Teyana Taylor Gets Candid About Postpartum and Motherhood
Paul Thomas Anderson isn’t afraid of chaos, and in “One Battle After Another,” he dives headfirst into it.
The film, led by Leonardo DiCaprio and Teyana Taylor, is part political fever dream, part intimate character study. After Bob Ferguson (DiCaprio) and Perfidia Beverly Hills (Taylor) have a child together, Perfidia disappears, leaving Bob to raise their daughter, Willa Ferguson (played by newcomer Chase Infiniti), on his own. He does his best to build a quiet life, but that peace unravels after a chain of violent events puts Willa in danger. When an old enemy resurfaces and threatens to kidnap her, the French 75, a revolutionary collective with deep ties to Bob and Perfidia, steps in to protect her.
When BET sat down with Taylor, Regina Hall, and Infiniti, the conversation stretched from the film’s weighty themes to the lighter moments that keep them grounded off-screen. After all, the film has already raised eyebrows thanks to a now-infamous full-frontal moment that had audiences buzzing. Playing off that, we asked the cast what really keeps them up at night, outside of, well, scenes like that one.
Taylor pointed to something more personal, mentioning her beau, Aaron Pierre.
“It’s a little time difference with my man being in London, so that keeps me up,” she admitted. Infiniti laughed about her own habits, saying, “I doomscroll on TikTok, like it’s really bad.”
Hall, on the other hand, made it clear she doesn’t struggle with sleepless nights.
“I take my a** to bed,” she said with a laugh.
One of the film’s most tender moments comes when Perfidia writes a letter to her daughter.
That idea carried into our conversation, as Taylor and Hall each offered heartfelt messages of their own, with Taylor speaking to her daughters and Hall addressing her nieces.
“Stay pure. My babies are the purest form of gentle and genuine love. It’s a love that can’t be duplicated and I hope they stay in their innocence as long as they can. Stay graceful and passionate. Keep the heart that you have because it’s so beautiful,” Taylor said.
Hall’s message echoed that sentiment of resilience and focus. “I would tell my nieces to stay focused as there’s a lot of distractions in the world. Stay mindful and stay ready.”
Of course, the film’s title carries more than metaphor. In a cultural moment where everything feels like one battle after another, the cast reflected on what it meant to be part of a story that may be considered revolutionary. Hall spoke to its urgency, noting, “It’s pertinent today. Paul [Thomas Anderson] was ruminating on it for two decades. It’s been pertinent for many decades and centuries. To do it specifically at this time and right now, we have to have dialogue after the movie. It’s not a small thing.” Taylor agreed, adding, “It’s time to wake up and the movie will shake the table for these necessary conversations to happen.”
That same honesty carries into Taylor’s most vulnerable moments on screen, where Perfidia wrestles with jealousy, exhaustion, and the unseen weight of motherhood. For Taylor, those scenes weren’t just performances, but they tapped into her own lived experiences with postpartum struggles.
“Everybody, especially moms, all deal with post-partum differently,” she explained.
“I had both of my babies on the bathroom floor, so physically the closest thing to death and I gave birth with no doctors or machines or anything. In that moment, you lose a lot more physically and it was times where I didn’t feel beautiful.”
Taylor went on to recall the challenges that came after delivery.
“I also had a hard time breastfeeding and producing milk. My nipples hurt. I have never been jealous of my children, but not feeling seen or heard or beautiful.”
That rawness made its way into the film itself.
“In the scene you’re referring to, a lot of it was improvised at that moment because I’ve dealt with post-partum depression,” she said. “People don’t take it seriously and that’s the part I’m so happy that this movie spreads light on. The importance of a mother’s mental health after birth.”
You can head to theaters to see “One Battle After Another,” on Friday, September 26th.
