Latest / Mommywood / Mommywood Recut: Making Acting Work With a Baby (with Hannah Hines)

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Mommywood Recut: Making Acting Work With a Baby (with Hannah Hines) · Mommywood

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Hey guys, it's Emily and today's episode is Mommy Would Recut
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with Hannah Hines. And when I first recorded this
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conversation with Hannah, my daughter was only about 10 weeks
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old and I very much had no idea what I was doing yet.
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Meanwhile, Hannah was already in the preschool stage figuring out
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self tapes, childcare logistics, and how to actually keep our
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career going with a toddler. Now listening back, I realize
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how many of my questions I was asking were based basically
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coming from survival mode. Like, how are we even showering?
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How do you schedule auditions? How are you supposed to make
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this work once you're a parent? In this episode, Hannah shares
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really honestly about building a village and navigating last
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minute auditions with a child, as well as the huge identity
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shift after motherhood and even unexpectedly pivoting into a
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writing career. Now the best part about this
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episode with Hannah, the fun part is that since recording
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this episode, we've actually become real life friends.
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I love Hannah. I think she is just one of the
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most genuine, kindest women and this is our friendship has
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definitely been one of my one of the my favorite best things that
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have come out of mommy wood. So I I just love her and adore
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her so much. What started as Instagram
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friends has turned into hanging out, getting our emotional
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support coffee together, and now we're even in a book club
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together, which honestly feels very on brand for mommy Wood.
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So. If you have ever thought you
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know I love acting but how am I supposed to really do this now
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that I have a baby? This episode is for you so
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please enjoy. I know you will.
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This episode of Mommy would re cut with Hannah Heinz.
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How old is yours? I see your little crib in the
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background. She is 1010 weeks.
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She's not even in the crib yet. Yeah, you have a 10 week old and
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you are like fully making a podcast.
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That's amazing. Because I.
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Need to ask. You I'm even like, how are we
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here with like how did we shower today?
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Spoiler alert, I didn't. We were.
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Let's see here for a full 8 years and married for a whole 10
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years before we had a child. Which is like I would.
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I mean, I don't know what the average is, but I would imagine
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it's longer than most, right? But that's awesome you got your
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time together. Yeah, most of the time I wait
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till she's asleep, which is not my preference because it's late
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and I'm tired and I feel like I'm like not at my my best.
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If I have enough notice and I can secure a friend, actor
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friend come read with me during the middle of the day while my
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daughter's preschool, that's much preferred.
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But like getting all those stars to align just doesn't always
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happen. So like, and especially if it's
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a short window for submission, I'll just wait until she's down
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for the night and then we'll do my whole setup.
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And my husband and I will do that together.
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But I do have a friend and a neighbor who's also an actor,
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and she and I help each other read.
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So sometimes we're able to work it out during the day.
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But yeah, usually it's when she's asleep and I'm like, I'm
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toast. You know what I mean?
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Like, it is not optimal. You just, like, make it work.
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But woof, how about you? What are you?
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What are you doing so far? We well Preston, my husband has
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done has had a. Lot of self.
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Tapes. Luckily, he's.
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Been auditioning like crazy, which I'm like that's great.
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Also super annoying but we'll do it.
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Obviously she's napping so much so we try and do it like while
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she's napping, but it's kind of one of those like I'm distracted
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because when is she going to wake up like?
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Yeah, just, and, you know, like the one day you you plan a
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really important audition during their nap, they like, won't nap
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that day. Like you just, it's like
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Murphy's Law, you know what I mean?
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So it's like it's stressful. Yeah, I was like just kind of in
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mom mode, like at home with her. And then she became, you know,
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she was like a good age for like, nursery school.
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We felt like we could do that for at least part of the time.
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And then work started to come. Things started to open back up.
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And so it all kind of happened at the same time as sort of like
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integration back into being like a working, working actor.
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So you were pretty in the thick of it at the beginning of the
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pandemic? How was she?
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She had just turned 1. She had just turned 1.
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And so, you know, I'm sure you're, I mean, maybe I
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shouldn't assume you might be experiencing with a young baby
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that you're home a lot more than you normally would be.
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Like it can be kind of isolating.
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You're like home a lot with them, running errands with them
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as a whole production. Do you know what I mean?
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And so for her first year of life, I was home quite a bit
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more than I would normally be because I had a little baby and
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I was like, cool, she just turned 1.
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I'm going to like re enter society basically.
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Do you know what I mean? Like I started like working part
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time. I was like great.
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And then a month after her birthday, everything shut down.
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Where am I? Before she was born, I worked
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for years for catering companies like that, the catering thing
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because it's flexible and the hourly was decent, etcetera.
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And then I got a job at a restaurant and I didn't ever
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think I would want to work in a restaurant again.
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But a friend of mine kind of vouched for it.
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She's like, no, it's family owned.
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They're really nice. Everyone there is really cool.
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And she was right. Everyone was lovely.
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So I was like, oh, great. I actually, I really like this
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as a side job and I continued to work there for a while while I
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was pregnant. And then I don't remember how
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old she was when I started working there like a couple
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shifts, like a couple nights a week, probably like 6 months or
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so. I like kind of started going
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back. But sadly that restaurant is
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closed indefinitely cause the pandemic like that, it got hit
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really hard. And so, yeah, so in, like, March
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of 2020, my husband's job was furloughed and the restaurant
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closed indefinitely. And so we both found ourselves,
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like, suddenly very unemployed. But up until that point, yeah,
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it was like catering work. Restaurant work was like kind of
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the main, the main thing, a large reason that we waited as
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long as we did is because I did really want to have years to
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devote to my career and also to just be married.
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And I wanted to feel like I had, like, some decent credits under
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my belt and you know what I mean?
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Just like I had a little bit of a foothold and I got into my
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early 30s and part of me knew that I wanted to be a parent in
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like an eventual sense, but like not in the immediate sense.
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And I was a little bit like, well, gosh, I really hope that
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instinct for wanting it in the immediate sense arrives at some
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point because like, you can't wait forever, you know?
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And truthfully, I mean, it's, it'll sound so bizarre maybe,
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but like it just arrived like this desire to start our family,
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like kind of out of nowhere. I mean like truly it was just
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like, oh, like I think I think it might be time to.
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I don't. Know that clock just ticked for
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you? It did.
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And like, hi, I'm here. Yeah, I don't know.
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It suddenly it felt like, oh, I don't want this in the eventual
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sense. Like I actually want this like
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kind of in the near future, like.
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And so we were very fortunate and that the moment we started
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trying, we got pregnant. Like I know that like not
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everybody I hate. Telling people.
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I know because you have to be careful because people do have
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like struggle with getting pregnant.
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And I, I don't want to ever make anyone feel like cool for you
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way to go, you know? But we were fortunate and then
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we got pregnant right away. But also it was like the shock
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of my life. Like I really did not expect
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that. It is.
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So let's see, I, I didn't show until probably like 5 1/2
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months, you know, like first baby.
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And so I was auditioning for non pregnant stuff, I think up until
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like month 6 and it that was like right around it was the
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fall of that year. And so it was episodic season.
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And so actually I had like a really good like cluster of
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auditions, not for pregnant roles, but I just like kind of
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hit a stride. It was like, oh, great stuff
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coming in. There's like there was an office
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that was bringing me back for a show like a number of times,
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which I was really pumped about. And I once I got about halfway
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through my pregnancy, I had some really difficult complications.
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Thankfully, my baby was fine, but I ended up on modified bed
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rest for most of my third trimester.
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And so that curbed any acting opportunities, obviously because
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I was not feeling great. And so, so I auditioned as long
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as I was able to and then had to just say, OK, well, I guess I'm
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going to like sit this out until I'm feel ready again.
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And my reps were understanding about that, of course, because
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it's not something that I could really control, so.
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Yeah, so much out of our control, man.
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Then when, what? After she was born and
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everything. When did you start getting back
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into it? I think so.
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I had, I had a difficult third trimester and then I had a
9:35
difficult physical postpartum recovery because there's some of
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the complications I was dealing with the third trimester.
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So in addition to, you know, the baby goes to the pediatrician
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like so much and those like early weeks, but I also had a
9:45
lot of appointments and was like physically recovering.
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And so it was longer than I had expected.
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I think I was probably like, she was 5 or 6 months old before.
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I was like, OK, thumbs up. Like let's let's get back in
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into this. So it was longer than I had
9:59
wanted or anticipated, but it was also fine because the first
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several months are like pretty intense with a little baby.
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And so the logistics made me more nervous than anything like
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going back and starting auditioning and stuff like not
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so. And when she was about 6 months
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old, this was pre pandemic, so we're still auditioning in
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person. So I was like, Oh my gosh, like
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logistically, how am I going to arrange last minute childcare
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and go to auditions and that kind of thing.
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And I, I basically built like a list of like like 6 or 7 people
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deep of close friends or people I trusted that I talked to
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about, hey, can you be on my like call list of like I got
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lost. But I understood you can come
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watch the baby for like a couple of hours.
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Like that kind of thing. Got them all kind of like I had
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like a little note in my notes app like, OK, here are my
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people. So when the audition comes, I
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can like go down my list and like find somebody to come and
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watch her for a couple hours. Because at that time my husband
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wasn't working a job where he could be working from home very
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much at all. And so that was kind of how I
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navigated it. But like, it's messy, right?
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Like about it for me personally, the newborn state, which was the
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hardest, yeah, largely not necessarily because she wasn't a
11:16
difficult baby, but because, like I mentioned, I'd had some
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physical complications and like a rough physical recovery from
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birth. So what made it really difficult
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was that I was simultaneously juggling this massive life
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change and all the things that come with having a baby, and
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then also not feeling great at all.
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And so for me, it was brutal. Like the first, I like just
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being frank. Like the first three or four
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months were really, really hard. I had a really great Co partner
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and my husband he's, he's really good about just like getting in
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there and helping with whatever. And he was able to take like 7
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weeks off of work and so that I wouldn't have been able to do it
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without him truly. And my mom came and stayed with
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us for a while as well. So for me, the newborn stage was
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really hard. And also because I think I, I
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don't know what it's like to go from having one child to two or
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etcetera, but I, but going from none to 1 was just the most
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massive shift in my identity. Like a complete reorganization
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of all of my life priorities coupled with like the huge love
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that you feel, but also the exhaustion, but also the, you
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know what I mean? Like it truly like was a seismic
12:31
shift. And so all of that at once made
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the newborn phase really, really hard.
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In my personal opinion. I have friends who are like,
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love the newborn phase. They sailed through it, no
12:42
breastfeeding issues at all. And they're just like, I could
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snuggle them forever. I'm like, Oh my God, that I you
12:48
could not pay me to relive that three months of my life.
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Like you just couldn't. Whereas for me, my favorite
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favorite was like 1 to 1 1/2 is just the best cuz they're still
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cute, squishy, they have some baby qualities, but they're also
13:02
babbling and like running around and you're getting some other
13:05
personality more and they're not doing like the toddler tantrums
13:09
quite yet. Like where they go like nuclear
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on you out of nowhere. So it's like it's just, it's
13:13
kind of best of both worlds. You get like the best of the
13:15
baby stuff and like the best of the toddler stuff like at the
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same time. So for me that was together, it
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was the best. Like I always hesitate about
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like how honest I should because I don't.
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I'll explain. Up until a year ago, it wasn't
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even really screen writing wasn't really on my radar.
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Like I had written a short that we'd filmed while I was pregnant
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with Reese. It had nothing to do with me
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being pregnant and I was still early enough that it didn't like
13:39
you couldn't tell. And so and I started writing a
13:45
feature was pregnant with her that I never finished.
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So I just kind of come to the conclusion like, you know what,
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acting is a lot. Acting while being mom is a lot.
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I don't I don't really know. Screaming for me.
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And then the stars kind of aligned in a long time industry
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contact of mine and a friend got a job in creative development
14:06
for made for TV romantic comedies.
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He knew that I knew that genre really well.
14:10
He knew my writing, he knew my acting.
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And he was like, hey, I just got this new job.
14:16
I'm putting together a slate of writers.
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This is like last December. And he was like, if you ever
14:21
wanted to pitch anything, you know, let me know.
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And I was like, kind of like, thanks, but no thanks.
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Like I'm good. Like I'm.
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Really, right? You know what I mean?
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Like I just didn't really seize that opportunity initially.
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But the more that I thought about it, I kind of had this
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like niggling like, well, maybe. And so I started to put together
14:38
titles and log lines of like several ideas that I had and
14:40
just like floated them to him. Like, is this in the ballpark of
14:44
what you would be interested in? And he was like, yes, this is
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exactly in the ballpark. Long story short, I ended up I
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ended up formally pitching a feature concept in January of
14:57
this year and he forwarded it to his boss and they bought it and
15:04
so I. That's amazing.
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It was it was truly like mind blowing.
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And so I then embarked on writing this feature film that
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had been purchased and they, so I wrote it in the spring and
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they shot it in the summer. And then I just a few weeks ago
15:22
pitched and sold another feature concept and I'm now writing that
15:26
for them. So.
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That's incredible. It was like a thank you.
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It was a very, very unexpected shift into something new that
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has been really wonderful and like life giving and great that
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I just really didn't see coming at all.
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So yeah, that's yeah. And I had to tell a story.
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And I hesitate to be honest, because I know many people
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really fight for those kinds of opportunities for many years.
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It'd be kind of like if I had a friend who was like, I'm going
15:51
to try acting, and then their first audition was like a series
15:55
regular and they booked it. I'd be like, yeah, are you
15:57
kidding me? And so I I don't.
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It's the same thing with becoming pregnant where you're
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like, yes. Just happened I don't want to be
16:03
a jerk, but like that's just how it happens that's how it happens
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to me and I'm really really grateful and and now screen
16:10
writing full time basically in addition to acting and content
16:12
creating so so. Yeah, how do you do all of that?
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Do you and like your content you're always putting out
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content which thank you, I thoroughly enjoy.
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I'm so. Glad please.
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Please continue. Where do you find the Do you
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sleep? Do you eat?
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I don't. I'm all like.
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Hello Brass Tacks. Is that once I sold the second
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feature concept, we decided we are going to put my daughter in
16:44
full time preschool because I was like, I have a full time
16:47
workload now and I need full time support.
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And now that I'm being paid, I can do that, you know what I
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mean? So for me as a, as a mom,
16:55
frankly, just full time childcare is became necessary
16:59
and we decided to go that route. So I now am in the months
17:04
through basically it's through the end of this year have carved
17:06
out of Monday through Friday work week for myself.
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And that gives me the time and space to write, deal with any,
17:13
you know, tape any auditions, do any acting contactation that
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comes along. That being said, even with that
17:19
much childcare, I, I still currently am really struggling
17:23
to, to juggle it. Like I, I don't know that I'm
17:26
doing it very gracefully. I just kind of, I'm like, OK, I,
17:30
my main priority is whatever deadline I'm committed to.
17:33
Like right now, I have a writing deadline in a couple of days.
17:35
So like, that's priority number one.
17:37
And then if I think of a TikTok or a real idea, then I'll film
17:40
it really quick when I want like a little brain break from
17:44
writing and I want to do something else.
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And as auditions come up, I'll prioritize those.
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So I don't know, this is not sponsored.
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I just like with the Snoo, it sounds like a commercial, but
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it's not. I swear my baby starts sleeping
17:56
through the night at like 7 weeks old and like that sleep is
18:00
life changing, you know what I mean?
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So anyway, that for me was like, listen, mom's like if you, if
18:05
you feel like you want a Snoo, just throw down for it.
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Like just do it. The other thing that I would say
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has been hugely instrumental and really saves me is that when I
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was like 3 or 4 months postpartum and just very
18:16
overwhelmed by all the massive changes my life had undergone, I
18:19
sought out therapy. Like I started seeing a
18:22
therapist and I found someone who specialized who was a mom
18:26
and also specialized in working with women who were new moms
18:30
because I wanted someone who had like a level of understanding
18:32
about just the the massive shift that you undergo and truly like
18:38
that has therapy has helped me navigate the motherhood journey
18:42
in a huge way. So I would say that if if you're
18:48
a mom who's feeling like you need a place to process or
18:52
you're dealing with like mom guilt or how even just how to
18:55
prioritize, you need someone to like be a sounding board.
18:57
I just can't recommend therapy enough Pro.
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And that was Mommy would recut with Hannah Heinz.
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I love this conversation because it's such a good reminder that
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there isn't a clean, clear formula of balancing motherhood
19:15
and a creative career. Sometimes it looks like late
19:18
night self tapes, sometimes it looks like asking a friend to
19:21
come over and watch a baby for a couple hours, and sometimes it
19:24
looks like your career changing shape entirely.
19:28
If you're in a season where things feel slower, different,
19:32
or harder than they used to, you're not behind and you're not
19:35
alone. You're just in a different
19:37
chapter. If you connected with this
19:40
episode, please share it with another mom in the industry.
19:43
That's honestly how Mommy would grows.
19:47
Make sure you're following the podcast on Instagram and TikTok
19:50
at Mommy Would Podcast. And if you haven't yet, leaving
19:54
a rating or review helps more than you know.
19:57
And thank you again, as always, for being a part of Mommy Wood.