NY Daily News – October 21, 2009

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In ‘Motherhood’ and in real life, Uma Thurman is a New York mom
BY Jane Ridley
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

In the comedy “Motherhood,” opening Friday, Uma Thurman plays a financially challenged stay-at-home mom who copes with the grim reality – and unexpected rewards – of being a parent in lower Manhattan. Onscreen, Thurman’s character lives in a cramped apartment in a fourth-floor walkup, observes alternate-side parking rules and deals with unsolicited child-care advice. It all makes for a stressful existence.

In real life, the actress and single mother of two owns a swanky Greenwich Village townhouse and is engaged to billionaire financier Arpad Busson. But as the 39-year-old tells it, she identifies with her frazzled, overreaching character in more ways than you would think.

Were you drawn to this movie as a New York City mom?

I definitely felt I had shared an experience with the director, Katherine Dieckmann, another Manhattan mom. There is something very bonding when you know every park in the area, where the little coffee shops are nearby and what the different bakeries are like. “Motherhood” isn’t my story, but it’s the backdrop of my story. There are so many commonalities. I found it very moving because it’s wonderfully observed. The attitudes of different mothers. The sense of claustrophobia here in New York. People living on top of each other and commenting on each other and seeing in each other’s windows. There not being enough sand in the sandbox, practically. The overlapping of lives.

The movie pokes fun at the interfering, overprotective and often competitive parenting styles of people in places like the West Village and Park Slope. Have you experienced this?

Absolutely! It starts when you are pregnant. I remember being at Broadway and 18th, going to a movie, heavily pregnant in the summer, and it was incredibly hot. I used to chew ice. It’s probably because you get extra hot when you’re pregnant. Someone stopped me. “You are chewing ice and you’re pregnant! That could be a lack of iron!” they said. My ice-chewing was somehow an indication that I was doing something wrong! But people here do worry a lot about children. I do it myself. I see a kid in a park wandering without an adult near them. I think: Is that kid lost or is that adult just too far away from their kid? It’s all part of our communal living.

What have you seen in the city that’s a bit over the top, parenting-wise?

I always object to seeing children on leashes. I find seeing children on leashes unsettling. It pains me. The manufacturers try to disguise them as backpacks with stuffed toys on them. I can understand why you might need one or want one. But, at the end of the day, they are leashes!

Eliza, your character in “Motherhood,” has a somewhat compromised lifestyle because she lives in a rent-stabilized apartment. Can you understand why she doesn’t move to the suburbs?

People in New York are addicted to rent-stabilized apartments. Maybe they don’t like it or they’ve grown out of it, but they can’t give up the deal. I have a number of friends in rent-stabilized apartments who will never leave. Their whole lives are balanced in a certain way. That relatively cheap apartment allows them to live the life they want. They don’t have to say: “I’m not making enough money doing this or that and should do something else.” That apartment lets them continue to pursue the career of their choice – whether they are writers or artists – with passion.

Where are your favorite places to take kids here in New York?

I always like the two children’s museums. The Children’s Museum of the Arts downtown and the Children’s Museum of New York on the upper East Side. We are so lucky in this city with an absolute glut of wonderful places to go – all the museums, galleries and, in the winter, the ice-skating rinks.

Eliza gets annoyed by the hordes of inconsiderate, camera-toting tourists outside the Magnolia Bakery on “Sex and the City” tours in Greenwich Village. Do you share the same feelings?

I tend to avoid places that are really touristy. … It’s amazing there is enough room [in New York] for everybody.

Jodie Foster has a cameo role in the film where she plays herself bringing her kids to the Bleecker St. playground in Greenwich Village. She is hassled by the paparazzi. How do you cope when that happens to you?

It happens all the time, in the exact same park. All the time. People start taking pictures of you. I try to ignore it as much as I can or I leave.

How does this lack of privacy affect your kids – Maya, 11, and 9-year-old Levon? (Their father is Thurman’s ex-husband Ethan Hawke.)

I let them be. They are themselves. We have a good time. They have a pretty normal universe.

In the film, Eliza enters a blogging competition which involves writing an article about what motherhood means to her. What does motherhood mean to you?

It’s about embracing life and realizing what a privilege it means to be with your kids. It’s the most love I’ve ever experienced. I am very much into love as a universal religion and I would put mothering and motherhood on the top of the pyramid as a way to love.

Source: NY Daily News