What drew you to the part?
Well, first and foremost, I think Garry Marshall was sort of the biggest draw. When I found out he was doing it a follow-up to Valentine’s Day and New Year’s Eve, I wanted to be a part of it. First of all, I worked with Garry when I was like 12, and he was the sweetest thing in the world. And the chance to work with him again… He’s a complete legend and I love the set and environment that he creates, so I just was excited to work with him again. And then when I found out Julia Roberts was going to be in the film and Kate Hudson and Jen Aniston and Jason Sudeikis, it was perfect.
What was it like playing a mom?
It was fun. It was very temporary. You don’t really get to see all of the different sides to it. You pretty much just get handed this super heavy baby and you just bounce her around and feed her food and she’s just totally happy. For me, it was really fun. Obviously, there were some things I didn’t really know about in terms of how to play a mom, so that I did some reading on. But for the most part, looking at all the people around me and trying to observe what moms do and do the best i could.
What was like working with an actual baby?
I haven’t worked with a ton of babies at this point. Now Remy is mostly in the film. I don’t think you ever see Charly really because they look very different. They were the sweetest girls in the world and Remy loved the camera, so I think that was why she was used the most. She loved being on set, she loved acting… If you give her food, she was totally present.
What was it like starring alongside Julia Roberts?
It was only like 2 or 3 days that we spent together. It was only two scenes and they work really fast on these films. So for me, I was just trying to make the most of every moment I had with her. But also not like overwhelm her or take up her space. So I was trying to be respectful and be like, “Hey, I’m here to talk if you ever want to talk to somebody.” It was nice to have her open up to me many times where she would be super sweet, or I would have the baby for an hour and I would just hold her to keep her happy. At one point, Julia came up and held her to give me some time. There were many moments where she was incredibly kind and generous.
Did you get any life advice from Julia, Jen or Kate?
There was no like direct advice I don’t think, but a lot of it I would just pick up from the way they would act on set or how they would respect Garry. Every single one of them would like hold Garry’s hand on set or like walk him to set. So just really nice things. They were really sweet with the crew and wonderful to me, so that’s just one big life lesson to always respect people and never really take each moment for granted. Just appreciate the people you have around you.
What’s your favorite Garry Marshall movie?
Yes, Pretty Woman. Pretty Woman was literally the first movie my mom ever took me to see. I was like 6 months old or something. Growing up, I watched it all the time because my mom loved Pretty Woman and she’s a big Julia Roberts fan. So the fact that I was able to work with Julia and Hector and have Garry direct it was like a dream come true, top of the list. You could never think of something like this. As a kid, I never dreamed this could happen to me. It was just that cool.
HollywoodLifers, have you seen Mother’s Day? What’s your favorite Garry Marshall movie? Let us know!