Source: Radio New Zealand
Sona Movsesian and Conan O’Brien are co-workers but also “just two people who really care about each other”.
Making the 62-year-old comedian a Godfather to her two sons was also a way to present them with someone who has a great work ethic and character to try and emulate, Movsesian tells RNZ’s Afternoons.
“Plus Conan loves the Godfather Godfather theme, and we said, ‘we want to ask you a question…’”
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Movsesian has worked with O’Brien for 16 years – first as a personal assistant on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien
After they each tested the waters with each other, she says the pair’s “pretty classic sibling dynamic” developed quickly.
“Once we realised both of us were responding the way we wanted each other to respond, we just kind of went all in on it.
“I’m not his day-to-day assistant, but I still do worry about him. He’s like an older brother to me.”
Several years ago, when Sona and her husband Tak Boroyan discovered they needed IVF treatments to start a family but couldn’t afford them, Conan and his wife Liza “very generously” lent them the money, she says.
In 2021, when twin boys Mikey and Charlie were born, Conan and Liza became part of the family, too.
After discovering she was “very frazzled” and “kind of all over the place” as a mother, Movsesian says it felt like a natural progression to write about her struggles through fertility treatment and early motherhood in The World’s Worst Mom – a follow-up to her 2022 bestsellerThe World’s Worst Assistant.
Movessian says she wrote The World’s Worst Mom to help create a sisterhood for mothers “who have no idea what they’re doing.”
Penguin Random House
The World’s Worst Mom is for the many mothers “ who feel kind of lost sometimes”, she says.
“Sometimes it’s more heartening and more relatable to be reading a book by someone who has found that as tough as you found it.
“You say, ‘something’s wrong with me. I’m terrible at this’. If someone reads my book and feels better about how, underwater they feel, that’s really just what I want to do. I want people to not feel like they’re as lost as they might feel sometimes [and] sort of create this sisterhood with a lot of other mums who have no idea what they’re doing.”
With no previous desire for an on-camera career, having a public persona linked entirely to O’Brien makes it easier to act natural as a cohost of Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend , Movsesian says.
As a cohost of Conan Needs A Friend, Sona Movsesian says her job is to laugh.
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Talking like no-one is watching is easier said than done for most people, the 43-year-old Californian is well aware. But while she doesn’t know any other way to be, she also has to remind herself not to overthink.
“If you hear, ‘Sona Movsesian’s great because her laugh is great or she’s great because she always fills a silence with something profound’ or anything like that, you start thinking, ‘Oh gosh, I should do a bit more of that’. You stop getting the kind of magic that got you there in the first place.”
On Conan Needs A Friend, Movsesian says her job is to laugh, which often means sharing stories about her husband and sons. She does try to avoid saying anything they’d be horrified to hear in the future, though.
“I talk about my kids with some modicum of respect, but with my husband, it’s just open season.”
Movessian says she wrote The World’s Worst Mom to help create a sisterhood for mothers “who have no idea what they’re doing.”
Penguin Random House
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
