COBIE SMULDERS FAN

Driven by outrage and a resolve to correct a power imbalance that seemed intractable just months ago, 300 prominent actresses and female agents, writers, directors, producers and entertainment executives have formed an ambitious, sprawling initiative to fight systemic sexual harassment in Hollywood and in blue-collar workplaces nationwide.

The initiative includes:

— A legal defense fund, backed by $13 million in donations, to help less privileged women — like janitors, nurses and workers at farms, factories, restaurants and hotels — protect themselves from sexual misconduct and the fallout from reporting it.

— Legislation to penalize companies that tolerate persistent harassment, and to discourage the use of nondisclosure agreements to silence victims.

— A drive to reach gender parity at studios and talent agencies that has already begun making headway.

— And a request that women walking the red carpet at the Golden Globes speak out and raise awareness by wearing black.

Called Time’s Up, the movement was announced on Monday with an impassioned pledge of support to working-class women in an open letter signed by hundreds of women in show business, many of them A-listers. The letter also ran as a full-page ad in The New York Times, and in La Opinion, a Spanish-language newspaper.
Continue reading Powerful Hollywood Women Unveil Anti-Harassment Action Plan

In an exclusive new interview with SheKnows, Cobie revealed she and husband, Taran Killam, manage their busy schedules and raise their daughters at the same time, but their lives aren’t without challenges.

“We have an amazing support system,” Smulders said of balancing her family with her career. “We have a wonderful nanny when both of us are out of town. We have family that helps us out when we need it and just supports our girls emotionally as well. It’s really about putting the girls first and having to be a bit choosy about work now and doing jobs that you only really want to do so you’re not leaving to feed some sort of ambition in yourself, but you take jobs because you really, really love it and you really have to do it. But always, in every decision I make, my daughters come first, whether that’s a work decision or a life decision, and that’s the same with my husband too. Their also our top priority.”

She credits her daughters for her recent decision to partner with Frito-Lay Variety Packs for the Dreamvention competition, which awards $250,000 to a family with the best idea to solve an everyday problem.

She explained, “I feel that there is something so wonderfully innocent about the way that kids’ brains work. They’re able to come up with ideas that are out of the box and are surprising and yet somewhat effective. And so I’m always amazed with what they come up with and the way they see the world.”

Smulders herself knows what it is to dream as a child. She told us, “As a kid, I always wanted to be successful, I think, but I don’t think I knew what that was. I think because I had a very professional father — my dad was a dentist and had his own practice — I knew my dad was successful, so I was very determined to be a success. I didn’t know what it was. I just had a drive. And it took a while for me to figure out I wanted to do acting, because to me it was just kind of a playtime and not a real job. And it still feels like that. It’s a lot of fun, so I’m very lucky to do it for a living. But when I really decided that it was a dream to be, probably, onstage, to be in theater. There was that. And then I also dreamed I wanted to be a mermaid. So I was able to make one of those things happen and one of those, not so much.”

As for what dreams she has for her daughters, Smulders keeps it beautifully simple, “The No. 1 is happiness. That is key. What I know for sure is that life is short and you shouldn’t spend too much time on something that makes you unhappy. So I hope my daughters, as they get older, do what inspires them, something they’re passionate about.”

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