GIRLS5EVA Star Busy Philipps for REAL SIMPLE Magazine

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Busy Philipps is doing her best – as a mom, celebrity, friend, and equal rights advocate.

Starring on the cover of REAL SIMPLE’s “Best & Brightest” issue, Busy Philipps opens up about therapy, parenting, and maintaining friendships. She also talks about her new late-night show Busy This Week, and how she had to “build a whole new table” to overcome the lack of representation of women in late-night television.

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On how being a celebrity affects her kids: “I’m a little weird”: “Birdie is almost 16. And Cricket is 11. I’m learning that I don’t have all the answers. And that I have to be able to put my own s—t down because they deserve their own experience that’s not mine. I’m definitely a different kind of mom. I’m a little weird, and I’m just trying to figure it out as I go along. Most parents don’t do what I do for a living. My kids have a wildly different experience from their friends, and sometimes they hate it. And I don’t blame them.”

On maintaining long-lasting relationships, like her friendship with Michelle Williams: “I’m always in interviews where they’re like, ‘Talk to us about your long friendship with Michelle Williams.’ I don’t know. We’re friends! What is so hard for people to understand? What is so hard about people maintaining friendships? For me, it’s not enough to just say, ‘Hey, checking in,’ or to just tell people that I’m great. I was at a birthday party on a Sunday in the middle of the day, and I got pretty deep for 35 minutes with a friend about some real stuff. And, I don’t know, I’m just not afraid of that. Things are complicated. I also like listening to people, so I ask questions. I’m always astonished when people don’t ask more questions.”

On struggling with “personality hangovers” (“Did I talk too much?”): “It’s a Paula Pell phrase [her co-star on Girls5eva], and it’s so genius. I’ve definitely had moments when I wake up the next day and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, did I talk too much at that dinner? Should I have been quieter? Should I have not fought back so hard with that person about whatever it was?’ As soon as she said it, I was like, ‘Oh, I get those all the time!’ I think women especially get them.”

On reminding herself and encouraging others to go small when it comes to advocating for change: “It feels so overwhelming. There are so many things, on top of the fact that we’re just trying to parent our children, make sure they’re safe, hopefully make sure our health needs are taken care of, or our friends’ or our sisters’ or our mothers’ or whatever. Then there’s all this nasty rhetoric, and we’re just inundated. It can really take me to a dark place, where I’m like, ‘It doesn’t matter what I do. It doesn’t matter what any of us do. It’s just going to be terrible.’ And I think it’s important to remember that’s not true. It’s important what we do. It’s the small things. It’s paying attention to who is being elected to the school board, because those are the people who are banning books.”

“I’m continually trying to remember that myself and encourage other people to find ways to go small, to think, to be participatory in their own neighborhoods and communities. What’s the saying? ‘You judge a society based on how they treat the most vulnerable among them.’”

On female representation in late-night television: “You know, if there’s not a seat at the table, you’ve just got to build a whole new table. It’s annoying that there’s not a seat at the table. But listen, we’ve got to find ways to build new tables. And QVC was very down to try something new, which is rare in this industry.”

The Best & Brightest issue of REAL SIMPLE is on sale May 17.

[Photo Credit: Williams + Hirakawa/Real Simple Magazine]

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