THEY’RE MOMS IN REAL LIFE
Bad Moms cast brought lots of personal experience to the film
Bad Moms lean on personal experience
LOS ANGELES The good-versus-bad comedy dynamic is classic. In the case of Bad Moms, it’s the bad you root for over the goody two-shoes.
That happens when the hyper-stressed moms, played by Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn, try to break away from great expectations laid out by PTA autocrats defined by Christina Applegate, Jada Pinkett Smith and Annie Mumolo.
The R-rated film is written and directed by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore, who wrote the screenplay for The Hangover.
So in keeping with that pedigree, Bad Moms has lots of naughty bits.
Kunis, Applegate, Hahn and Mumolo gather to discuss: The Bad Moms subtext: “We don’t need to be perfect because that’s setting a standard that’s unrealistic,” Applegate says.
“It’s OK to be a bad mom sometimes, and it’s OK to fail.” First signs of a bad mom: “Usually, it’s the shaving of the legs,” says Applegate. “It’s the first thing to go.” The risque sequence describing different kinds of penises in the movie: “It was all (Hahn),” says Kunis, referring to her improvising. The camaraderie of the ensemble: “Off camera, we did get along and we mostly talked about kids and politics,” Hahn says. “I have one friend who is in the (acting) business,” Applegate says. “The rest either own bars or sit in bars. So I went on and on about how much I am in love with these (Bad Moms) ladies and the one in the business asked me if that was a (public relations) answer, and I said, ‘No way.’ ” The cast’s efficiency despite lots of impromptu dialogue on and off camera: “It wasn’t because we were professional; it’s because we wanted to get home to our kids,” Applegate says. Realizing you’re a bad mom when taking your child to preschool for the first day: “I was so sweaty and red-faced,” says Hahn. “My hair was basically in dreadlocks and my child was looking the same with a leaking lunchbox. And, of course, there’s this mom who looks camera-ready and the child looks the same.” Mumolo says her bad mom moment arrived like this: “I was driving along in the car when I realized I hadn’t strapped my baby into the car seat.” Why there is more pressure now to be a supermom: “Maybe it’s because of the Internet where everybody has an opinion about everything,” Applegate says. “It’s true,” says Hahn. “There is so much cultural noise covering what it is to be parent. It’s impossible to meet, especially if you’re a working mom.” The extenuating expectation to have perfect kids: “I don’t want that,” Applegate says. “I don’t want my kid to be perfect because then she will become complacent.”
“When I was having my child my fear was of having an a-hole for a child,” says Kunis.
“I also worry that they will grow up in a privileged world and in a world where everything is accessible.” Surviving as children in a lesscareful world: “I remember playing with cigarette butts in an ashtray,” says Hahn.
“We didn’t have car seats or seatbelts,” says Applegate. “I guess we are lucky to be alive.”
When I was having my child my fear was of having an a-hole for a child. I also worry that they will grow up in a privileged world. MILA KUNIS