“I had just come back to L.A. from New York,” says Cholodenko, the
director and cowriter of The Kids Are All Right. “And I wanted to have a
kid. I fell in love with Wendy, and we knew we were both pushing 40 and
the clock was ticking. We debated about whether to use a sperm bank or
hit up a friend. In the end, my mom said, ‘It’s better to use a sperm
donor.’” That dilemma helped inspire The Kids Are All Right, which is
about a lesbian couple, their two teenage children, and what happens
when the sperm donor becomes a part of their lives. Both Cholodenko and
her partner, musician Wendy Melvoin, tried to get pregnant at the same
time. “I got pregnant first, and Wendy decided that one kid was the way
to go,” Cholodenko explains, “although she did bring home a baby bulldog
when our son, Calder, was born. We almost divorced over the bulldog.”
December 2010