If, in the age of 10,000 streaming subscription options, you chose Disney+ over Apple TV+, because kids, you’re not alone. In doing so, however, you probably missed one of the best monologues about motherhood we’ve ever seen onscreen, courtesy of Jennifer Aniston’s character on The Morning Show.
Because I too skipped The Morning Show until now, it took Aniston’s SAG Awards win for me to notice this masterpiece, which fans have so graciously clipped for Youtube so that we all might bask in its eloquence. A little context: The scene comes from episode 7, after Aniston’s character, Alex, has told her teenage daughter, Lizzy (Oona Roche), that she and her father are getting divorced. Lizzy isn’t happy, and blames the whole thing on her TV anchor mother, saying, “Go share it with America. They’ll take care of you.”
But actually, you don’t even need that context to love what comes out of Aniston’s mouth in response.
“Fuck you, kid. Fuck you!” she begins this epic rant. Judging by Lizzy’s response, this is not typically how her mom speaks to her. It’s just the beginning.
“And I mean, how fucking dare you,” Alex goes on. “After all that I have done and all that I have given to you. My life. My love. My body. I broke my fucking vagina with that big, fucking head of yours. And I had to be surgically sewn back together. I bet you didn’t know that, did you?”
That seems like very relevant info for every teenage girl to know about childbirth, but especially when she’s acting bratty. Especially when she wants to side with her dad, who at the very least got the better part of that parenting deal.
Though kids can often feel jealous of their parents’ focus on careers, they also need to know that their parents are people, as Alex reminds her daughter.
“I’m a human being, Lizzy,” she says. “And you know what else? Don’t you dare bitch at me about my career, little miss I’m so progressive. Yes, I worked my ass off to get where I am. And I wanted it. I wanted to be something. I wanted to mean something in this world. I didn’t know that was a fucking crime.”
Watching this, I am simultaneously a mom and a daughter. I remember my own fights with my mother as a teenager, when I thought the world revolved around me and she was the one being selfish and unfair. And yet I can relate to every ounce of Alex’s anger, because I know there’s no way my son will understand the sacrifices I make for him every day until (if) he becomes a parent too.
In the meantime, I’m totally bookmarking this video to play back for his teenage years.
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