doesn't have an overtly Christian
message. We are called to be in the
world. There is so much beauty. I've
grown so much and I've had so
much truth spoken into my life
from people outside of the faith.
Often Christians don't think
that is possible, that there is
wisdom and truth to learn from
someone who doesn't believe the
same thing that we do. I would
love Hollywood to not to be so
afraid of Christians and for
Christians to not be so afraid of
Hollywood. I think we can meet.
underserved people in our country.
Our culture doesn't honor the stay�at�home mom. We
don't celebrate her and I don't understand why. Women
now have the choice--we can choose to work outside the
home or stay at home. I chose to work outside the home.
However, our culture wants tolerance, as long as it fits
into the mold. It's not tolerance at all. It's really interest-
ing to hear people say our film is regressive simply
because the hero of the movie happens to be a stay�at�
home mom. Nobody's preaching that everybody should
stay at home. This idea somehow makes people uncom-
fortable. I wanted to do the film because I wanted to
honor those moms, because a lot of those moms are my
friends. I see how hard they work and I see how much
they beat themselves up. I beat myself up as a working
mom in terms of feeling like a failure, feeling like I'm not
enough, and badly for my husband, for God, for my
friends, for my son. I love that Ally (the heroine of the
movie) got to take this journey of going from a place of
feeling like a failure to then releasing it and being able to
look at herself in a new way as someone who is a beautiful
mess and a masterpiece. I need to preach that message to
myself daily.
helping me to separate truth from lies. Which stands?
my career. I don't go on message
boards anymore. On my first show,
Everwood, I got addicted to going
on message boards after every
episode aired and reading what
everybody had to say about me.
No matter how many nice things
were said the only stuff I remem-
bered was the horrible and really
cruel stuff. It did a number on me.
The positive stuff is just as de-
structive as the negative stuff
because it tends to create this total
false identity about who you are.
That identity in the Webisphere
can crumble in five seconds. You're
building your hope on something
that isn't real. They don't know
the real you at all. It's this image
of you that they're talking about.
My product is my body, my voice,
but it doesn't feel as personal. When someone is trashing
your product, which is you, the way you speak, look,
move, talk, gesture or your beauty or lack thereof, it
can be devastating. I thank God I have incredibly strong
truth tellers in my life to remind me who I am and love
me for who I am.
love you. You need to have a strong sense of who you are.
You need to know where your identity ultimately lies.
You need to surround yourself with true colors. I don't
even know where I would be right now if I walked into
this career without my husband. My husband is the
greatest truth teller in my life. He is always my reminder
of my value and my worth. Box office tickets and what-
ever else are totally irrelevant to why or how he loves me.
tricky thing. It is a constant battle for me to veer away
from becoming proud and obsessed with myself. And,
I fall into it a lot. I fall into that and have to be pulled
back out of it because ultimately when I go down that
path, I am miserable. There is no joy down that path.