How Michelle Buteau, Actress and Comedian, Spends Her Sundays (2024)

December 1, 2019 7:01 AM

(Sunday Routine) NEW YORK — This year Michelle Buteau had a breakout role in the Netflix movie “Always Be My Maybe” and starred in the BET Plus television series, “The First Wives Club,” among other projects. She is also a co-host of the WNYC podcast “Adulting.” But the work that Buteau, 42, said inspires her to “slow down and taste the rosé” is raising her infant twins, Otis and Hazel, born in January of this year via surrogate. Buteau and her husband, Gijs van der Most, 42, spent five years trying to conceive. That time was “a lot of disappointment, a lot of money spent and a lot of tears shed,” she said. Now, she just feels overwhelmed, especially on Sundays, she explained, when her nanny is off and her husband is working at the couple’s furniture store, Van Der Most Modern, in Bushwick, Brooklyn. “But mine is a cute overwhelmed,” she said. “Not like a substitute teacher overwhelmed.” Buteau lives with her family and their Lab Mastiff, Lola, on City Island, in the Bronx. IT’S A CYCLE I get up anywhere between 4 and 6 a.m. I just really enjoy a sunrise. No. No. It’s the babies. I feed the babies. I change the babies. Sunday isn’t even a day anymore, it’s a cycle. I’m sleepwalking the whole time. But as long as I can’t smell myself and you can’t smell me, we’re OK. STROLLER-FRIENDLY We go for a walk out on this private beach that’s in our backyard that overlooks Long Island Sound. They’re asleep in the stroller. Then we go for a walk around the island. I’ll pick up a coffee or some sort of juice or whatever. I just go into whatever shop can fit a double-wide stroller. I don’t care if it’s a tackle shop, as long as I can fit. GRAZE I feed them a bottle about 10 a.m., and they get some solid food, like a chunky purée of banana. They don’t have teeth. They have hard gums. Actually, the little boy has two tiny teeth, like he’s out of a baby commercial. Then sometimes a friend will stop over and help me so I can use the bathroom. I grab what I can to eat. Stuff I can graze on, because sitting down with a knife and a fork just isn’t happening. KEEP IT CLASSY The babies need a change of scenery. So sometimes we’ll sit up in the nursery with all their soft toys, and sometimes we’ll go downstairs where the playpen is. We’ll do a lot of singing and dancing. People are like, What are you listening to? The new Cardi B? I’m like, no. “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes,” honey. The remix is stellar. Sometimes there’s some Amy Winehouse but the kids pick up on her energy and they’re like, this is sad, and I’m like, you’re right. Then we throw in a little Nina Simone, some James Brown, Otis Redding and Etta James. We keep it classy. At some point I might even put a bra on. HOME SICK I wish it was like, and then I go to the farmers market and figure out how to grow tomatoes. I wish it was super-soul Sunday. But what I’m doing is I’m waiting for my husband to come home with treats from Brooklyn. We miss Brooklyn. We lived in Bed-Stuy. I’m half Haitian, half Jamaican. I love Caribbean food. He’ll bring me Haitian patties or jerk chicken and I’ll graze on that. We’ll have a couple beers till the CBD oil kicks in. It’s amazing. Will I ever exercise? Who knows. GET IT DONE The good thing about taking care of babies is that now, when I have an hour to get stuff done, I will get it done. Before I was like, I’ll do it next hour. I was also more involved in the furniture store. I’ve always been into interiors but in my 20s I didn’t know what I was doing and I didn’t have a lot of money so it was always a Pier 1 clearance situation. My husband is just sort of “Rain Man” when it comes to designers. He’s from the Netherlands. MARRIAGE THERAPY After what I call bed, bath and beyond, which is putting the babies to bed, husband will cook some dinner. If he does salmon, he makes sure the skin is crispy. If he does steak he’ll do it with a butter sauce. If he’s making a salad he’ll put three or four different herbs in the dressing. That’s how you stay married. He’ll have a Red Stripe and I’ll have the whole bottle of rosé because I earned it. It goes down like a seltzer. Don’t judge my journey. SAD SHOW, CLEAN SHEETS We watch “90-Day Fiancé.” It’s a great show about the government giving people three months to decide how sad they’re going to be. I take a shower before I go to bed, because the sheets are clean. I’m out by 10:30. This article originally appeared in The New York Times . ]]>

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How Michelle Buteau, Actress and Comedian, Spends Her Sundays

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