 (1).png)
4 days ago
1
How Octomom Nadya Suleman & Her 14 Kids Are Taking Their Lives Back
Kristen Lee Gutoskie is taking pop culture fans back to 2009.
The Handmaid’s Tale actress, who portrays Natalie “Nadya” Suleman in I Was Octomom: The Natalie Suleman Story, which premiered March 8 on Lifetime, got candid on how she got into the mindset of the so-called “Octomom,” who made headlines for giving birth to the first surviving set of octuplets in 2009
Kristen had to catch up on her knowledge of the story before taking on the role, exclusively telling E! News' Francesca Amiker, "I just remembered, 'Oh yeah, that's the lady who had a bunch of babies.'"
She added, "I just remembered the photos I'd seen back then. When I started to research her and dive into the role, I was like, 'Oh, there was a lot going on, a lot of tabloids, a lot of lot of different things,' so it was all news to me."
However, the Chicago Fire actress decided that her lack of knowledge helped her to go into the role with a fresh perspective.
"It's kind of cool in that way, like I knew who she was, but I didn't know all the details," she explained. "I could look at it in almost a hindsight perspective from the point of view of today, without having all these preconceived ideas around her."
And after stepping into Nadya’s shoes for the show, Kristen hopes to shut down any criticism of the now 49-year-old—who is mom to octuplets Noah, Josiah, Nariyah, Maliyah, Jonah, Jeremiah, Isaiah and Makai, as well as Ameerah, Calyssa, Elijah, Caleb, Joshua and Aidan. While Nadya agreed to help with the movie as well as six-part docuseries, Confessions of Octomom, that will debut on March 10, she tried to keep her kids out of the spotlight as much as possible, never agreeing to a reality series of her own.
"She's a human being who is, at the end of the day, a mother, and seemingly a really good mother," Kristen told E!. "She has amazing kids, 14 kids who are thriving and lovely and smart and beautiful."
Kristen Lee Gutoski
Kristen—who recently became a mother herself to son, Elijah, 22 months—feels that her own motherhood journey allowed her to connect with Nadya and her story on a deeper level.
"We chatted about a lot of stuff, especially motherhood," she explained. "I feel like I wouldn't have been able to play this role had I not become a mother recently."
Not only did being a mother help her portray the character, but the film helped her as a parent, too, with the Narcos: Mexico star noting, "It actually helped me find strength as a mother myself."
"We chatted about a lot of stuff, especially motherhood," she explained. "I feel like I wouldn't have been able to play this role had I not become a mother recently."
Courtesy of Lifetime
In addition to her work on I Was Octomom, her son Elijah also inspired another project for Kristen: her music career. The Toronto native recently released her new single, “Stardust,” on Jan. 3 under the name Lee Gutoski on YouTube and will soon release her second single "Tunnel Vision" with the full EP to follow.
"I'm finally actually releasing music," Kristen said. "It means a lot to finally do it now, and it's taken me a longer time, but to finally do it after having a child means the most to me in so many ways, because it's my words and my heart."
For more stars in Lifetime movies, read on.
Florian Schneider/Lifetime 2014
Angela Bassett
Bassett directed the Whitney Houston biopic starring America's Next Top Model veteran and Lee Daniels' The Butler actress Yaya DaCosta as the iconic singer and Arlen Escarpetaas Bobby Brown. "I just want [viewers] to go on the journey between Whitney and Bobby," she told E! News. "I considered it a love story…I guess they had great business between them. They were there to love and care for one another, and it was quite a journey."
James Dittiger/Lifetime
Heather Graham & Kiernan Shipka
The 44-year-old actress played Corrine and the Mad Men star her daughter Cathy in the Lifetime remake of Flowers in the Attic. Graham admitted she was "so bitchy" and may have scared the children.
Chris Reardon/Lifetime
Christina Ricci
In Lizzie Borden Took an Ax, Ricci is Lizzie, a Sunday school teacher who breaks the Bible's sixth commandment of "Thou shall not kill," when she plows a hatchet into her parents.
Jack Zeman/Lifetime
Lindsay Lohan
LiLo played the iconic Elizabeth Taylor in the biopic Liz & Dick. The film focused on the turbulent relationship between Liz and her on-again, off-again husband Richard Burton.
A&E
Emile Hirsch & Holliday Grainger
It may be woefully historically inaccurate, but Hirsch and Grainger's turn at Bonnie & Clyde scored gangbuster ratings! The four-part docudrama that aired on A&E, Lifetime and History channels chronicled the criminal couple's crime spree and the relentless ranger that was after them.
data-testid="adp-vgallery-item">
Gina Gershon
The 51-year-old actress took on the role and look of Donatella Versace in House of Versace, which chronicled the death of Gianni Versace and how the fashion house was kept afloat under Donatella's direction.
Lifetime
Rob Lowe
The handsome actor starred in Untouchable as Drew Peterson, a retired police sergeant who is charged with the death of his third wife after the mysterious disappearance of his fourth wife.
Lifetime
Hayden Panettiere
Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial In Italy is a film based on the real-life events surrounding the murder of British student Meredith Kercher. And with the retrial and new verdict of the real Amanda Knox still in the headlines, you'd be surprised to know there is no talk of Panettiere reprising the role.
Lifetime
Jennifer Love Hewitt
The 34-year-old actress was nominated for a Golden Globe for the series spinoff of the original Lifetime movie, The Client List. In the film, she played a young woman who takes a job at a "massage" parlor to support her family when her husband is unable to work, but in the series her husband just leaves her and the kids to fend for themselves.
Lifetime
Kristen Chenoweth
In 12 Men of Christmas, the star of Broadway and film played a New York publicist who travels to Montana after discovering her fiancé's infidelity.
Annette Brown/Lifetime
Jewel
The country singer played the role of June Carter Ring of Fire, about her decades-long love affair with husband Johnny Cash.
Michael Desmond/Lifetime
Jennifer Hudson
Call Me Crazy: A Five Film. In Maggie, Hudson is a female war veteran who experiences post-traumatic stress disorder after returning home to her father and son.
Michael Desmond/Lifetime
Octavia Spencer
Call Me Crazy: A Five Film. Spencer plays Dr. Nance, a psychotherapist for Lucy who helps treat the mental illness.
Lifetime
Mischa Barton
The former O.C. star departed from her girl-next-door persona when she starred in Homecoming as a jilted ex-girlfriend who plots revenge after her ex comes back to town with a new ladylove.
Lifetime
Jeremy Irons
In Georgia O'Keeffe, the Oscar-winning actor earned a Golden Globe nod for his performance as the artist's husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz.
Prashant Grupta/Lifetime
Denise Richards
Attractive schoolmates get stranded on a tropical island and fall in love as they struggle to survive in this 2012 remake Blue Lagoon: The Awakening, and Richards plays a devoted mother who refuses to give up the search for her missing daughter.
Lifetime
Kristen Bell
In Gracie's Choice, Bell plays a teen girl trying to raise her siblings on her own after their drug-addicted mother is sent to jail.
Dan Power/Lifetime Networks
LeAnn Rimes & Eddie Cibrian
This real-life couple became an item on the set of Northern Lights, even though the actor vehemently denied it at first. In the film, Cibrian is the new chief of police in Lunacy, Alaska whose bond grows with Meg (Rimes) as they look to each other in order to escape traumatizing events.
Lifetime
Sigourney Weaver
The Oscar-winning actress earned a Golden Globe and Emmy nod for her performance in Prayers for Bobby, in which she portrays Mary Griffith, a gay rights crusader, whose teenage son committed suicide due to her religious intolerance.
Jan Thijs/Lifetime
Angela Bassett & Mary J. Blige
Betty & Coretta tells the story of the friendship formed between Betty Shabazz (Blige), wife of Malcolm X, and Coretta Scott King (Bassett), wife of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. as they strive to move on after the assassinations of their husbands.
Michael Desmond/Lifetime
Brittany Snow
Call Me Crazy: A Five Film. Lucy stars Snow as a law student coping with schizophrenia.
Ed Araquel/Lifetime
Eric McCormack
In Romeo Killer: The Chris Porco Story, McCormack is the detective that brings down the criminal who killed his father and attempted to murder his mother. McCormack also starred in the 2010 Lifetime true crime thriller Who Is Clark Rockefeller?
Sophie Giraud/Lifetime
Neve Campbell
In An Amish Murder, an investigation hits too close to home for an Ohio police chief (Campbell) who grew up Amish.
Michael Desmond/Lifetime
Sarah Hyland
Call Me Crazy: A Five Film. In Grace, Hyland plays a teenage daughter who learns how to handle her mother's (Melissa Leo) bipolar disorder.
Lifetime
Kirsten Dunst
Before the MTV series 16 and Pregnant, we had Fifteen & Pregnant. A film starring the then 15-year-old actress is based on a true story of Tina Spangler, a girl who is abandoned by her boyfriend when she discovers she is pregnant and must deal with life as a single parent.
Lifetime
Tori Spelling
In 1996's Lifetime fave Mother, May I Sleep with Danger, Spelling plays Laurel, a young girl who must struggle to escape the mountain cabin in which her serial killer boyfriend is holding her captive.
Lifetime
Kathy Bates
Bates earned an Emmy nod for her performance in Ambulance Girl as former food writer Jane Stern, who conquered clinical depression after becoming a paramedic.
English (US) ·