For Ricki Lake, motherhood is only natural
'The Business of Being Born' is inspired by her own experience. 'I wanted to do something positive for women,' she says.
Ricki Lake recalls it was "trippy" when she did a cameo in the musical version of "Hairspray" and especially "surreal" watching young Nikki Blonsky playing Tracy Turnblad, the role she made famous in the John Waters' 1988 classic.
"Nikki Blonsky was just like me," she says. "She was plucked out of nowhere. Physically there is a sparkle both of us have. But to go on set . . . and here I was 38 -- I was old enough to be her mother!"
Motherhood is a subject Lake loves to talk about. She's the adoring single mom of two young boys. And her first foray as an executive producer, the documentary "The Business of Being Born," which opened Wednesday, was inspired by the successful at-home water birth of her second son in 2001, which was guided by a midwife.
"I wanted to do something positive for women," says the now 39-year-old Lake. "I love midwives. It feels like I had this dream but also I wanted to stir up these questions I wanted to ask. I put my credit card down and bought the equipment."
And she teamed up with her friend, director Abby Epstein ("Until the Violence Stops"), to make "Business," which follows several pregnant New York women as they weigh their options to have their baby delivered at a hospital or at a birth center or at home with a midwife. Besides home video footage of Lake's delivery, Epstein captures several of the women giving birth naturally at home.
The film will be available next month on Netflix, and Lake and Epstein also have a book deal to expand on "The Business of Being Born."
Her decision to have children with midwives, she says, reflected the first time she had done extensive research and made concrete plans. "I have always been easygoing," Lake says. "I don't think things through too much. I still don't. When I speak, I am better off the cuff. With my talk show, I did very little homework."
Lake's seat-of-the-pants-approach to life also compelled her to audition at the age of 18 for "Hairspray," though she hadn't a clue who Waters or star Divine were. "I went to a local audition in New York," she says. "I don't even remember how I heard about it. Even making the movie, it was like we were all kids learning how to dance. It was when I went to a screening in New York that it dawned on me, 'I am the star of this movie. This might actually affect my life. I may get another job from this.' "
