Melora Hardin

Melora Hardin

How would you feel about your kids following in your showbiz footsteps?
I wouldn’t stop them if they wanted to get into the business, but they would have to bug me as much as I bugged my parents. So far they’ve been happy just going to ballet class and doing shows for Mommy and Daddy. Piper takes piano and Rory takes violin. As for me, I’m thankful that I wasn’t famous at 15 and that I had my teenage years to myself.

You costar in two eagerly anticipated family flicks that are opening this month: Hannah Montana: The Movie and 17 Again. Did your daughters encourage you to take those parts, and did they get to meet Miley Cyrus and Zac Efron?
Both films were so much fun to make. I especially loved doing Hannah Montana, in which I portray Billy Ray Cyrus’s love interest. She’s a country girl. I was born in Texas, so it was nice to play a salt-of-the-earth kind of character with no dark underbelly. I think parents who take their kids to see Hannah Montana will enjoy my story line. In 17 Again, I have the big B-story. Zac is a really talented kid and my mom actually coached him on the film. Of course my kids got to meet Miley and Zac, and they loved it, but to them they were just another actress and actor. We don’t really have TV in our house; it was my husband’s decision to turn it off when our first daughter born. I’m sure there will come a day when they’re going to want TV, but for now they do other things—look at books, do a puzzle. They get to watch videos and movies on the weekend.

Being a mom is clearly a priority for you. Is that why you decided to participate in Splenda’s moms roundtable?
Yes. I thought it would be fun to share advice with other moms about ways we can make life sweeter for our families. With the rising rate of childhood obesity, finding simple pleasures like baking and cooking together as a family—substituting Splenda for sugar—is a good tip. Family meals are really important to me; it’s that quality time each day when my husband and I turn off our cell phones and just focus solely on our kids. If sprinkling a little Splenda on my kids’ fresh fruit is what it takes to keep them at the table and keep our conversations going, I’m all for it.

Lately you’ve been hard at work on a pet project, the film You, which you directed, your husband wrote, and your entire family stars in. How did the movie come about?
When my elder daughter, Rory [now seven], was a baby, my husband and I were lying in bed with her having one of those blissful new-parent moments. I had a sweet daydream about the speech I’d give at her wedding. Three days later, my husband came back from a trip with a script he’d written that was inspired by that dream. When I read it I burst into tears and asked him if I could direct it. Originally, we thought we were going to raise money [to get it filmed]; then we decided to make it ourselves. It was a family affair, made about a family by a family: Our kids, my parents and our friends are all in it. We were scrambling eggs in our kitchen for the crew while getting our makeup done. We shot the whole thing in 18 days. It’s a story about love and loss, and spans 21 years in the life of a family. Hopefully, it will help people appreciate their loved ones that much more. The film will be available for download [later this year]. You can go to melora.com or youthefilm.com to get updates on its release.

What’s next for you?
I really enjoyed directing You and would like to direct another movie. I just made another live record, and I’m in the studio mixing it and putting it together. There’s actually some exciting stuff in store for Jan [while she hasn’t graced the Office’s set for the better part of this season, she’s scheduled to be back on the sitcom soon]. Of course, I would love to come back to Broadway and originate a role if I could afford to commit a year of my life to it. That’s the trick.

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