Meet the utterly funny, wine-drinking, “just graduated from first grade homeschool” Molly Sims: The multitasking, multimasking mom-of-three is, self-admittedly, “losing it a bit” as she holds down the fort during stay-at-home—and she’s sharing it all on social media.
There are a lot of interruptions (one video shows her youngest shouting for help from the bathroom as Molly takes a moment to read a magazine), a lot of proclamations (she officially announces her resignation from dinner duty), and a whole lot of laugh-out-loud parenting hacks (she enlisted her entire family to create a makeshift red carpet, complete with paparazzi, for The Wrong Missy movie premiere).
And then there is the serious: While some celebrities won’t get much sympathy for social-distancing in their sprawling mansions, Sims has been dealing with the death of her mother, who passed away in late April. Understandably, the subject is still raw for the 47-year-old to speak about without getting emotional.
Embrace what you have, be thankful and be grateful.
“It’s been hard. Very, very hard,” she says. “She was such a big force in my life. It’s funny, we talk about me loving beauty, but she really loved it. She loved makeup and hair products and clothes. She loved seeing a beautiful flower. She just loved beauty. She was such a positive, force of light in my life.”
It’s that same positivity that Sims says has been propelling her during the time at home. “My motto is ‘Be a nice human today.’ You realize when you lose a family member that life is so short. We say it all the time, but it really is. Embrace what you have, be thankful and be grateful. Be funny. Be kind. With everything that’s going on right now, why wouldn’t you be?”
NewBeauty: You have been no-holds-barred on Instagram. Has it given you some solace during this time?
Molly Sims: I lead with humor. Many people don’t get to see that side of me. It’s also important to me to be authentic. I may live a certain life, but I’m just like you. I’m still changing diapers, I’m still wiping booties, I’m still doing the things that everyone else is doing. I think I decided I’m going to show it, and who cares if people judge me? Who cares if people don’t like that I’m making brownies for breakfast? We’re all going through this together. I know some people look at me and think, “I could never be her,” but, likewise, I could never be you. Everyone is always comparing themselves to one another. It’s a bad road.
NB: People got to see you be funny in The Wrong Missy on Netflix. Were you surprised by how much buzz it got?
MS: I couldn’t believe it. Almost 70 million people have watched it! I love David Spade, I love [director] Tyler Spindel. When Adam Sandler asked me to do it, at first I said, “I don’t know. I haven’t acted in a while.” But I really loved it. I love me some Spade.
NB: And that all happened right when your mother passed away…
MS: She was my best friend. I hope that I can be the same to my daughter and my children. I think a lot about moments we had together—and I treasure those memories so much. I find myself asking, “What would she have done? What would she have said?” I hope I’ll always have that. She put so many traditions into my life—the Tooth Fairy, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, baking cookies, talking. She would talk about anything. She was very Southern in that way, probably the most positive woman I’ve ever met. But you talk about making lemonade out of lemons. She was always that woman who was glass half-full. She was also very into accountability. I remember her getting up and walking four miles and we would ask, “What is she doing down out there in the street?” Then she’d be doing her Jane Fonda exercises on the chair. That mimics exactly what I do now when I work out. And her love for castor oil was like nothing you’ve ever seen.
NB: Is that where you get your love of beauty?
MS: I’m a big proponent, through my mother, of self-care and taking care of my skin. I enjoy it. I love products. I love feeling good. I’ve come a long way since my modeling days—I always wanted to look good, but now I also want to be healthy, too. It’s been a real mission of mine to figure out what works for me, and what doesn’t. Over the past five or six years, I’ve had bad hyperpigmentation. My skin was splotchy and I kept overdoing it and underdoing it, and using too many products or not enough products. I definitely have had my share of trying to find that balance.
NB: And you’ve also been working with some high-tech brands.
MS: Yes. I’m working with SoME Skincare [Sims is an ambassador for the brand], and it’s great. That’s definitely something I got on early, the whole PRP thing. I’m a firm believer in it, and it’s something that really works for me. It’s made a big difference in my skin, it really has. It hydrates, I feel plumped, and it gives me that really beautiful glow.
NB: You’ve talked in the past about in-office treatments. What are you getting done first when you can go back to the dermatologist?
MS: I’m dying to go! I don’t know what I want to do first, but I want to do everything—literally, everything. I had just started to do some body treatments, some laser hair removal and some Emsculpt. I’ve heard all the IPLs are really good, and I want to do baby Fraxel soon. But, seriously, I’m up for anything! Tell me everything! Let me try everything! That’s how I am in life, with my kids, with my family, with the role in the movie. I try to lead with positivity and happiness. It’s funny, people always say, “You have such good energy.” I think it’s really important. I refuse to work with anybody who I feel like I’m going to have a bad day with. If they’re going to bring bad energy, if they’re not a good, soulful person, I’m not really interested. That’s definitely been a part of my life I’ve taken control of.
NB: I take it you weren’t always like that?
MS: That’s the difference in starting out and really knowing what you’re doing. At the one point, you’re not going to let someone say, “You’re too fat, you’re too skinny, you’re too black, you’re too white, you’re too blond, you’re too whatever.” It’s never enough. When I first went into acting, I actually said, “Don’t worry about giving me feedback.” Everyone in the world had already told me everything that was wrong with me, so I was all set.
NB: How do you pass along that message to your kids?
MS: Well, we recently graduated from the first grade. It was a big jump for us. I could see my son’s confidence, in his reading in particular. It wasn’t that he wasn’t going to get there—we all end up getting there—but it’s how we get there and what attitude we get there with that matters. We worked. We talked a lot about athletes. We talked about Kobe Bryant and LeBron James. We talked about Federer and Messi. We talked about how good things come for those who work hard. We also changed how we phrase things. Instead of saying, “I have to do my homework,” we tried saying, “I get to do my homework.” I think when your kids use that kind of verbiage, it can have a positive effect. It’s how I embrace it.
I try to lead with positivity and happiness.
NB: Being positive is obviously important to you. How have you kept that mindset over the past couple of months?
MS: I get up about 30 minutes before everyone else. That’s really my moment, even if it’s just sitting there with a cup of coffee. I light a candle, I make a cup of coffee and I make two bottles for the kids. In those 15 or 20 minutes, I’m quiet, and you know me, I’m never quiet. It’s actually a really good time. When I can’t have those minutes, I miss them.
NB: You’re also diligent about working out, which you post on social media.
MS: It makes me feel better. I need it. I need it for my head. I need it for my spirituality. I’ve learned that 30 minutes, 40 minutes, that’s a lot, and that’s all I need. I always talk to women about weight and those five pounds, and getting on and getting off the train. You can’t spend your life dieting. If you get off, you have a cheat day, you can get right back on—or don’t, and take a week off. You don’t gain 50 pounds overnight. I had such swings because I got pregnant, I had a thyroid problem and I gained 83 pounds. That affects you mentally and physically, and that’s a tough amount of weight to lose. It’s the choo-choo train. It’s a little bit by a little bit. The days are long, but the years are short. It might seem long that you’re going little bit by little bit and taking care of yourself, but you’ll wake up one day and ask yourself, “Wow. What happened? Those years are short. Why didn’t I pay attention?”
NB: How do you pay attention?
MS: Being positive is a big part of it. I always say to my friends, “Let’s take the happiness pill.” With everything happening in the world at the moment, especially. It might not directly affect me, but as someone said to me the other day, you have to look at it like: “Is your house burning down? No, but their house is burning down, so I’m going to help them right now. It doesn’t mean I don’t care about your house.” We all have to care for one another and be good—be a good human, be inclusive. It’s important. That’s the biggest thing my mom taught me. She didn’t care if you were red, white, green or yellow. It’s a hard moment and it’s a hard movement, but we’re in a good place. I really feel like positive changes are going to happen.
Photography by John Russo; Makeup: Spencer Barnes for EA; Hair: Emily Hedicke; Styling: Sonja Christensen at Forward Artists; Behind the Scenes: Tas Limur
