Berkeley Breathed's book, Mars Needs Moms, heads to the big screen as a family-friendly film from Walt Disney Pictures. Directed by Simon Wells (who co-wrote the film with his wife, Wendy), Mars Needs Moms was shot using performance capture technology with Joan Cusack (Showtime's Shameless) taking on the part of a mom kidnapped by aliens. Mindy Sterling (best known for the Austin Powers movies) plays a bossy Martian who doesn't speak a word of English.
Working on a motion capture project takes a little getting used to, and everyone looks pretty funky walking around the sets wearing suits with dots. The set itself is basically just a bare stage. But despite the strangeness of it all, Sterling says she loved working in the medium.
"It was so free and so liberating and so creative, where you had to be creative and how you saw the set and you saw the things you were dealing with because there wasn't anything there. There was some tape that was outlined and this is where you'd stand. Then what we had to wear...you really had to go to your acting and you really had to go to your visual conception of everything. You did have a photo you could see: 'This is what the ship looks like. This is what the home looks like,' so you could use that in your sense memory. But it was so different," explained Sterling. "You didn't have to be bogged down with hair and makeup. No lighting. Then it was just, 'Let's do it a couple times and move on,' because cameras are everywhere capturing everything."
Cusack agreed. "It's almost like you're going back to childhood, just playing and you have to imagine everything. You're in a castle and you're blah blah blah. You get to imagine again, which is kind of fun too."
Cusack's real life experience as a mom helped her get into the role of a mother who isn't always appreciated. "To me, that's the best thing I've ever done in my life is become a mom," said Cusack at the film's LA press day. "I really, really mean that. When somebody says, 'What do you do?' 'I'm a mom and an actress.' The hardest job, but I absolutely love it the most."
"Some of my most Oscar-worthy performances were done with my children," added Cusack. "It's much more complex."
And while the film mixes comedy and action, there are also a few really - without disclosing any spoilers - emotional scenes. In fact, one of the most emotional scenes had the adults involved in the film, including author Breathed who knew the story backwards and forwards, crying during a special preview screening. However, Cusack said her son wasn't one of the ones shedding a few tears. "My son loved it and said it was one of the best movies he's ever seen," revealed Cusack. "I don't think he was emotional. He's 16, but hopefully it will register at some point in his life that I love you, but you have to do these certain things."
That said, Cusack's boys are now fans of Mars Needs Moms. "My boys both said it was sad. I don't know if it was because it was me up there and right at the end that you see that, but they loved it."
Mars Needs Moms follows a young boy named Milo (played by Seth Green) who gets angry at his mom and doesn't really figure out how important she is, how much they love each other, and how much she has to teach to him until Martians take her away. Asked about the lessons she's learned from her own mother, Cusack said, "I think just as a role model, my mom is somebody who's very passionate. She's really political. She grew up in a time when it was Vietnam. [...]That was her thing, being an activist. Just having seen that in my mom, that passion, is something that I'm grateful for because I think it's something I want my children to have too, the experience of feeling passionate about something, whatever it is. That's just a great part of life. She's a kind woman. She's kind first, and I think I'm grateful to learn that because I think you learn being mean too and you learn being kind. I think I'm grateful that as a mom, I get to be able to do something I love to do and have work that's meaningful to me. So that itch is scratched as a human, and then you can really take the time to figure out how to be a good mom to your kids, because it takes a lot of energy to be a parent and be a good parent."
Sterling added, "Our upbringing is all about kindness. I try to teach my kid about being good to somebody else, not to be so selfish, commitment, the passion that you have for it following through. For me, there was a movie I saw years and years ago and there are not a lot of films that have such impact that I will remember something about them. I do remember it was Gilbert Grape. I remember there was a part when Johnny Depp was asked, 'What do you want to be when you grow up?' Or, 'What do you want out of life?' I remember him saying something like, 'I just want to be a good person.' I swear to God, as silly and as little as that, to me that is who my family was and that is who I would like to be remembered that I was an incredibly good, generous person. That I try to teach my kids."
But being kind isn't always easy for kids, admits Sterling. "It's really hard work when they're 16. It's in treating everybody as a human being. I think we have to remember and go back to real basics. Everybody's at a different level, but we're all on this earth to make a difference."
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Mindy Sterling's a Survivor
After completing the roundtable interview for Mars Needs Moms, Sterling talked about something she's working on that's near and dear to her heart. "I'm running for man/woman of the year for the Leukemia/Lymphoma Association. I would like to win Woman of the Year. I have never done anything like this. I am a 13 year breast cancer survivor. I lost my mother and father to cancer, so I really want to become a part of this and I also want to show my son who said to me, 'You'll never win.' 'Ha ha ha, yes, I will.' Don't ever tell your mother you can't do something."For more information on Mindy Sterling's quest to win Woman of the Year, please visit her official fundraising website.
Mars Needs Moms hits theaters on March 11, 2011.
