Krysten Ritter Shares How Becoming a Mom Influenced Her Acting Career as She Says She's 'Bigger and Badder Than Ever' (Exclusive)
Krysten Ritter Shares How Becoming a Mom Influenced Her Acting Career as She Says She's 'Bigger and Badder Than Ever' (Exclusive)
Kayla GrantWed, April 22, 2026 at 8:28 PM UTC
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Krysten Ritter on 'Daredevil: Born Again'; Krysten Ritter and her sonCredit: Courtesy of Marvel; Krysten Ritter/Instagram -
Krysten Ritter shares how being a mom changes how she shows up in her acting projects
The actress tells PEOPLE that motherhood instilled her with a new level of "fierceness," which she now brings into every role
The doting mom, who became a mom back in July 2019, is reprising her role as Jessica Jones in Daredevil: Born Again
When Krysten Ritter finished filming the third season of Jessica Jones, she was embarking on a new journey that ultimately changed how she approached her career forever.
One month after the popular Netflix series aired its series finale in June 2019, the Breaking Bad alum, 44, welcomed her son Bruce with her ex-boyfriend Adam Granduciel, instilling a fierce "mama bear energy" inside of her.
Nearly seven years after hanging up her iconic leather jacket, she is reprising her role as Jessica Jones in Daredevil: Born Again, and this time she's weaving that new energy into the complex superheroine, who welcomed a child of her own since fans last saw her.
"I think being a mom and having that extra layer is so exciting, because you're going to be bigger and badder than ever," she tells PEOPLE. "And [there's] that mama bear energy, and that fierceness ... or that thing in you that this awakens when you have your own child. [So,] I was really excited to layer that in for her."
For Ritter, the idea of showing how multifaceted women can be really excited her. The actress explains that she was "very interested" in shattering the stereotypical portrayal of moms on-screen.
"I have such big opinions about being a mom and what it means, and a lot of times, moms or motherhood are portrayed very stereotypically in these kinds of settings," she explains. "I wanted to show the fierceness and what a healing opportunity it is to become a mother and how you can really become a whole version of yourself."
"If Jessica Jones, who's been through so much and she's so messy, now has someone that's just hers that she can love and heal from and be better for, I thought that was a really interesting thing to play," she continues. "Jessica's always stuck up for that underdog. I think what people love about her is that she puts one foot in front of the other, even when it's hard, and people love that about her. I love that about her. And giving her the gift of a child is just really exciting to me."
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When Ritter first read the script, she was excited to embark on the journey of discovering who Jessica Jones is as a mom. She shares that the additional layer to her vastly developed character was "just candy" on top of her already sweet return.
"I was really excited to layer that in for her. It's obviously in the comics that she has a child, and adding that layer on top is just candy, because then it gives you more to do and more to explore," she says. "This character that's so rich and has so much weight of the world on top of her and so much to dig into and so much psychology to then even have more to do is, I mean, you just can't ask for better."
Krysten Ritter on 'Daredevil: Born Again'Credit: Jojo Whilden/MARVEL
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And this new layer added to her life will only add a "fierceness" to Jessica Jones, according to Ritter. While she's typically held back her powers because of the complicated relationship she has with them, Ritter, who's a mom to 6-year-old son Bruce, is certain that becoming a mom has changed her. She says now, when it comes to protecting herself or her child, nothing will get in her way.
"Jessica has always had, in my opinion, a complicated relationship with her powers — almost a little bit of contempt for them because of how she got them, the car accident, being experimented on, losing her family," she explains. "[And] being left with these powers that she doesn't want to hurt people. She doesn't want to use them. She doesn't want to have them. But having that moral obligation that comes with it, that's been a real sort of conflict for her."
"In the past, I think when we saw Jessica, in my show, she would've used restraint around her powers or used them reluctantly," she continues. "Now I think it's safe to say if you're going to f--k with her or f--k with her child or get anywhere near that, she'll be coming for you. And that's exciting to me."
New episodes of Daredevil: Born Again season 2 premiere Tuesdays on Disney+.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
