Jenny Mollen: Actress, New York Times bestselling author, creator of “Dictator Lunches” and Instagram extraordinaire.
She’s well-known in Hollywood for her TV and movie roles, but these days she’s also known for her social media presence, where she dishes to her followers on parenting, life and marriage. Her husband, actor Jason Biggs, also is in on the jokes.
She joined Jamie Stelter on this episode of “Extra Shot” at Bonberi Mart in Manhattan’s West Village and said she started her social media accounts because she wanted to have her voice heard.
“I was like a struggling actress in L.A., married to a guy much more famous than I was, which was like maddening – drove me crazy,” Mollen said. “I was like 28 at the time. And I felt like I was pretty cute – I had something going for me. But everywhere I'd walk, like I'd go into a bar and everyone's eyes just go straight to my husband. And it was just like… it drove me crazy.”
Biggs, best known for his role in “American Pie,” did join the two briefly, prompting Mollen to joke, “I thought the whole reason we're doing this is that we were gonna be like not talking about men and focusing on women.”
“Oh, I'm barely a man,” Biggs joked.
“He really is more my wife. Let's be honest,” Mollen told Stelter.
Like her husband, Mollen loves a good laugh and she’s got plenty of opinions that she’s not afraid to share – like about the West Village, which she calls home.
“I don’t think I’d be able to handle the intensity of anywhere else in the city. For me, if the weather’s good – this feels like San Diego – and when the weather’s bad, i’m in a Woody Allen movie, so it’s still cute,” she said.
And Citi Bikes.
“They drive me insane. They’re so dangerous,” she said. “One morning, I walk out… under the blanket of night, they put in maybe 50 Citi Bikes in front of my building.”
“Even my doorman was like, ‘I don't know. They must have dropped them off between shifts.’”
Mollen also prides herself in uplifting other women, and said the friends she has made in her career have helped shape who she is today.
“The women that I've met here have changed my life in so many ways. They inspire me and they’ve also given me a platform,” she said.
“When I was in L.A., I was just a struggling actress waiting in line for like, a punch in my frozen yogurt card. The women that I would meet there, we were always in competition with each other. And when I got here, my world changed. I also was doing different things and meeting a more diverse crowd. But, I think the women here just really support and embrace each other in a way that is unlike anywhere else I’ve been.”