for her roles in Traffic and Parenthood, has kept a relatively low profile in recent years. But, this week, the MTV Movie Award winner was spotted during a rare outing in Los Angeles.

In photos obtained by The U.S. Sun, Christensen, 42, was seen walking through the city in a sleeveless black knit top and ripped jeans.

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The iconic actress looked nearly unrecognizable from her early 2000s days, confidently rocking her natural look, including visible armpit hair, while out running errands.

Though she’s largely stayed out of the spotlight aside from the occasional social media post, Christensen remains one of Hollywood’s most accomplished stars.

While some may recognize her more recently from Cheaper by the Dozen and Will Trent, Christensen has racked up more than 60 acting credits across her decades-long career.

One of her earliest roles came in 1995, when she appeared in Michael Jackson’s Childhood music video — though, she never met the King of Pop.

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"I wish I could have met him, I didn't. We were green screened together,” she once told Blackfilm.com. “In the video he's sitting in a forest and all the kids are in boats above him. He sent me an autographed photo and that was nice."

While her journey in Hollywood began in the ‘90s, it was her role in Traffic a few years later that gave her widespread acclaim.

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In the Oscar-winning film directed by Steven Soderbergh, Christensen played Caroline Wakefield, a teen struggling with substance abuse. She was just 17 at the time, starring alongside Michael Douglas.

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Years later, Christensen got the chance to reunite with Soderbergh for the 2022 film Kimi — a full-circle moment she’d long hoped for.

“I just wanted to work with Steven Soderbergh again,” Christensen said to the Seattle Times. “It was great. It bizarrely felt like no time had passed. But it was so nice to genuinely be an adult, addressing another adult instead of me being a child. He even had some of the same crew that I remembered from ‘Traffic.’”

Beloved Actress, 42, Is Unrecognizable in Rare Outing While Flaunting Her Natural Look first appeared on Parade on Jul 17, 2025

This story was originally reported by Parade on Jul 17, 2025, where it first appeared.