Have you ever had a Bad Hair Day?

When I told my kids I was going to LA, they didn’t care I was going to meet Kevin Costner. Instead, they were totally excited instead that I was getting to see Bad Hair Day before them and meet Leigh-Allyn Baker. My daughter actually asked if we could take our vacation to LA this summer, so she could meet her. (I had to explain that if we did go to LA on vacation that we probably wouldn’t see any celebrities.)

Disney Channel viewer favorites Laura Marano (“Austin & Ally”) and Leigh-Allyn Baker (“Good Luck Charlie”) star in “Bad Hair Day,” a buddy comedy about a high school tech-whiz whose prom day abruptly shifts into a wild ride across town, thanks to a down-on-her-luck cop and a jewel thief. Leigh-Allyn Baker also executive-produces this Disney Channel Original Movie, premiering Friday, February 13 (8:00 p.m., ET/PT).

I really like this movie, so I know my kids will love it! I love that the heroine in this movie is a woman not a man. I love that Laura is smart in here and into computers. This movie really goes against most stereotypes of girls (which I love). Plus, we’ve all had a bad hair day at least once or twice. I am pretty sure that our days were never this bad though.

In our interview with Leigh-Allyn Baker, our first question was what was the inspiration behind the movie. I loved her answer:

There was as script that was originally taken to Disney channel. It was quite different from this but it was a teenage girl and a male cop. They thought well if there is an adult that we would like to try something new with a film that has an adult heavily in it for the first time let’s try with Leigh Allyn.

That’s when the inspiration started forming on what we wanted to do with this movie. We wanted to first and foremost make people laugh. Secondly, it was really important to us to grab people’s heartstrings and give a really good, unique, and powering message. As you can see, I feel like this film is fraught with comedy and heart and great messages for girls. She doesn’t end up with her Prince Charming. She chooses MIT.

We then asked her why she wanted the executive producing role rather than just being a part of the action.

As my husband said, they’re finally gonna pay you to micromanage everybody else. I felt it was very tempting to see if I had it in me to see something build from the ground up and to really be brave and be bold to put my vision out there and see how it went.

I’m sure you can tell when I adlib or when I riff on Good Luck Charlie. You can tell in here too. I know you are all laughing when I do certain, silly things. I just wanted to see what other creative elements I could bring to this.

If you can believe it, they shot Bad Hair Day in 22 days. That’s really quick! She’s a jack of all trades. She does producing and acting and voiceovers for video games. We asked her which one she likes to do the most.

I have an animation series called the Seven D which I play the Queen Delightful if you haven’t seen Seven D. It’s really good. Check it out, Disney XD and Disney Channel. My favorite was this. To produce, to executive produce, and act. You really get to have your hand in all elements down to I want Liz’s dress to look like this, I want Monica’s dress to look like this, I want the shoes to be like this, what if this joke goes here, what if on this scene we
have them build the relationship and it’s really because of her mother. You get to just really live in every element of the movie down to editing it and sitting in on the final mix.

My favorite answer had to be for the question of what’s the worst bad hair day you can remember having:

When we did the promos for this. I was like — they turned me around in the mirror and I was like, huh, irony. Wow. Yeah, that would be it.

She’s been with Disney for five years. We had to ask if she was turning down other roles to stay within the Disney range. I personally like that that there is an option for the kids to watch that isn’t about death, sex, and drugs. Her answer was:

I have turned down certain roles. I will say that I’ve become a prude since working with Disney Channel. There is a lot on television of murder and sex. It makes up the television on prime time television. There have been parts that people have expressed an interest in with me and it just didn’t feel right given where I worked to do those roles.

As soon as I finished Good Luck Charlie, we had been in talks about doing this spin development for a while, so I knew immediately that I was going into this. Honestly I just felt really comfortable putting my whole heart and my whole focus on to this and my kids. You can get too busy and it’s not worth it.

We did ask her what’s next.

You know what I love comedy. I found myself the other day going on an audition for something and I thought it’s about a family who’s like about to murdered. Why am I making this funny? You know, to me, life is short and I wanna have fun. If I’m going to be away from my kids to be working I’m going to be having fun or I’m not gonna do it. As you can see in this, I can do drama. It’s easier than comedy, way easier, but comedy just fills up my bucket and why not go to work and laugh. Who wants to go to work and cry?

Yes, she also has a bit of herself in her characters.

I’m a little bit embarrassed to say that about Amy Duncan’s behavior. Amy Duncan is really my most feminine side and then Liz is really me at home. I have two boys. I know how to get down and dirty, so it’s just really fun for me also to show that I am an actor. You know, every actor says I’m not a one trick pony, and I can do other things. That is one of the things that really intrigued me about this is how different can I show myself.

We asked her about how she manages her work/life balance.

I learned that in season one of Good Luck, Charlie. I remember going to work and just missing my baby. I just had a baby, Griffin, my oldest and I remember just missing him terribly all day, and then when I got home, I was rocking him to sleep at night, my favorite part. I remember looking at him, and I was thinking oh, I can’t believe that I missed that at work and I missed that and I should have been focused. I realized that I’m not a hundred percent there at work and I’m missing the enjoyment there and I’m not able to be a hundred percent with him here. I’m missing the enjoyment here. From then on, simplicity rules.

When you’re at work, at work. When you’re home, you’re home and that’s how you do it. That’s the only way I can do it. I love doing sitcoms. Honestly as far as acting goes, there is no greater job for a mom in the acting world than a half hour multi camera sitcom work, because you actually have a life. There’s a regular schedule. You don’t shoot crazy odd hours except for one day a week. You shoot three weeks on and one week off. You get a five month hiatus in between seasons. I know what it’s like to be a full time working mom, and I know what it’s like to be a full time stay at home. I do both of those within a year.

Since this movie is mostly about girls, we asked what the one message she would like them to take away from this movie.

Your identity, who you are, comes from the inside. It doesn’t come from what’s out here. That’s the main message I think. A lot of people like to toss around believe in yourself, but it’s more than believing in yourself. It’s knowing yourself and being okay with who you are and not looking for approval from others and knowing when to call for backup.

There’s two ladies — there’s two lessons. They start out as polar opposites in this film and then through this crazy day with each other, they learn from each other how to fill in their weak spots. They really do help each other grow immensely. Liz learns to be able to ask for help, that it’s okay to be giddy, and be a girl. It’s okay to have fun and not just be a one woman show.

Needless to say, Leigh Allyn-Baker was amazing to talk to. She was very down to earth and very normal. We could have easily gone to dinner together and just talked. That’s how she was. She was beyond funny. She did a great job on Bad Hair Day too!

My kids will be watching Bad Hair Day on Friday! How about you? Did you learn anything you didn’t know about Leigh?