We were able to spend some time with Jessica Alba and interview her about motherhood and her upcoming role in Escape from Planet Earth. A common question asked in interviews is if you have anything in common with your character and in this case, Jessica Alba said. No.  She laughed saying she has nothing in common with her character Lena in the Movie Escape From Planet Earth that comes out February 15^th.

Lena is the head of BASA, the Baabian Aeronautics and Space Administration.  As BASA has its hands full taking care of problems across the galaxy, Lena is continuously stressed out, busy, and up to her neck in problems.  But she is currently working on a very secret project – one which will change Baab, and everyone on it.

Jessica has children, she’s a mother, and she’ not a blue alien. So of course we had to talk family. Jessica said she takes jobs based on location and time commitment. If a job is on a remote location for 8 months she would probably turn it down, a week or two yes she would do it. She does travel with her kids and as long as they are welcome on set with her and have a place to stay and things to do she would just take them with her. I loved how committed to family she is.

We asked her What advice would you give other mothers that want to have a career?

She said, If you never worked prior to kids it could be difficult. It might be challenging to figure out how to balance the two. If you worked prior to having kids and you wanted to go to work after then it’s just about finding the right balance for you and what you want to spend your time doing. It’s much more about quality of time verses quantity of time. The time you spend with your kids should be with your kids. you should be in the moment and completely with them. She doesn’t have her phone in her hand when she’s with her kids and I think that’s excellent advice. Something I need to work harder at doing is leaving the phone at home.

She was asked about what her children like, movies and books. Jessica said her daughter really enjoyed the story from Escape from Planet Earth. And her children kept their glasses on the whole time. Mine did too. It’s a great narrative for kids, easy for them to wrap their mind around. When it comes to books, her kids love to read books. Bernstein Bears to anything that has a Disney Princess or Fairies, and animals and cars would be on the top of the list.

How does she prepare for a movie like Escape From Planet Earth?

Her only preparation is story time with her kids. There wasn’t any animation until her third session and then the fourth session she was able to play off some of the other performances from the other actors, for most of the sessions she was talking all to herself. They still weren’t together and the animation was rough, but by the end they could play off each other’s voices and the animation was improving. They only had one day of press together, and they did a lot of the sound by themselves. I’m always surprised when a movie is put together so well when all the parts are done separately.

Escape from Planet Earth is an excellent family friendly movie. We highly recommend it.