Bridget Moynahan Talks About New Film, 'Ramona and Beezus'

Co-star of the new film, Ramona and Beezus, Bridget Moynahan, grew up reading the classic Beverly Cleary young adult novels and looks forward to using her own life as a single mother to portray the perfect version of Dorothy Quimby.

“I grew up reading these books, and it was fun to go back and re-read them and see them from a different angle,” she said.

Moynahan plays Dorothy Quimby, "the sometimes exasperated mother of imaginative sparkplug Ramona (Joey King), and her straight-A’s big sister Beatrice, aka Beezus (Selena Gomez), and baby Roberta.” In the film, the family is forced to deal with their father (John Corbett) being demoted and their mother (Moynahan) heading back to work.

This balance between work and motherhood is not a foreign subject to Moynahan, who happens to be a single mother. She had a son with Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, John Edwards Thomas Moynahan, who turns three in August.

When asked how she manages with a nearly three-year-old son, the actress responded, “With really good help... You have to have the friends and family and support system to make it all work, to remind you of your priorities.”

The actress feels that having her son has helped her understand “being a mother onscreen. Just the patience level you need to have, and multitasking. That’s a huge thing being a mom. Obviously it’s different when you have three.”

Moynahan decided to do the film partly because she felt nostalgic towards the books but she also feels the film contains the right family values. “I think there’s a lot of kids movies, I’m certainly aware of it now, and even music that are geared to children and they’re inappropriate... I think this movie delivers on what it says it is. Families going to it are not going to be shocked, and it’s not material they’re going to be worried about.”

The actress also praises Gomez, who is already a star and role model for kids today thanks to her Disney Channel series, The Wizards of Waverly Place.

“Young kids look up to Selena and you never know what’s going on in these kids lives,” the actress says. “Selena is the most mature person here today – and parents can be reassured they have a true role model in Selena.”

The film, Ramona and Beezus, opens in theaters this Friday.