No compensation was received for this post. Rockin’ Mama was invited to a press junket courtesy of STX Entertainment which facilitated the writing of this post.
If you’re a mom, you’ve had one of those moments. You know, the kind where you just want to throw in the towel, grab a glass of wine, get your favorite blanket and hide under it. Being a mom is stressful on a good day, but on a day where your dog hurts its leg, you’re late for work and a ‘perfect mom’ expects you at a PTA meeting even though you’re single-parenting it, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. It’s easy to compare yourself to others and feel like you’re doing it wrong. Instead of hiding though, embrace the ‘bad mom’ mentality, throw the kids in the sports car and go for a ride!
That’s the premise of Bad Moms, where three ‘bad moms’ unify to take down the perfect PTA president. Played by Mila Kunis, Kristen Bell and Kathryn Hahn, you’ll find a little of yourself in one of the trio of unique personalities. This talented cast, which also includes Christina Applegate, Jada Pinkett Smith and Annie Mumolo, is produced by Suzanne Todd and written/directed by Jon Lucas and Scott Moore in what I’ll just say is the funniest movie I’ve seen in a long time. I had the pleasure of also attending the Bad Moms retreat held recently at the gorgeous SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills. We were able to sit in on interview sessions with much of the cast and crew and what a day it was!
It all started the night before, with a pre-screening of the movie at IheartRadio Studios in Burbank. With all the things a bad mom could want – candy, popcorn, appetizers and an open bar – we were treated with a surprise concert by Flo Rida. Seeing so many moms dancing together was so much fun! We still got it.
Friday was a day full of pampering, with spa treatments from Zeel, makeovers, lunch and mimosas. Good food, beautiful ambiance with every need being met. We had a lot of fun photo opp moments and for fun, we let our crazy out and even twerked on camera with the Bad Moms dance teachers! That’s a sentence I never thought I’d say. After it was all done, I was treated to an hour-long massage at the Ciel Spa in the hotel. Heavenly! (Go see them for a relaxing, other-worldly experience where you hide away from the world with a spa treatment or a steam session.)
Our interviews with the cast were a blast. When a celebrity lets it all out and is open, you can tell. The Bad Moms ladies definitely let it all out. They were a joy to listen to, a true embodiment of the ‘bad moms’ purpose: moms who want to be awesome and love their children to the moon and back, but are real. We get tired, we want spouse time, we feel guilt. When representing a movie with a message that so many women can relate to, it’s important to walk the walk, and they definitely had us laughing.
Mila Kunis and Kathyrn Hahn are two peas in a pod – sassy, intelligent and funny, good moms. What a fun set this would have been to work on! Mila won everyone over right away by sharing that she reads mom blogs. Score! And Kathryn’s smile lights up the room, or in this case, the patio. (The SLS Hotel knows how to put on an event.) Their repertoire played off of each other in the unrehearsed way that press junkets present, and it was thoroughly enjoyable. They answered the rapid-fire questions coming their way with humor and honesty.
If Kathryn hadn’t already won me over with her smile, and her intentional photo opp moments, she did when she shared that this movie exemplifies the real life that all mommies face. Mommy-hood is often represented a “saintly glow,” yet we all know that’s not how it really is, so she shared she’d have seen the movie with her friends even if she wasn’t in it. Knowing that a gorgeous celeb like Kathryn thinks it takes a village is encouraging for every mom. Support systems are so important, and Kathryn’s mom isn’t local, so she doesn’t have that help with her two young children.
Do you have a bad mom moment you’d publicly share? We all have them, but Mila shared a story about getting it all together, packing everything up for her daughter, Wyatt, and getting out the door on time…only to realize partially down the road that she’d forgotten the baby. Woops! And it’s not just a mom thing; she shared her husband actually did it later on, too. Kudos for being able to share these kinds of moments. We all have them and we need to stop judging each other for them.
Next up was the lovely Suzanne Todd, Jon Lucas and Scott Moore. Brave men, indeed! Suzanne’s a single mom and both Jon and Scott have two kids. They cleared up something right away: men have the same kinds of moments AND they realize the pressure on moms to be perfect. In doing research on the movie concept, they considered things that we moms deal with daily, like the 50 emails for a PTA meeting or the list of things that aren’t allowed in the school bake sale. It was a whole new world of absurdity that really yielded itself to an entire funny movie that may even be a bit over the top but drives the point home.
When asked what the hopeful takeaway of the movie was, Mr. Moore’s answer was perfect:
The big one for me just to do less, and that like doing less is okay and that like maybe this is a uniquely dad point of view, but like our wives and all the moms that are in our social circle that I know work so hard, and they do so many things. And is there a way to maybe do 5 percent less and spend 5 percent maybe more time taking care of yourself or hanging out with your kids or just having a little more fun in your life.
To the same question, Suzanne stated that they joked on-set about needing shirts that said “Just do less.” I’d sign up for that one! We moms do put an unattainable level of expectations on ourselves and we’re sometimes our own worse enemy. Banding together – much like the moms do in the movie – can really be that village and make a positive difference for us all.
Christina Applegate and Annie Mumolo came out, both dressed in various floral attire suiting the afternoon setting on the patio. Jokingly referring to their session as “The Annie and Christina Show,” they also were candid and shared mom stories. Annie’s stories of voice changes in getting kids to listen and Christina wondering why her child would come to her in the wee hours of the morning instead of dad were hilarious. What mom hasn’t laid there and tried to get the kids to wake up dad instead?
One memorable movie moment is the bake sale scene that’s in the trailer. “No BPA, no soy…” and so forth. The script had only around six items but Christina had the fun of being able to ad lib it and extend it to be even more ridiculous. The story about the flu that wiped out so many of the cast and crew was even funny, making it clear that like moms in real life, these “perfect moms” even headed for the hot toddies when sick. The conversations that the ladies had while making the movie were pretty typical for real-life moms, too – motherhood, politics, motherhood, politics, etc.
We learned that no matter how famous you are, our morning struggles are the same. Get the kids to brush teeth and hair, turning into a ‘brush teeth OR hair’ moment, wondering how to get to school looking even slightly put together as those Gwendolyns, the perfect moms who look like they got a blow-out at 7am. The general consensus was: who does that?
The interviews were over all too quickly. We did get a chance to take photos with the ladies, and I was beyond excited when Christina mentioned to me that she knew we twerked earlier. It didn’t dawn on me until later that only a few of us (5) twerked and she’d mentioned to me specifically. How cool is that? Later on, I got out of the elevator to head over to Tres for dinner rather than spending the dinner hour sitting in traffic, and Kathryn Hahn was getting in. She recognized me, asked if I’d had a fun day and told me to have a good evening. They are such real, true ladies, I could have listened to them all for hours. Or hung out with them for more of those mimosas.
Thank you, Bad Moms, for being a fantastic movie and putting on a pamper-filled day of fun. Moms need more of that in their life. Be sure to go see Bad Moms for a fun girls’ night out or even with your significant others. It makes a great movie for all adults. (I would not take little ones, as an fyi – language and a little nudity, but not nearly enough to be bothersome if you’re of age.)
See Bad Moms in theaters July 29th, 2016. You can purchase tickets by visiting their dedicated website. You can join the #BadMoms conversation by visiting on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.
Donna is the author behind Dangerous Cupcake Designs where she shares her California lifestyle on living a little dangerously. Follow her on Instagram!
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