Nia Long knows the struggles of raising two kids and juggling a busy career. Unfortunately, the two don’t quite go hand-in-hand when you’re pregnant in Hollywood.
The Best Man Holiday star says the film offers weren’t coming in when she was pregnant with her second child, Kez, two years ago. “This business will give you breaks even when you don’t want breaks,” said Long to Mom.me. “I think every actor feels that panic, so it wasn’t like I called my agent and said, ‘I’m having a baby, and I’m not coming back for two years,’ It was more like, ‘I’m having a baby,’ and they stopped calling me for a while, and then once the baby was born, and I was ready, the conversations gradually started to happen, and eventually you get a job.”
Long says she admires women who give birth and immediately jump back on set. As a nursing mother, Long wanted to be “close” to her baby during those formative months.
Her older son, Massai, 13, is developing some independence. In fact, the whole family is moving to a new home and it’s closer to school. “He’s 13, he can now walk to school,” said Long. “And those are the things, then you get to see, ‘Did I really do my job well? Does he have the judgement.'”
But despite his growing independence, Long says Massai still shows he needs mommy around. “There are different ways they show you that they need you, like him calling me today and crying and saying, ‘I really want you to help me study.'”