Our good friend and co-author of Peeing in Peace (we shared a fun snippet of her book here), Beth Feldman, hosted a great function in NYC last week featuring a Q&A session none other than the lovely star of "The Closer," Kyra Sedgwick!
Somehow we resisted the urge to send our PoshCravings proxy loaded with questions about her second cousin and Andy Warhol muse, the late Edie Sedgwick, or the infamous party game centered around her husband's career "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon." Instead, we got Kyra's responses to the questions we really wanted to hear...and here they are!
Enjoy!
[Photo by Susanna Martin]
As a working mother, how do you organize and manage your time?
Kyra: That's funny! I don't. People literally walk behind me and gather everything I've dropped. I'm not the organizer. Organizing is great if you can do it but I can't do it.
You’ve been married for 20 years. How do you maintain such a happy marriage?
Kyra: The first secret is not to be naive enough to think that there is a secret. I think that's a start. How do we all do it? I got lucky. I really like him. I really lust after him still which is a good thing. I think we are both similar in our managing styles. [When it came to issues like poopy diapers] whomever smelled it first always got to do it. Also when one of us worked, the other kind of stayed at home which was nice. I got good at being a single parent. I have empathy for the single parent. There were plenty of times where he would be working and I would be home with the kids. Not that I didn't have help. I was lucky enough to always have help.
How do you make sure your daughter Sosie has a positive body image?
Kyra: It’s so hard. Welcome to America. It's like portions are huge and we are supposed to stay skinny. I mean I don't get that! How did that happen? We are supposed to be skinny and hot and change a poopy diaper. My daughter is 16 and doesn't seem to have any eating or exercise issues but I most certainly did. It’s something I've worked on very hard. I used to be an obsessive exercise person. Now that's a confession. I mean every day 'OMG how am I going to burn more than I took in'. It's just the luck of the draw. She just doesn't have that gene. And I talk to her about it and the insanity of it. A lot of her friends are struggling with the issue. Everything is tall, thin and skinny and how can we come out of it? We just try to talk about it. I really don't have the answer.
How did you bounce back so beautifully from having your kids?
Kyra: I was a compulsive exerciser which wasn't proper. I spent a lot of time at the gym instead of being at home. I also had my kids very young. I had my son when I was 23 and my daughter when I was 25. I also breastfed - that was very good. Don’t expect the pounds to come off overnight. That is just not realistic. Damn those magazines with the before and after celebrity pictures showing them fully bounced back! [Not] a great message you know?! It’s not their fault by the way; it’s the magazine's fault.
How do you unwind after filming?
Kyra: I don't unwind! For the 6 months of shooting I never unwind. It's like being at the beach and enjoying the water. You see a big wave, get sucked down by it, recover and enjoy it... but then another wave comes and knocks you down again. That's what it feels like to be on the show.
What is your schedule like? How often do you film? And what do you do on your downtime?
Kyra: I film six months out of the year, and when I'm not working I try to see my friends and spend more time with my family. All my family is in New York. I try to exercise, and I also try to make a movie to be perfectly honest. I want to make sure my feet stay wet.
Do you want your children to become actors?
Kyra: You know. It's a totally narcissistic industry and I try not to be... I try to stay outward focused. It can get complicated. You can be very self involved. It can also be very insecure and as a mother you don’t want your children to be told they aren't right or perfect or good, ever.
You don’t ever want them to hear 'you aren't going to get the job because of x, y and z'. You don't want your kids to feel bad -- not even for a day!
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How right she is!
Be sure and tune in to see Golden Globe winner -- and all-around winner -- Kyra on the all-new season of The Closer!
--Allie
PS - She's so petite, she makes me want to bake her up a batch of Jessica Seinfeld's brownies!