Rose Byrne & Mary Bronstein Talk Motherhood in 'If I Had Legs I'd Kick You' | THR at Park City - video Dailymotion

Hollywood Journal

Creator Mary Bronstein and star Rose Byrne stop by THR's studio in Park City to dish all about their film If 'I Had Legs I'd Kick You.' They break down the meaning behind the movie, the difficulties of motherhood and more.

Transcript

00:00This script was such a gift, and I just will go back to that always.

00:04It was extraordinary to read and then to see what Mary did,

00:08how she brought it to the screen.

00:10I mean, I knew something magical was happening,

00:13but then when I saw the movie, I was like,

00:15oh, wow, that's what you were doing.

00:16You're a trickster.

00:18There was a lot of trust me, trust me moments.

00:25I started writing this on an iPad.

00:30And now we're here.

00:31But what's interesting about that span of time of working on one project

00:37is that the bulk of those years is trying to get somebody to agree

00:44to take the risk to make the movie.

00:47And so it was really, really a process of not giving up, a lot of no's.

00:55I really deeply believed that I had to make this movie,

01:00that I would make this movie.

01:01I never doubted that I wouldn't, but I didn't know how.

01:04And what's funny is then when you look back and now I'm here,

01:07it's like, oh, it's great.

01:08But during those seven years, there's no external confirmation

01:13that I'm going to be sitting here.

01:15And I had to really, it was tenacity at a high level,

01:22at an obnoxious level, I think, to see people.

01:25But that we got here and then we shot in 27 days.

01:30And then, so it's this funny thing of like seven years, seven years, 27 days.

01:33So that's been the experience.

01:38The past, yeah.

01:39It's funny, people often ask like, oh, how did you recover

01:44after a day of working and this and that?

01:45And when you have children, you come home and they couldn't.

01:47Okay, that's shit.

01:48And it was like, and that's a gift in a way.

01:52It's very grounding and all those sorts of things.

01:54But I love that discussion of like, and a lot of the talk of what we said,

01:59of what we discussed in rehearsals was like,

02:00who was Linda before this, before this event, before this crisis,

02:04before she came in love, who was this person?

02:06And I needed to figure that out through the script,

02:09through like this crisis in the script.

02:10But like, who is this person before that?

02:12And that's something I worked on a lot with Mary

02:16and also with my person I work with, my coach.

02:18So it was, that was for me a key in unlocking the behavior now

02:23because it's, motherhood can reveal you,

02:25reveal a lot of aspects of you that you don't like,

02:28that are really not helpful.

02:30And that you didn't know about it.

02:31You didn't know that you had.

02:33And that's something the story really delves into, which I loved.

02:37Do you feel like if you had done this, well, before you were another,

02:41would you stare at you?

02:45It is, yeah.

02:48No, I think, yeah, totally.

02:51It's, and it's interesting though, chatting to people last night,

02:55people who aren't parents were also saying to me,

02:57look, I related to it in this way and that way.

03:00And that's something that's always refreshing to hear,

03:02that it's like, it's such a specific retelling of this situation that,

03:06as you were saying last night, you know,

03:08percentage of mothers wouldn't have experienced this kind of crisis

03:10with a very sick child.

03:12And thank God.

03:13And, but the specificity of it then makes it universal.

03:17And so anyone in a crisis or a caretaker in a crisis

03:21or anyone at the end of their rope can know the feelings

03:24that this movie's kind of expressing.

03:27Yeah, caretaker burnout,

03:29which also comes into play in the therapy sequences.

03:34Nobody is capable of helping anybody,

03:36even though that's everybody's job is to be,

03:39it's like, I always imagine it as the stacking dolls of helpers,

03:43but nobody is helping anybody in the movie

03:46because it's gotten to a point where it's beyond that.

03:50Like Linda, nobody can help Linda.

03:52Linda has to come to herself.

03:55And that's the ending I always describe as a very hopeful ending

03:59because it, she, whether it's going to be true or not,

04:04Linda comes to a place where she can see a different life.

04:09The idea of being a mother is that you have,

04:12you have, you've sacrificed something

04:16to bring this other being into the world.

04:20You've made them in your body.

04:21Now they're a person.

04:22And so everything is, everything continues to be for them.

04:26And it's a, it's a sacrifice of,

04:27I can't speak for all mothers,

04:29but for a lot of women of personhood, of personal identity,

04:33you become somebody's mom,

04:35but you weren't always somebody's mom.

04:37And so how to make that balance of being a person

04:41that you identify as yourself,

04:43but also being a good enough mother.

04:46And I do feel like I have seen some projects come out

04:50where, where they're getting into that.

04:54I love for more to be written and directed by women,

04:57not particularly interested in the male point of view of the subject,

05:01but that's happening more.

05:04And most of what I learned about being a mother

05:08or being a woman or being who I'm supposed to be

05:13was, was told to me by men.

05:16And so I think that the more women and not just women,

05:21but other voices, underrepresented voices too,

05:24I feel like everyone knows it's time for us

05:27to tell our own stories now.

05:28We don't want to be told anymore what, what we are.

05:31And that's very important to me.

05:33What's a movie that you watch over and over again,

05:36whether for comfort, inspiration?

05:39I'm like a Seinfeld girl.

05:41I'm so going to be like, if I put that on,

05:43or if I see it, it's like, you know,

05:44TBS comedy, I'm just like, that's it.

05:47I'm watching this.

05:48My daughter just discovered Seinfeld.

05:50She's 14.

05:51And so I'm now reliving,

05:53but she's showing it to me like I never saw it.

05:55And does she really like it?

05:56She's like, you've got to see this thing with the puffy shirt.

05:58It's incredible.

05:59And I'm like, I know about the puffy shirt.

06:01But anyway, I'm living through it again, discovering it.

06:04And that, yeah, that is comfort.

06:06That's like, that's just like eating a tub of ice cream.

Rose Byrne & Mary Bronstein Talk Motherhood in 'If I Had Legs I'd Kick You' | THR at Park City

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