Filming A League of Their Own was an unforgettable experience for Molly Ephraim. Not only was she surrounded by an incredible ensemble cast, but she was also expecting her first child. HollywoodLife spoke EXCLUSIVELY with the actress about the memorable experience of making this wonderful show.
“Truthfully, it was really fun to be around such a funny group of women while I was pregnant with my daughter,” Molly said. “I just felt like, she’s hearing me laugh so much. In fact, there was one time we were all getting ready to shoot a Peaches on the field scene, which got rained out, but we were having a little huddle with our stunt coordinators. My kid just started kicking in a way that you could really feel her, and all the girls would be vying to feel the baby. When she would start kicking, I would just grab someone’s hand near me and be like, ‘Okay, here you go.’ Priscilla [Delgado] hadn’t felt her yet, and I put little Priscilla’s hand, the baby of the cast, I put her hand on me, and she felt the baby kick. She started crying. And then D’Arcy [Carden] clocked that she was crying and Darcy started crying and then all the other girls were a little bundle of estrogen. I was like, this is such a bizarro way to tell my daughter people knew you before you were born.”
Molly stars in the Prime Video comedy series as Maybelle Fox, a feisty Peaches player with platinum blonde hair. Molly noted that she was “well-suited for Maybelle-type energy.” The character was partially inspired by Maybelle Blair, a former All-American Girls Professional Baseball League player who is still living her best life at 95.
“My Maybelle character is partially based on her I think more in spunk and sass than life experience, which other characters are able to inhabit a little bit more. I was telling her recently, my grandparents on my mom’s side lived to 95 and 105, and were very sharp. I feel like with my Ashkenazi short person roots I might be lucky enough to also be a centenarian,” Molly quipped.
The Last Man Standing alum added, “She’s just… I don’t know, it’s just the way that you want to live your life. She came out recently. I’m just so happy that she’s finally got this moment to shine and just enjoy the spotlight. She’s like a sassy beer-drinking, hot dog-lovin’ gal. No, my body is a temple. She literally told me recently, ‘I hate drinking water. I don’t drink water.’ I said, ‘Maybelle, the only time I was drinking water was when I was pregnant.’”
The show, while paying homage to the 1992 movie of the same name, carves its own path and champions queer stories and characters of color in 1940s America. “The research that has gone into creating a really historically accurate, researched depiction of what these queer lives are like is extraordinary,” Molly told HollywoodLife. “I think there’s a criticism, or there can be, of shows right now that are like, oh, we’ve got these characters also. We’re just going to throw everything up on the wall and show you representation. Here’s what it looks like. Which is great, too. But this is historically accurate representation that also becomes nuanced through the 2022 lens. I’m just so tickled by the whole thing.”
The show debuted on Prime Video in August 2022. Molly has one of the most memorable scenes of the season with her spunky pep talk that includes a very notable mention of corn chowder.
“The corn chowder stuff was very fun because that was a Will Graham-directed episode,” Molly revealed. “He’s our showrunner-writer. It’s a very collaborative show, and there was a lot of ad-libbing. He had written me and was like, ‘What would Maybelle say to pump up the team?’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know, but I think it could be something like this and sort of have vibes of Drop Dead Gorgeous, plus, a weird farm person. I had been ad-libbing about corn chowder, too.”
Rosie O’Donnell, who starred in the movie, appeared in the first season as Vi, the owner and bartender of an underground lesbian and gay bar. Molly would love to have “all” cast members of the movie appear in the show. “Can I meet Tom Hanks? What’s Madonna doing? She’s doing Madonna stuff. Does she want to hang with us? It would be cool. The whole gang.”