Jenny slate on filming a movie 10 weeks after birth of baby girl

Actor-comedian Jenny Slate says she commenced shooting for her latest film “I Want You Back” just 10 weeks after giving birth to her daughter but the movie’s team supported her in pulling off the double duty of a new mother and an artiste.

It was April 2020, when the world was locked down due to the coronavirus pandemic, that Slate was sent the script for “I Want You Back” by filmmaker Jason Orley. The actor, known for shows such as “Parks and Recreation”, “House of Lies” as well as movies like “Obvious Child”, “Gifted” and “Venom”, then had a Zoom meeting with Orley but nothing happened.

“I just assumed that either it wasn’t being made because of the pandemic or that they had given it to someone else. But then it came back around a few months later and Charlie Day was attached to play the male lead. And I felt really excited to work with him because he’s a real comedy star and a classic comedian,” the 39-year-old actor told PTI in a Zoom interview from Los Angeles. Slate said she wanted to work on the movie but felt the need to tell Orley what happened in her life in the past few months.

“I got on the Zoom with Jason and I said, ‘I really want to do the movie. Thank you so much. The only thing is I’m six months pregnant’.

“And he was like, ‘Oh, okay. When will you have the baby?’ I told him that. And then he was like we’ll wait for you, which was extraordinary. We ended up making the movie about 10 weeks after I had my daughter. So it’s one of the best things that has ever happened to me,” she said.

Slate had announced the birth of her daughter Ida with fiance Ben Shattuck in February last year. The couple, who had been engaged since September 2019, tied the knot on December 31, 2021. The romantic comedy, which released on Prime Video on Friday, is about Peter (Charlie Day) and Emma (Slate) as two thirtysomethings who have been dumped by their respective partners. They decide to team up to win their exes back by destroying their new relationships.

Asked how she juggled between the roles of a new mother and an actor, Slate said, “Sometimes, I ask myself the same question. It was a big challenge.”

The actor said the team was totally supportive of her and they hired an assistant to help her out.

“I never really had anyone help me out before on set. Generally, I’m used to making independent films where we’re changing our wardrobes in the basement of a local community centre or a church or something. And this was like, I have a trailer and I have an assistant.

“She helped me to do my nursing or set up everything like I was using the breast pump a lot and sending milk home to my baby where my husband was with our child.”

Slate said the whole crew, including her fellow actors, were aware that she recently gave birth to her daughter and she is “incredibly grateful” for their cooperation.

“How I did it was that everyone was involved. Our whole crew, the other actors, everyone was aware of me as a working woman who was only 10 weeks postpartum.

“And it was built into how we did our work, rather than me trying to do my work and sneak in my life. My life led the way and that is something I’ll always be incredibly grateful for,” she added.

Slate said the movie gave her a chance to play a character who is stuck in her comfort zone, which was totally opposite to her own personality. “I am always anxious and therefore it was always like ‘How do I find a comfort zone?’... I’m not a lot like my character. I’ve always really pushed professionally. “My character in the movie, she’s really stuck in a professional rut and she’s experienced some loss. That to me was something really new to play because I have been a bit overanxious.” Talking about her marriage to Shattuck, an art curator, Slate said she is going through the most wonderful phase of her life.

“I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. I’ve finally gotten what I’ve hoped for and I feel a big feeling of openness. It’s sort of strange. I don’t exactly know what’s next, I don’t know what is the next movie I’ll do. I haven’t made any of those decisions. “I’m still enjoying the day-to-day circumstances of my life. And I feel very happy. That’s something that the pandemic really shined a light on for a lot of people which is like when the outside world is stripped away and you’re just like in your home, do you like it? It turns out that I do.”

“I Want You Back” also stars Gina Rodriguez, Scott Eastwood, Manny Jacinto and Cl