OnlyOnAOL: Minnie Driver opens up about working-mom realities

By: Donna Freydkin

In real life, she's raising son Henry Story Driver, 8. And in the ABC hit "Speechless," which got a full season pickup and airs Wednesdays, Minnie Driver is the tenacious, loving mom of a son with cerebral palsy. She battles for her child with sensitivity, smarts and a sense of humor.

She's so proud of the series, even though as the headliner, she's working 16 hour days. "I know it's hard, but we should all be so lucky to find what we love to do that can afford the house and the car and traveling to see granny in England," she says.

The show films in Los Angeles, where Driver lives. And that makes things easier.

"It's not five minutes from my house. It shoots in town and with a kid, that's it. We haven't quite figured out how to get the hours down yet, but it's a bloody great show. To be on a network, get paid a good wage, love the people you work with, get to see your kid...I like it. It's such a good show," she says.

Like any working mom, Driver deals with missing out. She's honest about it. As she is with just about everything. "It's hard. It's been overwhelming. I've cried in bathrooms on a number of occasions. I've missed the book fair. I missed my boyfriend's big work dinner. But I know once it finds its pace, it will get easier," she says.

For Driver, the best work out there now is on television. She cites Edie Falco, Viola Davis and Julia Louis-Dreyfus as inspirations. The medium allows actresses to act their age, quite literally. Driver is fully supportive of that, and has no intention of stopping the aging the process.

"All people do is ask, 'Why does her mouth look so funny?' It's some weird pressure. But we're the only ones who can take the pressure off. Stop doing it. Stop saying it's ok," she says.