If there’s one question that female actors (especially the ones who are mothers) get all the time, it’s “How do you manage it all?” The answer almost always is that they don’t manage it all. In fact, they — like the rest of us — manage a little bit at a time. And they have nannies. Lots and lots of nannies. Amy Poehler, being a successful actress and the mother of two boys, is no exception to the “how do you do it all” question and, frankly, she’s quite sick of it.
Poehler had some choice quotes in her recent interview with Ladies’ Home Journal, this one being chief among them:
“I just did a movie junket and reporters kept asking me, ‘Amy, how do you balance everything?’ I started saying things like, ‘You have to be realistic about how much you can get done in a day,’ and all that stuff. But then I was like, ‘Why don’t you ask the guy actors sitting next to me that same question? They have kids, too!’?”
Despite Poehler’s obvious dislike for the question, the interviewer then went on to ask just how Amy Poehler balances everything. AP was a good sport and somehow managed to turn the conversation into one about robots, her friends and what her ideal workout class would be like. (Silver lining, Poehler: At least they didn’t ask you whether it’s hard to be a woman in comedy.)
On her ideal day:
Honestly, my dream would be that I wake up every morning and someone gently leads me to my closet and shows me what I’m going to wear that day. I also want to invent a shower bed, which I can’t believe hasn’t been invented yet. It’s a bed where you pull a cord and water pours down on you like you’re Jennifer Beals in Flashdance. So I save time wherever I can. I shower while I’m lying in my bed and I have robots pick out my clothes.
On her relationships with other women:
Most of the women in your life will outlast the men in your life. The SNL ladies — Maya Rudolph, Rachel Dratch, Tina — and I text pictures of our kids back and forth all the time. It keeps us connected. As my nanny used to say, the older you get the more important it is to know people that knew you when. I also like hanging out with women who are older than me. I like asking them how they navigate life, what they’ve learned.
Boy, do I have the shower for you!
On personal trainers:
Personal trainers are people who yell at you to keep pushing. I’m like, “No, you keep pushing!” My idea of the perfect exercise class is this: The teacher gives us all a hug and goes, “You did it! You showed up! Let’s lie down.” We all lie down and she’s like, “How is everybody feeling?” We’re like, “Great!” And the teacher’s like, “Great!” Then we all get to leave 20 minutes early.
And finally, her observations on tween and teen girls are so lovely and considerate:
I’ve learned a lot about myself by talking to young girls…Young girls feel passionate about things. They remind me that it’s okay to really care — and that cynicism and sarcasm are an easy choice. I also learned that age 12 is a lot different from 13. When kids turn 13, they don’t want to dance with their parents as much.
YOU CAN HAVE IT ALL, AMY.
Image via Getty.