ABC Family’s hot new comedy is Baby Daddy, a show where a young guy finds out he is father because his ex-one night stand left their baby at his doorstep to raise. Now along with his brother, childhood friend and his BFF, they are going to some how bring up his baby daughter with some help from his mom.
A few weeks ago I sat down with the cast of ABC Family’s Baby Daddy that airs Wednesdays at 8:30p and Melissa Peterman made a joke that turned out to be a great question for her castmates. She said working with the twins, “Either it is going to be the best birth control for them or they are all going to get knocked up season 2, I don’t know.” So I had to find that out from them.
Chelsea Kane was up first and she told us what it was like to work with the baby girls. She said “Behind the scenes, I’m the only cast member who never held a kid before we started shooting. I don’t have any siblings or anyone in my life…I was terrified because everyone else has little sisters or nieces or nephews. I was a total mess, I was like I am going to break her. I don’t want to do the wrong thing. I think they could smell my fear because I was thrown up on more than anyone else in the cast.” So now that she has gotten used to working with babies, does it make her want to have one? She answered that by saying, “It’s maternal, unfortunately. It’s scaring everyone in my life cause I come home from work like, ‘I want to have a baby.’ And everyone is like, ‘Noooo!’ But yeah it is pretty funny how much it changes you.”
Her co-star Tahj Mowry, who recently became an uncle, had a different answer than her. He said, “No! It is making excited to be one in the future, but I’m not like I need a baby now. Ladies, where you at? Call me, I want to be a dad.” He then got serious and said, “Not so soon. But I’m very excited for that to come in the future. I feel like I’ll be very prepared. More so than other dads because who does a show with a baby? It’s fun. Me and the guys are learning different things every day. The twins get more used to us everyday on set. They light up when they see our faces. So it is really cool to come to work and to be working with such young professionals.”
Derek Theler actually had some experience with kids before he became an actor. He told us about how his past jobs prepared him for his current job, “I was really comfortable with kids. All the jobs that I have had before I moved to Los Angeles were with kids. I used to work with daycare when I was in college. I ran sports camps when I was in college for little kids and things like that. So going into this I felt completely comfortable. But the problem is my character is terrified of the baby so whenever I am on set, the first few episodes especially and I’m holding her, I’m supposed to be afraid and she kind of gets that nervous energy. So every time we hear cut, it’s like OK we have to comfort her. It’s funny, I have to pretend I am so afraid of her and she kind of responds to that. And then she thinks I am crazy cause I keep changing my mind as soon as we on camera or off.” So now that he is working with just two kids, does that make him want to have one? He said, “I’m not ready at this point. I definitely want kids, but right now it is the last thing on my mind. I get to work with twins so much that will fulfill me for a while actually.”
And then there is Jean-Luc Bilodeau, does the baby daddy want to be a baby daddy? He said, “It’s good training, I think. I work with them three days a week. I’m holding them just about the whole day. It’s good to see how to balance emotions. They start to get cranky, and you have to figure out how to make them happy again. It’s good training but I am definitely not ready to be a father any time soon. It’s going to come later in life, for sure.”
So now that we know how the younger actors feel about working a baby; how does Melissa Peterman, the only parent in real life, think they are doing? She said, “They’re pretty good. I think for Jean-Luc this is his first real baby experience and he seems to be quite natural at it. Tahj’s sister has a little one, he’s been an uncle and stuff and been around one. He is pretty natural. Derek, I mean he is just gigantic so I am sure the baby feels real safe there. I mean he is enormous. Chelsea, she just got that great vibe too. So they were pretty good. I’m the only mom on the set in the cast, I was kind of worried, but now they seemed to be OK.”
So now that you know how they reacted to working with the cute little girls, you can see how they really do when the cameras are rolling.
