Sun-Times News Group – October 18, 2009

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Uma Thurman, ‘Motherhood’ director raise film together
BY BILL ZWECKER Sun-Times Columnist

Uma Thurman and Katherine Dieckmann, the writer and director of the actress’ new ”Motherhood” film, have a lot in common.

For one thing, both woman have two children near the same ages.

“We both have the same feelings about what it means to be a mother in today’s world,” said Dieckmann, who joined Thurman in Chicago recently to represent their movie as it opened this year’s Chicago International Film Festival.

”Yes, that’s definitely true,” said Thurman, as she munched on a plate of fresh fruit, just prior to dashing off to walk the red carpet for the opening night of the festival’s 45th season.

”From the moment I started reading Katherine’s script, I felt, ‘God! This is my life, too!’ Clearly, this is fiction and it’s inspired by Katherine’s own experiences, but living in New York and having gone through similar, harried and hectic days — juggling a couple of kids myself — I could completely relate.”

Thurman called the ”Motherhood” screenplay — and now the finished film (opening in theaters Friday) — ”a movie that is the backdrop of my own motherhood. It’s my home movie I never shot,” said Thurman with a laugh.

The actress stressed that she has virtually no ”moving footage of my children” ( Maya, 11, and Levon, 7).

”My creative life is so much about moving images, I just never wanted to bring that into my household or personal life,” she said. “You can say that I’m sort of moving-footage phobic, but I do wish now that I had videos of my kids when they were little!”

Dieckmann chimed in with a similar tale. ”I had the [video] camera but I never figured out how to use it!”

Thurman admitted she and ex-husband Ethan Hawke had made a stab at shooting videos of their children but failed “pretty miserably.”

“We did shoot some, but badly — and then we’d lose the tape — or rather, my ex-husband lost the tape,” zinged Thurman, adding Hawke also had misplaced the video of their daughter shot in the doctor’s office — ”You know, that first thing they give you when the baby still is in utero.”

”But that’s OK. I think there are more important things in life. My children will survive. Plus, I have tons of still photos of both of them — at all stages of their growing up.”

Dieckmann added that people today tend to be a little too focused on documenting every single moment of their children’s lives.

”It drives me crazy, when you go to your child’s recital and you’re so distracted because so many of the other parents are so obsessed with capturing their kid’s performance — they can’t even enjoy the moment, and neither can you,” she said.

Thurman nodded in agreement.

”It’s such a shame they can’t just capture that and remember it in their mind,” she said.

The actress and the writer-director clearly meshed nicely as they set about creating ”Motherhood.”

When reminded of various scenes from her film — with people acting self-absorbed and unsympathetic to Thurman’s harried character as she juggles two small kids, managing a household and attempting to write a daily ”mommy blog” — Dieckmann said she did want to stress a big, overriding theme in her movie.

”When I wrote this, it was very much about exposing the very overt hostility you often see in daily life toward mothers,” she said. “Yes, a lot of ‘Motherhood’ is funny — after all, my main purpose was to write a comedy about motherhood, because I felt there really weren’t any out there. But frankly, as I have often said to Uma, being a mother is like having a giant ‘Kick Me!’ sign on your back at all times.”

Both Thurman and Dieckmann laughed as the director brought up a common urban occurrence for mothers: ”You’ve got the kid and the stroller, and you’re trying to catch a cab and it’s starting to rain, and then somebody cuts you off and grabs the cab — clearly seeing you struggling with the kid on your shoulder but just not caring.

”They shoot you a look like, ‘You’re just a mother. Figure it out.”’

”But you know what’s funny?” Thurman said. “And the movie makes this point: Despite everything, we mothers usually do find a way to figure it out.”

Source: Suburban Chicago News