Amy Poehler is in the "juicy middle" of her life.
The 47-year-old actress – who has sons Archie, 10, and Abel, eight, with ex-husband Will Arnett – is grateful she’s passed a point where people keep questioning her plans for the future but admitted she isn’t as certain of what she wants than people think.
She said: "When you’re in your twenties and thirties, as a woman, you get so many questions: ‘What do you want to do? Do you want to have kids? Do you wanna be married?’
"As you turn into your forties and fifties, people ask you less, because they think, falsely, that you’ve decided exactly what you want in life."
The ‘Wine Country’ filmmaker admitted 2019 is the first year in a decade that she hasn’t made plans for her future as she’s decided to be "open" and let the world decide for her.
She told Sunday Times Style magazine: "The year turned 2019 and I didn’t write my intentions down. My job for this year is to stay open and to let the world answer that question for me rather than me trying to shape my experience."
The former ‘Saturday Night Live’ star is keen for her sons to be "open-minded and compassionate" and feels hopeful there will be fewer gender-based expectations placed on them as they get older.
She said: "It’s figuring out how to raise compassionate people who are open-minded and connected to the world and take care of each other.
"It’s the same old stuff: empathy, world view, lead by example. But I’m also hoping that our boys will enter this world where gender and gender roles won’t be so defined."
And Amy hopes that, in the wake of the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements, she and her peers can help further pave the way for equality for future generations.
She said: "The stuff I had to put up with on sets or in business meetings, most young women do not put up with.
"The sketch women who came before me — Andrea Martin, Catherine O’Hara, Gilda Radner — hung in there in a really misogynistic, aggressive, macho environment and they just weathered the storm like a news reporter reporting on a hurricane.
"And then our generation came in and we were better for it. Now we have to do that for the generation behind us."
Amy Poehler in ‘juicy’ part of life
