Carla Gugino Reflects on Being 27 and Playing a Mom to an 11 Year Old in SPY KIDS

Carla Gugino started out her career as a teenager on popular sitcoms of the ‘80s like Who’s the Boss, Good Morning Miss Bliss, ALF, and The Wonder Years. She then starred in popular films like Troop Beverly Hills, This Boy’s Life, and Son in Law. When she became an adult, she had a recurring role in the series Spin City and Chicago Hope, then she started in the Spy Kids film franchise as the super spy mom of two kids that have to swoop in and save her and her husband when they are captured.

Gugino is fond of her time in those films, but she looks back now at the fact that she was playing a mother of two kids, aged 11 and 9, and she was only 27 herself, and it leaves her perplexed. The actress recently spoke to Deadline about being hired for the role, and said:

“It is so funny because I was 27. It was a really beautiful kind of double-edged sword because I love that movie so much. And the whole experience was incredible, and the movies continue. I love Ingrid Cortes. But it was funny because I was 10 years, at least, too young for the role because I was a spy for 10 years and then somehow had children who were like 9 and 11. So it was physically totally impossible.”

At her meeting with director Robert Rodriguez, “He was like, ‘I feel like I’m looking for a mother for my kids.’ We were talking about it, and I had auditioned for him and he said, ‘I think if we do our job right, no one will ever question it.” Gugino added, “And it’s so funny, nobody did.”

I don’t think these movies were admired for their authenticity, but just for how much fun they were. The core cast of the films included Gugino, Antonio Banderas, Alexa PenaVega and Daryl Sabara, who starred in the series’ first three installments, then gave way to new characters with 2011’s All the Time in the World. The action series was rebooted with last year’s Netflix movie Spy Kids: Armageddon.

Gugino went on to star in great projects like The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor, as well as Gunpowder Milkshake, Lisa Frankenstein, and she currently stars in the Max political series The Girls on the Bus.