Thank you to STX Entertainment for inviting me to attend a special Bad Moms press event.
Mila Kunis’ child is only 21 months old, but that doesn’t mean she couldn’t find lots of inspiration for her role as a do-it-all mom of two in Bad Moms. “I think we all kind of have someone like that in our lives. I just don’t have that in a school atmosphere.” But she does get it from reading blogs. Oops. “It’s really fascinating because somebody will ask a really simple question like…’I’m getting a new car seat. What’s the best car seat?’ And you see the genuine answers, and then you see the moms just going at each other. And 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.”
The party scene was a particular favorite of the entire cast-even though it was filmed during torrential rainstorms. “We were all in a house. There was nowhere really for the amazing, amazing background artists (to go). 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 together,” says Kathryn Hahn. The family who lived in the house was actually upstairs. With the rain outside, space was tight.
Of course the close quarters also contributed to an on-set injury for Kunis. “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.”
Working on a movie set means long hours and healthy doses of mom guilt when they’re not around their children. “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,” says Hahn. “But, yes, of course. Of course. It sucks.”
Kunis agrees. “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.”
What advice would they give themselves if they could go back to before they were parents? “Apologize to my mom sooner would be my advice,” says Kunis. “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.”
As for Hahn, “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 like-minded mamas. And it’s all noise, the rest of it.”
They’re looking forward to everyone having the chance to check out the movie. “I feel like had I not been lucky enough to be in this movie, I would have been so excited to see it,” says Hahn. “And I would have started an e-mail chain and got all my mommy pals.”
Start your own email chain and invite your friends to see Bad Moms when they celebrate “Bad Mother’s Day” on July 29 – the Mother’s Day you really want and deserve! Get tickets now: http://www.badmomstickets.com/
Stay in touch with Bad Moms on their Official Website, Facebook , Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.
You can also check out my interview with Jon Lucas, Suzanne Todd and Scott Moore and my interview with Christina Applegate and Annie Mumolo.