“Guilt is hard to shake” Ellie Kemper gets real about mum life and cold dinners
Ellie Kemper is the cute and funny star of The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, Bridesmaids and The Office before that, and she’s been tackling another role with gusto — that of mum to 19-month-old James Miller.
“It’s hard”
Ellie’s married to writer Michael Koman. The pair were engaged in 2012, wed in the same year and welcomed their little boy in 2016.
The actor and mum says that the stretched feeling many parents are familiar with has been a little bit tricky to navigate.
“I’m new to this, but I would imagine all parents feel guilty most of the time,” she told US Weekly. “I don’t know that that’s good, but it’s hard, as everyone knows. So accepting that you’re not gonna be everywhere at once is like an ongoing challenge for me. Guilt is hard to shake. I think anyone can relate to that.”
“Everyone struggles”
Ellie says she’s trying to push aside notions of perfect parenting, in the quest for something more authentic and achievable, noting that social media is putting undue pressure on mums and dads to realise an impossible ideal.
“Occasionally I will wonder, ‘How is that mom doing everything and apparently doing it really well?’ I think some things are maybe misrepresented on social media. Everyone struggles, I would imagine. I am a dinosaur and I’m not on social media.”
Ellie explains she’s made some compromises in the name of efficiency, but she’s not sneaking any of these hacks by her son. He’s apparently got the same dramatic and vocal leanings as his mama ..!
“There’s just a lot always going on, whether you have one kid, two kids, 10 kids. So sometimes, I don’t always heat up [the meal] if I’m giving him leftovers. If he’s starving, I won’t always heat up the food. He’ll like touch it and then he makes a shiver sound like, ‘Brr!”
“Probably not like he wants to remember from mom’s home cooking like, ‘It was really cold,’” Ellie laughed.
Good morning, Mr Draper
Interestingly, Ellie came from a very wealthy family who donated millions to a US museum named in honour of her grandmother. After attending high school (where her drama teacher was MadMen’s John Hamm!) she graduated from Princeton with an English degree — and a serious interest in comedy.
Ellie initially auditioned for a part in Parks and Recreation, but was offered a try-out for The Office when she missed out on the Parks and Recreation part. Her now beloved The Office character is apparently modelled on an exaggerated version of herself.
Elllie has continued to nurture her Princeton-educated interest in the written word, writing for The Onion, Huffington Post and McSweeneys as a sort of non-acting side-gig.
So nice to hear a bit more about what makes this funny woman tick. 🙂
