Mary-Louise Parker is featured on the latest cover of Malibu Magazine that came out this month (August), here’s the interview + photoshoot photographed by the photographer Mike Piscitelli. Enjoy!

America’s Favorite Drug Dealer Comes Clean

(x006) – Studio Photoshoots > Session #45

According to UNICEF statistics, 163 million children are orphaned throughout the world. According to the Worldwide Orphans Foundation, only about 1 percent of those children will ever be adopted by loving families. Mary-Louise Parker is proudly included in that small yet distressing statistic, considering that the need undeniably outweighs demand. In 2007, Parker adopted a baby girl from Ethiopia and admits she initially faced trepidation at her decision. Not because she didn’t want to adopt a child. It had been a dream of hers throughout her life. Her hesitation came from the increased scrutiny her growing family could face from the media. She is an actor, after all, and imagining how that script would play out wasn’t very hard.

The adoption process is an arduous affair and transitioning a child into a new family is difficult and complicated. Most children face trust and attachment issues from years of neglect, and many Third World children are developmentally delayed with serious health problems. The last thing any adoptive parent needs is hurtful public attacks, particularly from loudmouthed blogosphere types hurling gratuitous cruelty, like suggesting Parker is an attention-seeking celebrity. Yet, ironically, if the only problem orphaned children faced was adoption by famous people who were anonymously persecuted online, that would, in fact, be a blessing. A conversation Parker had with her father reminded her of the importance of her decision. “I was afraid of the stigma for my daughter, of people staring at her and talking about being a different race and the potential difficulties she would face,” Parker said. “Then I realized I couldn’t let myself be swayed by petty nonsense because that stuff doesn’t matter, particularly once you visit the orphanage where they have nothing.”

She approached her decision to adopt as she approaches everything else in her life — with hard work, tenacity and independence. In her 20-year career, she has appeared in close to 30 movies, 15 television programs, five Broadway plays and counting, with hardly a break in between. “I think there were a couple of eight-month periods where I didn’t work,” she said, correcting me in all seriousness. “I was never ambitious in my career where I wanted to be a movie star,” Parker said. She is uncomfortable with the kind of public attention where people point, stare and whisper. “I just love to work.”

When she ponders her career decision now, it doesn’t include some defining moment. After graduating early from high school, she applied to one college, the North Carolina School of the Arts. “I am not wildly self-confident, though I do have a certain kind of confidence that doesn’t preclude me from judging myself harshly,” she said. “But what would I have done if I didn’t get in? I don’t remember what I was thinking. I wanted to be in the theater, and then I thought maybe one day I’d do a movie.”

She thinks of herself as a journeyman actor, taking the best of what is offered. This method has served her kindly, garnering her Emmy, Tony and Golden Globe awards, in addition to numerous nominations. Her current role since 2005 as Nancy Botwin, the hot, widowed drug dealer selling marijuana to support her family on Showtime’s Weeds has propelled her to new heights in the public consciousness. While she has openly stated her support of legalizing marijuana, she says the show isn’t about marijuana. It is about life decisions. And Parker and Botwin make very different ones. “Nancy is ruthless and immediate,” Parker said. “She doesn’t think ahead about the consequences for herself and others, especially her children. And I always try to consider the consequences for my children.”

Do you think your career philosophy has worked for or against you?
For me, it has worked because there were parts I didn’t respond to and I didn’t audition for, choosing for instance to do a play instead. Oddly, most of the plays I have done have gotten me the most attention, which doesn’t usually happen. Theater usually goes unnoticed by film and television, which wasn’t the case for me for some reason. I just did them because I loved them, and I wasn’t worried that I wouldn’t be available for a movie for a year. I prefer the theater because you can really be transported, as opposed to film and television where you have 2-minute takes. The theater doesn’t have an intermission. You are out there without a net and you can just go. It is yours. You are driving the car.

How do you decide to invest yourself in a role?
I look for a visceral response to the writing. It has to be good, and I don’t really care what the character is. It has also always been a very cerebral process for me in terms of reading the script and breaking down the characters. I love the possibilities of that: figuring out what they would wear, how they would react, what new friends they’d make and their little secrets.

Are there any similarities between you and your character on Weeds in terms of making necessary survival choices for your family while trying to maintain personal integrity?
Not so much. I am not a gambler. It just isn’t my personality. Before I had children, all of my choices were entirely creative. It was about what felt right. Now I think, “Do I really want to take them out of school? Do I want to be away for that period of time?” I can’t just pick up and go to Prague and do a movie for 10 weeks. I have to think about those things.

Have your perspectives about marijuana changed from working on Weeds?
I think that making marijuana contraband is not an effective deterrent against its use. I don’t smoke it. I’m a single mother. I can’t even take a Sudafed because I have to be awake. I also don’t think it would be the drug for me.

How do you balance it all? Is it possible?
I don’t know. But what I do know is that I am always tired because I am always doing three things at once. While we are on the phone I am having my hair done, and after, I will go and run lines and have a fitting and then my kids will be coming for lunch. There is very little room for downtime. When I am in New York, I sometimes get to have a mental health escape day at a hotel, which is really nice, but rare.

What made you decide to adopt your daughter considering your crowded schedule?
I always knew I wanted to do it, and I looked at my life with my son, and we have so much and are so fortunate. I didn’t want to regret not doing it. For so many reasons I knew it was the right thing to do, and I wish more people would do it. I was working with an organization called the Worldwide Orphans Foundation that I had known through charity work, and I asked the founder, Dr. Jane Aronson, where the greatest need is that would work for a woman my age. I didn’t know she would arrive at Africa, but when I went there, it made absolute sense.

The transition was really hard. I mean, even when you give birth biologically to a child there is a new transition toward motherhood, but I love kids and I love having a houseful of kids. When I saw how happy my son was and how happy everyone always is when they see her smiling face, I really don’t give a shit about what anyone says because that isn’t important in the least. All that is important is how much people smile when they see her and how magnetic, funny and beautiful she is. But I can’t say I was undaunted.

What keeps you grounded?
I don’t feel so grounded right now … I don’t know … I guess my kids. Kids keep you focused on important things and keep you away from concentrating on all the little things about yourself. You don’t care as much about what other people think and the gossip, nonsense, untruths; and nasty rumors don’t hurt my feelings as much anymore because I can’t let them. There isn’t any time for it.

But schematically and globally, that petty behavior is depressing to me. So I stay away from the big premiers and events unless I have to be there for work or my friend has invited me. I don’t just show up because it takes me away from my kids, and I have to get in a dress and wear high heals, and ultimately that is three hours away from them where I lose sleep that night, and I can’t read them a bedtime story, so it is all of that.

Are you surprised by your career trajectory?
No, it feels organic, but what do you mean?

Just in terms of the amount of work and effort it takes to accomplish what you do that the public doesn’t understand?
My nanny said to me recently, ‘I had no idea you really work this hard.’ And I was thinking, if I didn’t work this hard I wouldn’t need a nanny. Yesterday, I had a 15-hour day. Today is a 15-hour day. Tomorrow is another long day. I am always running and working, and while it is a lot of work it also feels like it is exactly what I should be doing. I don’t audition anymore because I recently made a decision to not audition anymore. That is a full-time job in itself, and I am at an age that I don’t have to do it anymore. I have enough of a body of work for people to look at to know if they want me for the role or not. I am not for everybody. I am fairly specific, and people have to really want me in the role.

I have been saving this question for last because I was uncertain as to how to frame it. I took an informal poll, and most men consider you to be the sexiest 46-year-old mom they have ever seen. They say they are drawn to your wisdom and strength, in addition to your beauty, and the fact that you are in your 40s and a mother makes you even sexier. What do beauty and age mean to you in your business?
Thanks for the poll. (She laughed). It’s complicated for any woman, but everyone’s going to get older. And yet, a lot of plastic surgery makes women look even older. If I could look like my mom, then I wouldn’t mind. And if I had a magic wand, I would probably use it.