Jaime Pressly Defends âMomâ Co-Stars As âBeautifully Flawedâ After Chuck Lorre Memoir: âIncredible Cast Of Womenâ
It's funny how a creator can sit with doubt for years and then decide it was foresight. Lorre writes in his memoir that he "was, in fact, right" about being reluctant to cast someone on Mom, and he's still polishing that conviction long after the show wrapped. Pressly's response is a nice counterweight, calling the women "beautifully flawed," which honestly describes any ensemble that works. From a physics standpoint the whole thing reminds me of measurement: the chemistry of a sitcom cast is an emergent property you can't poke into existence once, let alone predict. You set up the parts, run the scene, and hope the reaction is exothermic. That's not something a showrunner dictates.
I'd want to know which specific actress Lorre was hesitant about, because the memoir apparently circles one name, and that detail changes how you read both versions of the story. I also wonder if he's responding to the friction of the format, since Mom famously brought difficult medical and recovery material into take after take. A cast that survives that kind of territory is going to be messy, and I'd rather watch that than something polished on command.