I love actress & comedienne Maya Rudolph and her partner Paul Thomas Anderson is one of my favorite directors. They announced today that they are expecting baby #3 {yay for really cool people bringing new people into the world}. I found an interview with Maya shortly before her second child was born concerning life as a mom to her eldest daughter {they have two girls named Pearl & Lucille}. I thought I would post it here because I really really identified with every word of it and just think her answers were so perfect and reflect exactly how I too feel.
Q: Did you set out thinking that you’d be a specific type of mother to Pearl?
A: There’s definitely this fantasy that’s like, “I’m not going to be a mother, I’m going to be Mother-f-ing Theresa.” And then you realize that you’re still the same person, the same things still bother you, you’re not perfect, but you can still be someone’s parent, someone’s mother, and it can still be okay. There’s no question that you want to give them everything and you want their lives to be perfect. Has any human achieved that? No, probably not.
Q: Once Pearl was born, was she just as you imagined she’d be?
A: We didn’t know if she was going to be a boy or a girl, and, when she finally came out, there was a really quick snip and suddenly, she was resting on my chest, staring at me. And her eyes were super-black. She looked like Marlon Brando in The Island of Doctor Moreau, because she was covered in all of these white blankets staring at me. I remember, in that moment, thinking, Yes, this is my baby. I’d always tried to picture what my baby would look like, and in that second, I was like, Yes, this is the baby I’ve been expecting. And then the doctor said, “Oops, we forgot to see what it was.” I didn’t know if it was a boy or a girl, but I knew it was my baby—you spend so much time being pregnant, not knowing who the hell is coming.
Q: how has it been for you to watch a person forming her own world, using you as her mothership and then going off on her own?
A: There’s no question: you get that proud mom grin sometimes, when it’s like, Check it out. That’s my kid. But, yeah, she is who I thought she’d be in a lot of ways. Let’s put it this way: If she had come out as a total wallflower, and said stuff like, “I hate reading and I don’t like to perform,” then I’d be like, That’s not my kid. So it doesn’t really surprise me that she’s like, “Hey, I’m funny and I like to hang out.”
Congratulations to Maya, P.T., Pearl, & Lucille!
Q: Did you set out thinking that you’d be a specific type of mother to Pearl?
A: There’s definitely this fantasy that’s like, “I’m not going to be a mother, I’m going to be Mother-f-ing Theresa.” And then you realize that you’re still the same person, the same things still bother you, you’re not perfect, but you can still be someone’s parent, someone’s mother, and it can still be okay. There’s no question that you want to give them everything and you want their lives to be perfect. Has any human achieved that? No, probably not.
Q: Once Pearl was born, was she just as you imagined she’d be?
A: We didn’t know if she was going to be a boy or a girl, and, when she finally came out, there was a really quick snip and suddenly, she was resting on my chest, staring at me. And her eyes were super-black. She looked like Marlon Brando in The Island of Doctor Moreau, because she was covered in all of these white blankets staring at me. I remember, in that moment, thinking, Yes, this is my baby. I’d always tried to picture what my baby would look like, and in that second, I was like, Yes, this is the baby I’ve been expecting. And then the doctor said, “Oops, we forgot to see what it was.” I didn’t know if it was a boy or a girl, but I knew it was my baby—you spend so much time being pregnant, not knowing who the hell is coming.
Q: how has it been for you to watch a person forming her own world, using you as her mothership and then going off on her own?
A: There’s no question: you get that proud mom grin sometimes, when it’s like, Check it out. That’s my kid. But, yeah, she is who I thought she’d be in a lot of ways. Let’s put it this way: If she had come out as a total wallflower, and said stuff like, “I hate reading and I don’t like to perform,” then I’d be like, That’s not my kid. So it doesn’t really surprise me that she’s like, “Hey, I’m funny and I like to hang out.”
Congratulations to Maya, P.T., Pearl, & Lucille!
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