Busy Philipps Says “Mean Girls” Was First Time Daughter Cricket Saw Her Act — and Reveals Her Hilarious Reaction

The actress plays Regina George's mom in the new movie musical

Busy Philipps' younger daughter has some feelings about seeing her mom on the big screen.

On Wednesday's episode of Today with Hoda & Jenna, the actress, who stars as Regina George's mom in the movie musical adaption of Mean Girls, told host Hoda Kotb, 59, and guest host Laura Jarrett, 40, that Monday's premiere was the first time her daughter Cricket, 10, had seen her mom act.

"I don’t picture you as the cool mom in real life," Kotb told Philipps, who said she agreed. "What are you in real life? What kind of mom?"

"I think I’m an incredibly communicative mom," Philipps shared. "And I’m really open to letting my kids have their own autonomy. It’s hard when you grow up and your mom is in the spotlight and you feel like you have to share your mom. Or people have an idea of who your mom is. And it’s really important to me that they get me and also that they get to be themselves."

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Related: Busy Philipps Praises 'So Cool' Daughter Birdie at the Mean Girls Premiere (Exclusive)

Discussing how they establish boundaries for their kids, Kotb asked Philipps how she navigates focusing her attention on her kids Cricket and Birdie, 15, as a person in the spotlight.

"I think it’s really complicated. And we just try to talk about it," the mom of two said. "For Birdie, who really grew up on the set of CougarTown — cause she was 6 months old when I did the pilot and she was 8 when we stopped filming the show — she gets it more than Cricket, who really hasn’t been around me as an actor. And sitting in the theater for Mean Girls for the premiere was the first time Cricket, I realized, ‘Oh my gosh, she’s never seen me in anything?’"

"What did she think? How did she react?" Kotb asked.

"She just was like — she’s 10 now, my little one...I saw her face and she goes, ‘This is weird.'"

Laughing, Kotb asked if that was really what went down.

"Yeah, she’s like, ‘This is weird,'" the star confirmed. "And so we talked about it the next day and I was like, ‘You know, Was that too much for you? Did you not like it?’ And she’s like, ‘I don’t think I want to watch things you’re in. It was weird.’ And I was like, ‘I get it.’ And she’s like, ‘Luckily you’re not in the movie that much.’"

"Yeah because she loved the rest of the movie. She was like, ‘I can just skip forward.’"

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