Do you identify with the theme here of a woman who focused on her career and put off having a family?
Yeah, absolutely. I kind of looked up one day and was like, “Oh, what time is it?” I wish I had not done that. I wish I had totally started sooner, because I realized, oh, it can completely be worked in with your career. You don’t have to have your career stop just to be a woman.
Has it been an adjustment to balance the workload of the show with your family?
Well, luckily, a sitcom is the best schedule of any filming schedule ever, to have a family. But it’s still challenging, because I’m in every scene. So you just have to get extra-organized with your time. I remember I read an article once with Madonna, and she just was talking about, it’s all about time management, and that really stuck with me, because she’s completely right. You just have to become a master of time management and prioritizing. You really have to plan your family time, plan it all out. You do get it all done, but you have to get a little organized on it. You can’t just fly by the seat of your pants and expect to get it all done.
Being on CBS and in between two of their most popular sitcoms [How I Met Your Mother and Two and a Half Men], does that give you a sense of security for the show?
It’s definitely reassuring to have a network behind you, and to have them excited. They’re definitely excited about the show. And to be given that time slot’s an honor, but I’m not gonna now rest on my laurels. I feel like, okay, we’ve been given this, now we’ve gotta make the most out of it, and really make sure we do our jobs well—which I would do no matter where they put me. But I definitely have a great opportunity, and I just want to make the most of it.
Given that your last sitcom [Courting Alex] didn’t last long, were you at all skittish about jumping into another one?
Once I read the script, I got it right away. I just felt like, this is going to be great. But skittish the last four years being in development with every project? Yes. With this one, I just went, “The script is really good.” And then with the casting process, we got such great, talented people, and then when we started filming the pilot, the table read—at every moment I was reassured at how great this was, where I was like, “If this doesn’t go, I don’t know what to tell anybody.” Because this, to me, is funny, and if it doesn’t work, I don’t know what to tell anybody. It wasn’t like there was a series of compromises along the way, and I’m like, “Well, if it doesn’t work, then I can understand why, because that sucks, or this sucks.” Everything to me is wonderful on the show. That’s why I’ve said, many times before, I feel like I won the lottery. I hit the jackpot. Because I really feel like there’s so much right. There’s so many things that are right about this project. There’s not a lot that is wrong. And that’s hard to find in comedy. A lot of times there’s a lot of things that are wrong or iffy, and you’ve gotta sort of force them in the right direction, you never know. I feel secure in the fact that I’m surrounded by such talented writers and actors.
