Life & Beth’s Laura Benanti breaks Jane’s love for her daughters despite her “limitations”

Laura Benanti plays Amy Schumer’s Beth’s mother, Jane, in Hulu’s “Life & Beth.” She spoke privately with HL about the intricacies of parenting, how this role has changed her as a mother, and more.

Amy Schumer takes us on an emotional journey CV and Beth† Her character Beth embarks on an inner and outer exploration following the sudden death of her mother. Laura Benanti† The Hulu series is reminiscent of Beth’s childhood, a turbulent time filled with change and trauma.

Beth’s mother, Jane, is an undeniable force in Beth’s past. Despite being an imperfect woman, she did everything to take care of her children. All her decisions were based on love, whether it was for her children or a desire for “love” that would make her life better. HollywoodLife She talked to Laura ONLY about Jane’s need for “outside validation” and how it affects her children, the evolution of motherhood and more. Read our questions and answers below and watch our full interview:

Amy came to you for the role of Jane? Was there a selection process? How was it?
Laura Benanti: Amy and I did meteor shower on Broadway Steve Martin He wrote. me and i Keegan-Michael Key And Jeremy Shamos† We were friends at the time, so she came up to me and asked if I wanted to play her mom. I said, “Sure, yes.”

All of these characters have very different tones and very different layers. What made you particularly wonder about Jane?
Laura Benanti: So, all the characters are very nuanced. Jane is the part I’m good at. So what was interesting for me to discover about him was how he moved around the world. I think he understandably looked at the world through the lens of lack. Women had so many choices, very recently and sometimes even now. So I think her options for her are either to get a man to make her life better or to suffer. I think he saw this very clearly and continued to do so throughout his life. It’s really interesting for me to see how this affects their daughters’ lives.

I think a lot about this. As I get older, I think about what happened to me as a kid. The decisions my mom or dad made and how they shaped me now. For better or worse, parents usually do their best. As we’ve seen Beth do, you have to come to terms with it and understand it in a way you couldn’t understand when you were younger.
Laura Benanti: Parents are people. And when you’re young you don’t see them as people. You see them as your protectors and omniscient people. One of the many things I love about this show is the idea that we’re just doing our best. There’s no bad guy with a mustache running around. There are no good kids, no bad kids. There are good people doing questionable things and questionable people doing good things. Everyone tries to travel the world and survive. What I love about the show [that] He goes beyond survival, finally succeeds in life, seeing how his family loves him despite his weaknesses.

It all comes down to the very last episode… Never has a monologue or scene touched me as much as Amy’s. I could literally cry [thinking about it]† “No one can love you like your mother and no one can upset you like your mother”. This is pure greed.
Laura Benanti: I have a 5 year old daughter and I know no one will love her as much as I do. She knows there will be things that she clings to as an adult that I don’t know will hurt them, she. Because at that moment, I couldn’t give him what was meaningful to him, she. With the grace that Amy has, the generosity of putting her on screen, we never really see her.

It tells how Jane lived in her dreams and how she survived. I think that’s great because it seems to me that a lot of moms do this from time to time, and I think that’s a really realistic perspective, especially in the ’90s when the new millennium was dawning, but still a bit of the ’80s. It was a very changing time.
Laura Benanti: Jane was a little girl from the 1950s. If you think about it that way, the 1950s are very different from today, fortunately and for the most part. I think a lot about the kinds of programming that young women, even me, saw in the 80s and 90s. I dont have Frozen where they are like brothers. Moana was not there where she had saved the world. Be beautiful, sing, it was as if the birds would land on your fingers, and then a prince would save your life.

This show would be so easy to watch: Jane is the bad guy. It’s caused all this trauma for Beth and her sister, and that’s how they’re dealing with it today. But I love that this show explores these finer human elements, and as we’ve discussed, it went above and beyond. He has flaws. But in the end, he loved his children and did his best to make their lives better.
Laura Benanti: And to fill in the part that feels empty because it has no internal validation. She needed external validation and sadly passed this on to her daughters. So it clearly says, “If you want a guy to pay attention to you, act like you need him.” He passes on to them the wisdom that I am sure was taught or acquired through life experience. While this is traumatic and I’m sure this behavior isn’t ideal, he needed to work on it. It’s clear to me – I love what Amy does – there is love there. Sometimes I think we forget this, assuming treacherous intentions when in reality it is a lack of ability to see beyond one’s limits.

Do you think he was considering leaving his children?
Laura Benanti: I don’t think you can let Jane go there.

This is another aspect of growth in the 1950s and 1960s, you wouldn’t think so…
Laura Benanti: One of the things she said about him too [Beth’s] Sister: “Your sister won’t call you back and I didn’t do anything wrong.” It’s part of it. The one he created on Beth, primarily different kinds of funny people and a bit of a mild-mannered and outside approval seeker. He is like a monk in his sister. She doesn’t want to do anything with anyone, she. I think she can see clearly and not totally crushed she.

It would have been overwhelming for someone like him if he had let the things he could do differently consume him in a certain way. Frankly, I hadn’t even seen the trailer when I started watching it, and I was totally amazed at how we process the loss of childhood and then the power of just love, unconditional love. It was very finely tuned. He clearly created, wrote, acted and directed 4 episodes. What was it like working with him so intensely? I don’t know if this is personal to him, but at least it seemed like a very personal story to him.
Laura Benanti: I think it’s partly based on his childhood moments. It’s definitely fictional. I don’t play his real mother and neither do I. Michael [Rapaport] in the role of his real father, but based on moments from his young life and I think it was incredibly brave to bring him into the world. Amy is very generous. She is so sweet, warm, helpful, funny and simple. You never have to worry about what he thinks. You’ll know and he won’t be a jerk about it, she. It’s obvious… I would rather have someone tell me the truth with love than a passive-aggressive attitude. The ambiance he created, because sometimes a set can be a very overwhelming and busy place, and the ambiance he and everyone else created was so loving. I think it makes players feel safe enough to be part of the really in-depth exploration you need to do to properly portray these people. What I like to do is it’s very funny and the show is very funny. But this is the smile of recognition and truth. It’s not like a punchline. Laugh because you think that’s how I felt or saw or lived someone like that. The show is very special.

Everyone looks at motherhood in their own way or approaches them in their own way. Did this role make you think differently about the experience of being a mother?
Laura Benanti: In a way, it helped me accept that no matter how hard I tried – and I really do – things would happen that would unintentionally harm my child. can’t dirty bad for my son Which hurt my son The only thing I can do is fix it when I can. If I’ve acted in a way that I’m not proud of, all I can do is apologize. I’m an adult and I don’t feel like he’s 5 years old so what I say is okay. If I do or say something and think about it, you know what, I can handle it better. I beg your forgiveness. I respect him. I don’t see it as a small thing to be tamed, or as a small extension of me. He is his own person living in this world. I think I’m already on that road, but I think that playing this character made me feel more comfortable. I’m talking about external validation. I think a lot of women do this, which is why it feels so universal. I’m 42, so I grew up in the 80’s and 90’s. I was raised by a mother in the 1950s and she is a wonderful mother. He taught me a lot of wisdom. He grew up with a mother born in the 1920s. All these changing roles, women’s roles have changed a lot in a very short time and there is so much you can do. So I know I’m doing my best and sometimes my best isn’t good enough. There is an admission in this. There is no laziness and I don’t like it, I tried but I try my best to be kind to myself when trying to raise a human in this crazy world.

Speaking of other moms, you’re playing Kiki Gossip Girl† I know he’ll be back for a second season. Will we see Kiki?
Laura Benanti: We will definitely see Kiki again. It has a pretty big story that starts around episode 6. You will see him a lot. But you know, it’s a kids show. For them.