To baby, or not to baby

Babies premieres September 12 at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival. Lauren Miller Rogen wrote and directed it, with Anna Kendrick and Seth Rogen in the lead roles.

“To baby, or not to baby?”

The question every woman gets

Miller Rogen has fielded "So, when are you going to have kids?" for years, from every direction. She and Seth Rogen have been together 21 years.

“You don't exist as part of a couple, or, honestly, even a woman who gets up in age, without getting that question.”

Therapy, then a screenplay

She spent a long time turning the question over in therapy before deciding she had something to add to the conversation rather than just endure it.

“I feel like maybe I have something to say about this to be additive to that conversation.”

The anti Knocked Up

In 2007, Rogen played a manchild whose one-night stand ends in an accidental pregnancy. Babies flips it: a settled couple choosing on purpose, or not choosing at all.

“Babies is the opposite of that.”

A full house

Aaron and Annie take in a close friend (Kate Berlant) and her young daughter after the friend separates from her husband. Parenthood arrives in their living room without being theirs.

Grief in the other room

Annie's mother is losing ground to Alzheimer's while her father (David Strathairn) struggles with what that means for him. The clock ticking is not only biological.

A business, too

Annie and a friend played by Issa Rae, already a mother, try to launch the business they have dreamed about. Every part of the future wants a decision at once.

Everything is copy

About 11 years ago a friend really did move in with the Rogens for a year with her toddler. Suddenly the household ran on a child's schedule.

“We were not parents, but we were closer to being parents than we had ever been.”

The loss underneath

Miller Rogen's mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's at 55 and died in 2020 at 68. The couple founded Hilarity for Charity in 2012 to fund research and family care.

From a Notes doc to a script

She started collecting the idea on her phone in 2021 and let it pile up. The script poured out in a burst between January and April 2025.

Casting her own husband

Seth had read every draft and given notes, so him playing Aaron was never really in doubt. A gap in his schedule made it happen fast.

“There was never a question of if he would play, you know, himself, in quotes, because it's not quite him.”

Written for Kendrick

Miller Rogen wanted the character's specific mix of humor, warmth and snark, and sent Kendrick the script with a personal letter. Kendrick read it not knowing how it ends.

“Wait, are they gonna have a baby or not?”

Harder than it looks to be healthy

Kendrick found the vulnerability the role demanded genuinely difficult, fighting an urge to break eye contact or soften the honest lines.

“It's so hard to play a character who is more emotionally evolved than you are.”

Do it the bad way first

Before one hard scene with Issa Rae, Kendrick asked for three takes played defensive and angry, just to clear it out of her system before trying it open.

“See what comes up when you dare to show that the things you're experiencing are fear and hope rather than defensiveness.”

The couple is not the problem

Aaron is ambivalent, Annie is unsure, but they never turn on each other. The obstacle is a question, not a spouse.

“They're facing problems and decisions as a unit.”

Marriage without the bickering

Rogen wanted to show a dynamic movies rarely bother with: two people handling hard things without conflict between them being the engine.

“I was able to play a member of a healthy relationship, which I think is rare.”

Nervous, happy, scared, excited

The film has plenty of gross kid comedy too, and the real girl it drew from, now 13, is cleared of the bathroom plotline. Miller Rogen quotes Funny Girl on how the premiere feels.

“I am unbelievably excited, and I am also a human being putting something very personal out there.”