E! Online’s TV expert, Kristin Dos Santos, interviewed Zooey Deschanel and Megan Fox on the set of New Girl, which is celebrating their 100th episode. The fifth season premieres on Fox on January 5th. Zooey took some time off the show have her baby, daughter Elsie Otter (that’s really the name, she loves otters), born in late July. She pretaped the first five episodes of this new season and then left for maternity leave. Mild New Girl spoilers – Zooey’s character, Jess, goes away on “jury duty” around episode six, where Megan Fox comes in as a sexy pharmaceutical rep to rent Jess’ room.

Kristen asked Zooey and Megan about mom stuff, as Zooey has her four month-old baby, with her new husband, producer Jacob Pechenik, and Megan has sons Noah, 3, and Bodhi, 2, with her ex, Brian Austin Green. In the video on E!, you can tell that Kristen was trying to make Zooey comfortable but that she wasn’t sure about at first about talking about her personal life. Megan Fox was pretty open and gave Kristen some crap about some of her questions, it was funny. Sidenote: I like Kristen Dos Santos and would like to put a word in with E! to expand her role to more red carpet coverage. Here’s some of what Zooey and Megan said, and you can watch the video on E!

Zooey on how it’s going at work again
Really good, I had a baby and it’s my first baby so it was really good for the baby to have a little time with her mom. Now it’s all good I’m happy to be back at work.

Kristen to Zooey: I love [your daughter’s] name. Did you know all along that’s what you wanted [to name her]?
Zooey: We didn’t know if it was going to be a boy or a girl but we had names picked out for both.

Kristen to Zooey: It feels empowering [coming back to work after having a baby]. Have you gone through that?
Zooey: When you’re holding your baby, you’re like, ‘I don’t wanna go to work—this is like the best thing ever. But it’s nice, you know, I think, having a little girl, she knows her mommy works and I think that’s a good thing.

Kristen to Megan Fox: How has it been for you juggling everything with having the little ones at home?
Megan: It’s tough. You feel like a lot of mother’s guilt, having to leave [your child] all the time and then at a certain point, I had to just release that and go, ‘These are my kids, these souls came through me for a reason, they’re gonna be bonded to me no matter what and this is a part of life. I have a job, I have to have a job.’ So I’m doing better with it, but it’s hard because you feel like that’s where you’re supposed to be and you’re very torn, constantly.

Kristen to Megan Fox: Kids are resilient, that’s what I always tell myself
Megan: Yes because none of us carry our traumas over from our parental interactions in childhood.

[From E! Online]

Kudos to Kristen for asking Zooey about her daughter’s name. She knows how to get good quotes. Megan also talked about how her boys fight. She said that they like each other are becoming friends, but that Noah will “clothesline” Bodhi and that “he’s like a little Bruce Lee he knows all these crazy monkey fighting styles and he’s just a little baby I don’t know how he learned that. So he’ll clothesline him or jab him in the windpipe and it’s really crazy and scary because Noah is just little. He takes the abuse, that’s the younger brother’s job.” I’ve never heard of a “clothesline” move, but I guess it’s a professional wrestling attach. Boys!

As for mom guilt, I work from home with flexible hours, I have only one kid and I still deal with this every day. It’s hard to keep a work and life balance, even with my awesome job. These are celebrities so they have a lot of help and in many cases can probably bring their children on set. I can’t imagine working 9 to 5, commuting on top of that, and then having to run a household and care for more than one child. It’s got to be exhausting for so many families and especially single parents. Some parents just don’t have the luxury to even feel guilty though because they’ve got to put food on the table. I like how Zooey explained that she’s setting an example for her daughter by working too. Some moms stay home for our kids and some of us go to work to support them.