Netflix’s new romantic comedy Bride’s mother It may not have as many celebrities as Jerry Seinfeld’s PopTarts movie, but the cast is packed with several generations of stars. Actress and model Brooke Shields plays the protagonist: a high-strung single mother named Lana who is forced to take a backseat during the surprise wedding of her influencer’s daughter, Emma. That daughter is played by none other than Miranda Cosgrove, who rose to fame as a young actress in the 2000s thanks to her roles in Nickelodeon teen comedies. Drake and Josh and icarly. To young millennials and Generation Z, Cosgrove is nothing less than a pop culture icon.
In a recent Jugo Mobile interview with Shields, the star said that includes her daughters (now 20 and 18) and, by extension, Shields herself. “The hours and hours I spent with my daughters, watching her,” Shields said. “I had to readjust a lot and say to myself, ‘No, this is a young actress. She’s not a little baby. She is 30 years old. She is a consummate professional. She had to not let me fangirl.”
In Bride’s mother, Shields and Cosgrove play a mother and daughter going through a change in their relationship. Lana must learn to accept that her daughter is now an adult and she does not need to be protected from the mess of life the same way she did when she was a child. And Emma must learn that, in reality, sometimes Mom doesn’t know better. This isn’t about reinventing the wheel of on-screen mother-daughter relationships, but the easy chemistry between Shields and Cosgrove is a joy to watch.
“With Miranda, it was really nice to see a young woman, coming from that world, emerge as her own woman, not trapped in anything from the past,” Shields said. “Her talent and her versatility were able to come through.”
“The world” Shields alludes to is, of course, the world of teen shows created by Dan Schneider for Nickelodeon, which have been under intense scrutiny following a docuseries that exposed them. Silence on the set: The dark side of children’s television, which accused Schneider of inappropriate behavior, sexual harassment, and cultivating an unsafe environment for its child stars. These accusations were apparently supported by icarly The explosive memoir of star Jenette McCurdy, I’m glad my mom died. Cosgrove has not yet spoken publicly about the documentary or the accusations against Schneider.
But it’s good to know that, according to Shields, she’s letting bygones be bygones. “She came ready,” Shields said. “She is one of the most professional people I have ever worked with.”
