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This article contains mild spoilers.
As far as movie titles go,Babeshas multiple meanings.
But this isa friendship comedyabove all else.
Youve been friends for a long time.
Whats your origin story?Ilana Glazer:We dont remember!
We used to do stand-up for drink tickets, so we were definitely on the juice when we met.
Michelle Buteau:Youd do two, three shows in a night.
Maybe we met in, like, the back row of The Improv.
I go by aura.
She had a very pleasant aura, and I loved to see her every time.
Its a little blackout, but you remember the feeling.
IG:Michelle is magnetic, magnanimous.
Its like a cheat code.
We were on the same wavelength.
Ilana, the last movie you made about pregnancy and motherhood,False Positive, was far less upbeat.
That movie is about medical misogyny.
So far, women dont have protections around it.
Its also incredibly hard, messy, frustrating.
you could beat yourself up.
Michelle, youre nodding.MG:If there was a donation basket, Id put some money in it.
Was it always clear that Edens hookup would disappear from the story?
The romance then shifts to Eden and Dawn.
Thats a lot more profound and ruminative than I was anticipating.
You have to be very skilled to make it look this easy.
Because I was doing, like, milking things first.
IG:We started at the house in Harlem with the lactation consultant andMarty.
And you cant have air conditioning on when you film because it bumps the sound.
I dont have the answer.
And Michelle as Dawn is so overloaded with the swirling imbalance of life and work.
I was struggling to hold the tension because I felt like I was really interrupting this couple fighting.
MB:It was so funny, too, because you had the noisiest bag of chips.
Theres an art to making the rat-a-tat dialogue inBabessound realistic.
This is our language.
When Im watching this movie, Im just like,Oh, we look like were from Queens.
We didnt write it with anybody in mind, and then were being sent lists of actresses.
They were all talented, but they were actresses who could guarantee the budget back or whatever.
It brings me back to Mitt Romney talking about binders full of women a flattening, dehumanizing currency.
Give me an example of a Pamela Adlon note.MG:It was the birthday for Marty.
I was always like, Here we go with the birthday cake!
And she said, No.
You have not thought about yourself at all.
Go up the banister and just slowly look and stare.
There was something so relaxing about it because I dont give myself license to do that at home.
She had these nuggets of nuance.
We didnt need multicam Michelle.
IG:As a director, Pamela is such a champion of actors.
Before the girls have their swollen rom-com reunion, my character is vulnerable.
Since I co-wrote the script, he helped me remove myself and understand what I had unconsciously intended.
I needed someone else to help me see it.
MB:Its the reason why whoevers cooking Thanksgiving dinner is not hungry anymore.
you’ve got the option to work so hard on the process.
IG:Its almost like a therapist for your role, or a professor.
The pregnancy suits are hilarious.
The laboring was so funny.
There is so little art out there that uses what is uniquely a womans experience as hard comedy.
If we do that, then we are excluding a group that doesnt like to be excluded.
To watch my friend of 20 years do what only she can do was so rewarding.
I was beaming like a Jewish mom.
I just threw stuff at him.
IG:And we had so few takes on this movie, like two takes.
We shot this movie in 25 days, and we had Michelle for 15.
