AS3: Instantiating classes from loaded external SWF

Question

I've been successful at loading an external SWF into my primary SWF, and I've been able to access the external SWF's classes because I loaded it into the same ApplicationDomain.

var exClass:Class = myAppDomain.getDefinition(my.stuff.com::externalClass) as Class;

But now if I want to instantiate exClass, do I have to use * as the type? In this case, exClass extends DisplayObject, so I have to do this to make it work:

var myInstanceExClass:* = new exClass(arg1,arg2);
addChild(myInstanceExClass);
myInstanceExClass.method1();

Is that the way you're supposed to do it? It seems I have to use * as the type because I'm not doing an import my.stuff.com.externalClass, which I do not want to do. Importing that class would defeat the purpose of loading the external SWF.