Each of them often seems to know what the other is thinking-without saying a word. "Ashley can tell things about me, like if something is bothering me-or if I think a guy is cute!" Mary-Kate says. "We can tell what the other is feeling, but we can't read each other's mind or anything," Ashley adds. "It's more like understanding body language." The girls have a great time together. Mary-Kate is known to be more of a prankster, but both girls have a great sense of humor. In fact, Ashley usually jumps right in on Mary-Kate's practical jokes. But it's all in the name of fun. When they're on a set, Mary-Kate and Ashley's favorite prank is to clip a clothespin on the back of a coworker's shirt. Then they'll wait-and giggle-to see how long it takes before he or she notices! "It's a long-running joke," Ashley explains.
"We've been doing it since we were kids. So we keep doing it just to crack each other up." Being a twin isn't just fun. There are other benefits, too. Think about how practical it would be to have someone who looks like you-especially if you both had the same taste in clothes. When Mary-Kate and Ashley were younger they didn't always have to try on their clothes before buying them. Who needs a mirror when you can see how an outfit looks on your twin, right? Unfortunately that trick doesn't work for Ashley and Mary-Kate anymore. They still have similar taste in clothes, but Mary-Kate leans toward more funky outfits and lots of accessories, where Ashley likes classic and tailored items-and shoes, shoes, shoes!
Another example of how having a twin can come in handy was when the girls filmed their first TV movie To Grandmother's House We Go. Just a week before filming began, Mary-Kate scratched her eye while playing. It was red for weeks! They filmed around it as much as possible, but when it came to an important dinner scene between the two girls, Ashley got dressed like Mary-Kate and played her part too! Of course, everyone always expects twins to trade places with each other. You've seen it on TV shows, where twins switch places to take a test in school. Or to go out on a date. Or to fool a friend. In one episode of Mary-Kate and Ashley's TV series, TWO of a kind, the girls switched places to fool their dad. They did it again in their TV movie Switching Goals and in their feature film, It Takes Two. But Mary-Kate and Ashley swear they've never done that in real life.
"We haven't tried it," Ashley tells us. "Our friends and family can tell us apart. So we never bothered." Or maybe they just don't remember. "They did try some switcheroos around age five," their mom says. "But ultimately they can't fool me or their dad." Well, most of the time, anyway. Once, when the twins were shooting a video, their dad called out, "Ashley, come here. I want to ask you something." But he was really talking to Mary-Kate! The whole film crew laughed. Their dad's mistake probably made the crew feel better about all the times they'd gotten Mary-Kate and Ashley mixed up. Still, it isn't always easy to guess who's who. Everyone seems to come up with a different way to tell Mary-Kate and Ashley apart.
"Bob Saget, our TV dad on Full House, used to mix us up all the time when we were little," recalls Mary-Kate. "We'd put our hands on our hips and give him our best 'Don't-you-know-me-by-now?' look," Ashley adds, laughing. "After we got a little older and he got to know our personalities, he was finally able to tell us apart." Even their hairstylist sometimes got them confused. "He'd forget whose hair he was working on and ask, 'Which one are you again?'" Mary-Kate remembers. But Mary-Kate and Ashley don't get mad when people mistake them for each other. They're used to it. They just smile and say, "My name is Ashley (or Mary-Kate), not Mary-Kate (or Ashley)!"
