"Life Imitates Art..."

It’s often said that art imitates life, but in Katherine Heigl’s case, it was life imitating art. The 31 year-old former Grey’s Anatomy cast member turned star of hit comedies like Knocked Up, 27 Dresses, and The Ugly Truth ended up doing her latest film, the romantic comedy Life As We Know It, just as she herself was adopting her own daughter.

As she was interviewed for the film, Heigl explained the parallels between her own impending new motherhood and that of her character Holly Berenson who ends up raising her goddaughter with her incompatible boyfriend Eric Messer, played by Josh Duhamel, after the baby’s parents die tragically.

“Yeah, it was all parallels,” she says, “I was living on camera what I was living in my life and down to the tiniest little things like the outfits that they put the triplets in for a scene, my daughter might have come to work in that day. And I watched the movie recently and thought it’s sort of a living journal because it reminds me of those first few months with this nine month old baby who was so new to me.”

“And I was so new to her and all the little things that go along with that, what kind of diapers you are using and what kind of wipes and what kind of Pack n’ Play,” Katherine adds, “And we have the same Pack n’ Play as the one in the movie and it will just forever remind me of that time and it was really intense and really glorious and certainly very overwhelming, but the performance, Holly was me and I was her and that’s that because I didn’t even have to act. I was scared.”

Katherine was asked how she managed to get comfortable with triplets Alexis, Brynn, and Brooke Clagett who each play her character Holly’s baby goddaughter Sophie in the film.

“I took control!” Heigl claims, “It’s an alpha thing. They just need to

"Life Imitates Art..."

know who’s in charge. It’s like animals. No, I’m just kidding. [Laughs] No, thankfully, I had just gotten familiar with the holding and the comforting of a child, so I could kind of do that mother instinct thing a little bit, but it was still so new to me. And there’s a lot of just letting it go.”

“If they’re cranky or they’re tired or they’re uncomfortable or they’re crying, the more uptight you get, the more uptight you’re going to make them,” she continues, “So we had to do a lot of breathing exercises and just stay calm and be patient and not obviously take it personally. You just can’t take it personally, but [Josh] was fantastic with working hard to get to know those babies and I kind of had to do it cold and they did not like me as much. But at least I had one in my trailer who did!”

Heigl claims that her co-star Josh Duhamel had an easier time with the babies. It was wondered if it had to do with Duhamel’s appeal with female moviegoers of all ages.

“Could be,” Katherine replies, “And so do little boys! All children like Josh because he’s like a decent human being.

Katherine, who also serves as the film’s executive producer, remembers the difficulty of properly scheduling each of the Clagett triplets’ sleeping habits for filming.

“Ugh, it was so brutal to get the babies on that schedule,” she says of it.

Katherine comments on a remark made by the film’s director Greg Berlanti about how babies are fully formed people at 15 months.

“They all are doing this on purpose!” Heigl remarks, laughing.

The film starts off with a disastrous first date between Holly and Duhamel’s character Eric. Heigl was asked if she’s ever been fixed up on a date.

“I’ve never been fixed-up,” Katherine says, “Lots of [awkward moments] though.”

Katherine has said so that she has had bad encounters at bars with people who were drunk from dinner.

“I

"Life Imitates Art..."

have a couple, but the worst was a trainer,” she remembers, “I was like 18, 20 lbs heavier and trying real hard to work it off at the gym and my trainer asked me out and he shaved his legs and not that there’s anything wrong with that. But he took me to Sizzler, gave me his headshot and asked I could get him into my agency.

Heigl was, then, asked if she ever tried to hook up any of her friends.

“Yes, yes,” she replies, “It’s still unclear because it happened recently. Chris Jacobs is really good friends with my husband and we set him up with my best friend, Cheyenne Ellis, who is also my stunt double, and we did it in a mixed crowd though, we had everybody to the house so it wasn’t awkward. They kind of [knew about it], but we asked each one to play off like they didn’t know. And literally, it was handled so poorly and I blame [my husband] Josh Kelley for that completely.”

“But they actually did connect and have a nice time,” Katherine adds, “And I think Chris wanted to see her again, but everybody’s been traveling so much. But I told Josh Kelley, ‘Don’t tell Chris that this is happening. Just invite him to come hang out for dinner. Cheyenne will just be there. Let’s let them figure it out for themselves.’ Of course, he goes and tells him, immediately, ‘This girl’s going to be here; you’ve got to meet her,’ and we already told her, I said, ‘No, you’ve got to only tell one person.’ So, anyway, I won’t do it again.”

One thing Katherine says she loved about shooting Life As We Know It was having it be done over in Atlanta, Georgia.

“I love Atlanta,” she enthuses, “I love everything about Atlanta and I have a lot of family there so it was really fun for me and I had just been there a

"Life Imitates Art..."

few months earlier for Killers. So I was basically in Buckhead for six months and I had a great time because there’s that big Neiman’s right across the street from the hotel, lots of fabulous restaurants and my family. It was great. I had a great time. I loved it.”

Heigl had this to say when it was remarked that the film had every element of a classic TV family sitcom formula except for a dog in the picture.

“We can only take one predictable element at a time, I think,” Katherine remarks, “So let’s just get real.”

In one scene in the film, Katherine’s character has to deal with a rather messy diaper changing of Sophie. The actress shared with us her own experience in changing the diapers of her own daughter.

“In the beginning when they are little, it’s not that bad,” Heigl says of it, “It’s pretty tame. Yesterday, she’s almost two. She really needs to get potty trained because now, this is grown up kind of poopy. Up and I’m in this airplane and they don’t have those fold-down table things to change her on and it’s just this tiny little bathroom stall. I couldn’t put her on the floor.”

“I had to jam her head kind of in the corner across the toilet and kneel below her and it was brutal,” she adds, “I was like, what did you eat? Like I can’t even end this bathroom. I walked back to get her to do this because she was sitting with the nanny trying to sleep and that whole part of the plan smelled really bad. And I was like, I think we need to wake her up. This is just mean to all the people around her, so that was my last. I’m just so committed to potty training. I’m going to make this happen.”

Heigl asks if doing the film made her more of an instant pro when it came to raising her own

"Life Imitates Art..."

daughter.

“I was OK,” Katherine says, “I wasn’t a pro. I’m a pro now, I think, because I can get that done real quick. I am very particular about these sort of things. I want everyone around like my husband and the nanny to do it exactly the way I do it and use just the right diaper cream because I swear that’s what helps her, just the right kind of wipes and diapers, so I prefer to do it myself. I’m kind of a control freak, so it’s better if I do it myself.”

Katherine also revealed how she makes her baby stop crying.

“We’re really big on white noise,” she claims, ” We have one of those lammies with the thing that makes all kinds of sounds. And then, we use a big standing fan that we put on high wattage to just drown out everything. And in our house, we don’t really have, it’s bad acoustics, her bedroom’s right over the kitchen/living room area.”

“You can really hear us down there when we’re up listening or watching TV or whatever, so we use the big standing fan,” Heigl continues, “I’m a big believer in it. My mother actually taught me that she used to leave a big vacuum running in the baby’s room and it really works. And it does, it does work. White noise, there’s something about it.”

Finally, Heigl explained why she believes people should go see Life As We Know It and what makes it stand out from the rest of the pack of romantic comedies that have come out this year thus far.

“They’re just really good people,” Katherine believes, “They’re really good people trying to do the right thing. And they don’t necessarily like each other, but that doesn’t mean they don’t have big hearts. They go through something that’s heart wrenching and horrible and tragic, but don’t even have quite that time to address it or deal with it because they’re in

"Life Imitates Art..."

way in over their heads. But they don’t shy away from it. They don’t walk away from it.”

“They try to walk through that fire and do right by these people they loved and by this child they loved,” she adds, “So I loved that aspect of it, these people who are trying to do the right thing. We see all these movies about people making the crappiest choices in the world. Why not see something that’s sort of inspires people to do the right thing and make better choices. Anybody’s ever been through any kind of tragedy, I think, knows that it’s not without its moments of humor and relief in that humor. There are those moments, you can talk to my mother about those moments.”