I was invited by STX Entertainment to Los Angeles to attend the Bad Moms Event. Although my expenses were paid, all opinions below are my own.
Bad Moms will be in theaters on July 29th! A few weeks ago I was in Los Angeles for the awesome Bad Moms event and I am excited to share some of the fun experiences we had and content from the film. First, I have to tell you that we had a whirlwind of a trip that was super fun and exciting!! One of the highlights of the trip were the interviews with the talent from the film. First up we had Mila Kunis + Kathryn Hahn!! I am excited to share their interview with you!
When the two of them walked in, it was so nice to hear them interested in what we were doing there and where we were from, etc. They were seated on the beautiful and comfortable couch outside while we were looking on from some nice tables with snacks and mimosas! They asked about our fun time so far and then joked around a bit about the drinks they had. We kicked off the questions:
So, I feel like you were at my daughter’s school with me. How did you relate to that?
Mila: Well, mine isn’t in school yet, she’s 21 months old. You know, it didn’t take much research. I think we all kind of have someone like that in our lives. I just don’t have that in a school atmosphere. But, I do go to mommy blogs, which is why I asked about where everybody was from. And I think that like, you know, 60 percent of them are great. Forty percent out of it ends up being like those moms. So, for me, I kind of had a little bit of experience through the blogs that I found thoroughly entertaining. I never took it to heart. Everything I saw I was like, wow, these women are crazy. It’s really fascinating because somebody will ask a really simple question like in your opinion, like, I’m getting a new car seat. What’s the best car seat? You see, the genuine answers, and then you see the moms just going at each other. It’s great ….. I mean for entertainment purposes, it’s great. But for real life, ladies, let’s just all relax for one second and be nice to one another.
But, on a pure entertainment level, that’s kind of how I learned I guess. You deal with it daily.
Female roles in outrageous comedies tend to be relegated to a girlfriend or a sidekick. Did you find it empowering to have a script that was so funny and relatable and written specifically from a female perspective?
Kathryn Hahn: If I had not been lucky enough to be in this movie, I would have been so excited to see it. I would have started an e-mail chain and got all my mommy pals. I just feel like, so often moms and mommies in movies are kind of painted with like a saintly glow around them and we know that that’s just not the truth. We’ve got so much more complexity than anyone could, so I was so excited to just to see mommyhood examined from the way that we all know it, or at least would love to experience. I know there’s a ton of wish fulfillment in this particular movie. Like, it would be real. So much of it looks like a ball. I have a six-year-old and a nine-year-old, and you guys are obviously the cool bloggers and the chill bloggers. I found it really, really helpful especially because my parents don’t live in LA. So, you know, it’s not the same culture where your mom comes over to help you babysit. At least, I wasn’t lucky enough for that. So, you depend on your pals or other amazing women that are going through it or have gone through it. You can’t do it by yourself. And it takes a village. I think this movie is such an awesome message of the solidarity. Like, we’re all in it together. We can’t just lessen those expectations.
Last night after we saw the movie we were taking and thinking that all of you were in our heads!! I mean it was so relatable. We want to know if you guys have had any bad mom moments yourself with your kids that you want to share.
Kathryn: Okay, my son was maybe a half a year old, not even. I keep making him younger as it goes to kind of make me feel better, crying so hard…… What’s the matter? What’s the matter? I was checking his fingers and toes. I didn’t know what was going on — it was like he wouldn’t eat. It was like a mess. Finally I changed his diaper, and one of my hairs had wrapped itself around his nuts like five times. Almost castrated my child. That was a good moment, she says, downing her mimosa.
Mila: I’ve only been a mom for 21 months, but it’s pretty good. So, Wyatt was like at seven, eight months old, and I was driving to visit my husband at work. As you know, driving with an eight month old for a couple hours is like going on a road trip. So, you have to pack all this stuff up in anticipation of everything going horribly wrong with the first baby. Second baby doesn’t matter. First baby, you’re like, oh, my God, everything’s going to go wrong. So, you pack the car up with all this stuff. I was like I did it. I put her in the car. Like, I high five myself. I’m driving down the 101. And I was like oh, my God, I’m doing really good today. She was being really quiet, and I was like, oh, let me look in the rearview mirror to make sure everything’s okay. I look, and she’s happy as can be, but just not nearly strapped in. I’m on the 101, and she’s just like blah, like fine in her car seat, nothing, no strap whatsoever. I think I just turned white. It was like what do I do? So, I pulled over. I calmly like crawled in the backseat, strapped her in, continued to drive, I’m never talking about this story to anybody ever. It’s just going to be me, myself, and I, lesson learned. I’m so grateful. I literally pull up to my husband’s work and just burst out crying. I was like I fucked up. I fucked up. And lo and behold, a year later, like two, three weeks ago, a month ago, I came to get Wyatt out of the backseat of the car, and my husband put her in. And so, I went in to get her out. And we were out, about. And I opened the car door, and she’s not strapped in whatsoever. And I was like thank God. I was so excited. I wasn’t alone. And everybody’s fine. Everybody lived. It’s only a little bit illegal. But, you know, I made a little bit of a mess up.
How much were you allowed to improv in the movie?
Mila: I got whiplash!
Kathryn: It was like 3 nights in the pouring rain! We were all in a house. There was nowhere really for the amazing, amazing background artists. They were so incredible in that scene, such awesome mamas and people. So, we ended up even between takes having to be in that living room house together, right?
Mila: During this torrential rainstorm, it was 200 plus of us in that tiny living room for three days. We all became really close, and I’m not kidding you when I tell you I was like, God, my neck hurts. Like, three days in, I was like, oh, my neck is just so stiff. I realize I gave myself whiplash. I’m not as young as I used to be.
Both Mila and Kathryn shared that they all got the plague – the flu- while they were on set in that small area. They stated that they were only in the living room and kitchen as only the downstairs was rented for the filming. What a crazy story! Sounds like a fun night.
What’s something that you learned after becoming a mom that you never would have thought would have been a thing?
Kathryn: I think what I didn’t expect was that feeling of that like impossible, like inevitable heartbreak of knowing that how short it is. Like, I didn’t realize. I heard everyone say it’s so fast. It’s so fast. And my mom would say like the days are long. The years are short and all this crap. And it was kind of like I didn’t really know what that meant until I experienced it, and knowing like that he is now–you know, my oldest in nine and we spoon still, and I’m like crying because I just know I don’t have that much more of it. And so, then all the other noise just becomes such nonsense. Do you know what I mean? Like, at the end of the day, it’s like, oh, who cares? We as mamas, it’s such a short amount of time, their childhood. So, you know, it’s just like I guess enjoy it.
Mila: I think for me it is the truest form of unconditional love. Like, I love my husband. I thought that that was to me the most purest sense of love. I love this human being. I love my parents. This is love. Maybe it was the hormones, but I remember after giving birth to Wyatt that I looked at her, and I was like, oh, my God, I would murder someone for you. I couldn’t get over truly how much I love this little, tiny, little human that I’ve had only for a couple hours to the point when we were leaving the hospital and I looked at the nurse, and I was like I’m really allowed to take the baby home? They’re like, well, we don’t want it. How could you not want this wonderful being? Mind you, we all have them, but I think mine’s the best. But, like, the truest, truest, truest, most honest, like, guttural reaction of love I think I never knew until I had a child.
Had there ever been a moment where you just want to, like in the movie, you virtually went on strike as a mom.
Mila: I can say really quickly I’ve only been a mom for 21 months. She’s still really lovely. I still have a child who’s really nice and doesn’t kick and scream. I’m very lucky. So, not yet, but, boy, will it happen.
Kathryn: I have a son and a daughter. My six-year-old has, as my mom would say, met my match. It’s so true. She is such a spicy meatball. She just gives it right back to me. That’s the difference between the girls and the boys too, is the like emotional minefield that is trying to navigate a girl. It’s like you’re a step ahead of me. What are we fighting about? I’m like what’s going to happen when she’s in high school? So, yes, there have been moments where I am like I need to go. I need to get out of here. Absolutely, I don’t trust what’s going to come out of my mouth. Do you know what I mean? Like, if I’m going to say something that we all regret, so, yes, oh, my God, absolutely. Time outs don’t work with her, though, because she’s just going to come right back, or she’s like, fine, I wanted to be by myself, or whatever. And she’ll make it her decision. I’m like, oh, my God. She’s a real tough cookie — I try to make a joke, and she’s like terrible. It’s like, God. Ugh, Mom, terrible. And then she’ll look at me and be like are you really wearing that? I’m like, May, brush your hair, and she’s like you brush your hair. Like, okay, anyway.
Do you guys subscribe to mom guilt or park it?
Mila: A hundred percent subscribe to it, not intentionally. It’s like that like subscription that you want to go away, but it’s just constantly there. I wish I can like, yes, at–all day, like at this very moment being here, I’m like why am I here? Like, I can be with my daughter. Like, it’s every day, all day long.
Kathryn: Yes. I don’t know. Now that they’re a little bit older, it’s like I don’t know. I’m lucky. I feel so blessed that I have a job that I really, really dig, and that when I’m not with them, it’s somewhere where I’m like excited and inspired, and hopefully they’ll be able to see their mommy, you know, that she’s doing something she loves and–but, yes, of course. Of course. It sucks.
Mila: It sucks to not be putting your child down every night. It’s something that I think our hours are just so erratic that like 17-hour days when I was 20 was like a piece of cake. Seventeen-hour work days now where I’m not there when she wakes up in the morning, and I’m not there to put her down at night, and I see her for my 20 minute lunch break is very empty. And so, yes, it’s constant.
Kathryn: Yes, you just feel like you’re missing a limb. You know what I mean? But, yes, everybody has to do it. It is what it is. I also feel like when I had an awesome therapist once what if we just get really into guys? But, I just remember somebody saying, well, you know what? If it’s what it is and okay for you, then that’s all they know.
So, it’s like my kids grew up in a circus family. So, that’s just what it is. If we put any weirdness on it, then they’re going to be like, it is what it is.
The ending of the movie was just awesome. I loved how you wrapped it up when the moms came out and y’all spoke about your relationships. Was that planned?
Mila: They literally had our moms and us sit down, and I think you and I were both so nervous that my mom was going to say something horrible. I was like, Mommy, be nice. You’re on camera. Be nice. And she was like, okay, okay. But, like, yes, oh, none of it’s planned. It was literally us sitting in a room, like, independently thinking. And Jon [Lucas, Writer/Director] and Scott [Moore, Writer/Director] would ask my mom questions. And I think he said the whole thing. The whole time I was like you better be nice. You just better be nice because you’re just so nervous. And, of course, like, 30 minutes in, we’re both bawling and crying. And you can’t help it. We’ve never talked about that stuff. I love my mom. She’s one of my dearest friends. But, she’s never been like you’re an amazing mother. I’m so proud of you. To me, intentionally, like she’s shown it. But, to have her sit there and say that I lost it.
Kathryn: Each of those interviews are also like an hour long. They shot each of us with our mamas for like a very long time, which I’m like you’ve got to release all that.
Mila: Everybody cried. Everybody across the board. I mean you’re laughing. You’re crying.
Kathryn: How sweet is it that last night we were like all of the mothers–and then we were like–and Annie was like not my mom. But, all of the mamas basically were like I wish I had been like you. I mean like that they knew how proud–oh, it was just stupid cute. Oh, my God, it made me cry.
If you could go back, what advice would you give yourself before you were a Mom?
Mila: Apologize to my mom sooner would be my advice. I’m not kidding. I apologize to my mom. When I was like 22, I was like I’m so sorry. I wish I can go back to my 16-year-old self and say, they’re not against me. I think the biggest thing that like you grow up thinking that like the world’s–I mean it’s all hormones, and it’s angst. And you’re supposed to go through it. But, I just wish I realized and understood just how much my mom and my dad, not to alienate my dad, but just how much my parents loved me, unconditionally loved me. If I called them and said I just murdered someone, they’d go, well, let’s figure it out. I know that in my heart, and I don’t think I quite understood that until I had my own child.
Kathryn: I would say absolutely just don’t waste your precious brain space worrying about that nonsense. So much nonsense was I worrying about that I wish that I hadn’t been, and it goes so fast. Like, who cares what people think? You know your kid better than anybody. You find your tribe that are the same that you’re likeminded mamas. And it’s all noise, the rest of it. But, it’s hard. I had never felt more young than after having my first kid because you really are like I don’t know. It sounds like it’s so terrifying. But, then there is something underneath it if you just listen it that you know exactly what you’re supposed to do.
You did such a great job representing all the different types of mothers, stay-at-home moms, working moms, crazy moms. So, who was your favorite character?
Mila: Mine was Kathryn’s. I love Carla. I loved every ounce of Carla that existed, all the fringe, the feathers, the leather, the corsets, the bustiers. I loved it. You know why? Because it wasn’t me. It was awesome.
Kathryn: I think that’s what so awesome about this movie as well, is that there’s something in each one of these six women that I think that we can either recognize, or it’s like you could dream about being. There’s definitely something about Carla.
She was very liberated. I mean there’s obviously like a healthy medium, but it was very fun to take that big of a swing. It was really, really, really delicious. She had plenty of time for hair and makeup.Mila: Every morning, Kathryn would come in and naturally just stunning and beautiful and like, she’s like an organic goddess. Then she would sit in the hair and makeup chair there next to me, and I was in two hours later. Here comes like this animal.
Wow, what a fun interview!! I am so excited to go see Bad Moms again!
Bad Moms celebrates “Bad Mother’s Day” on July 29 – the Mother’s Day you really want and deserve! Get tickets now: http://www.badmomstickets.com/
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BAD MOMS – In Theaters July 29
In this new comedy from the grateful husbands and devoted fathers who wrote The Hangover, Amy has a seemingly perfect life – a great marriage, over-achieving kids, beautiful home and a career. However she’s over-worked, over-committed and exhausted to the point that she’s about to snap.
Fed up, she joins forces with two other over-stressed moms on a quest to liberate themselves from conventional responsibilities – going on a wild, un-mom-like binge of long overdue freedom, fun and self-indulgence – putting them on a collision course with PTA Queen Bee Gwendolyn and her clique of devoted perfect moms.
Cast: Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell, Kathryn Hahn, Jay Hernandez, Clark Duke, Annie Mumolo, with Jada Pinkett Smith and Christina Applegate
Studio: STX Entertainment
Genre: Comedy
Writers/Directors: Jon Lucas & Scott Moore
Producers: Suzanne Todd, Bill Block