If you’ve spent any amount of time on social media (and at this point, most of us have), there’s a good chance Amanda McCants has graced your feed and made you laugh. The actress, model, and social media giant spent some time catching up with Playboy’s Colette Bennett to tell us about her past, present, and future.
Playboy: I’ve read that you grew up in a very creative family. I’d love to hear about some of your memories of what that time was like for you.
Amanda McCants: My dad was on a Harley-Davidson calendar and my mom was an actor when she was younger. And so when I started acting, my parents would always be like, “She got her creative side from me.” And every day when I would go to preschool, I would dress up as a different Disney princess. And I would make my parents call me that and they would go along with it. My dad would drop me off and he’d be like, “Goodbye, Aurora. Good to see you.” And then my mom would be like, “Hi, Aurora. How was school today?” They just always encouraged it.
That carried through when I was 17 and decided not to go to college and pursue acting. They were just always supportive of that. My mom knew she had a little actress daughter. We grew up very middle class, but my mom and dad would make sure to set aside money so I could take improv classes at Second City when I was 10. So just little things like that were really special.
Playboy: So you quite literally trained to be funny.
Amanda McCants: I trained to be funny. And I’m so grateful for that because when I was on that stage in Second City in that workshop when I was 10 years old, I found myself being like, “This is the feeling I’ve been chasing my whole life. Maybe I am good at something.”
Playboy: I would say you’re very good at quite a few things.
Amanda McCants: Thank you.
Playboy: You make being funny look effortless. Are there days when it’s hard? And what do you do when you have days like that?
Amanda McCants: 100%. Ever since I was in seventh grade, I have had really bad spells of depression, and I never know how long they’re going to last. I just know I’ll wake up one morning and I feel I’m choking on something and I can’t get up. And when you set out to act or make videos, you don’t have someone making sure you do that every single day [like] at a 9 to 5. So when we do have things to do during the day, we’re very lucky to do them. But when someone’s going through a depressive spell, it’s so easy to just sit in bed and not do anything.
But now I don’t have that option. There’s money on the line. I’m lucky enough to have brand deals. So, it’s really just knowing that this will pass and I don’t have to feel 100% at everything I do. So, is it effortless? Absolutely not. I put so much effort into it. And are there days where I’m literally choking with how sad I feel? Absolutely. But the beautiful thing is it passes. We had a big family loss early on in our life. And watching my mom deal with it, she always says, “When you can’t take it day by day, take it hour by hour.” And I think with my depression, that has really helped.
Playboy: You’ve been acting since 2016. Do you have any roles that were really memorable to you that you look back on and think, “That was a really good time”?
Amanda McCants: There’s a couple different ones. So, I booked this lead in this indie film in 2016 and I played this evil siren and I love the people who made it (Curse of the Siren). It’s the weirdest movie I’ve ever seen. Even my mom watched it and she was like, “That’s interesting.” But I got to be so evil, and it was so fun. And the freedom to do whatever you want. I wasn’t getting paid for this movie. But that freedom and just being able to be evil was so great. And in the last three months, I’ve booked a couple roles on TV and been able to work with idols I’ve looked up to in the comedy space forever. Just like achieving something that you’ve fought so hard for and then getting on set and being like, “Oh my God, I’m here.” That’s been really fun.
Playboy: Let’s say you can invent and have any acting role you want. Zero limitations. Does something come to mind?
Amanda McCants: A mix of Legally Blonde, Miss Congeniality, and Gal Gadot as Superwoman.
Playboy: How did “Rich Mom” come to be and become an entire series?
Amanda McCants: I was on vacation with a guy and it wasn’t going well. And I was putting all of my effort into kind of fixing this trip. We went to go get massages and I went into the women’s locker room and they had this private pool. And I go into this pool and I’m like, “Okay, I’m not going to focus on him for a second. This trip has been really nerve-wracking. I’m just going to focus on myself. I’m going to let the universe tell me what I need to know in this moment. There’s a reason I’m here.”
And I close my eyes. And I swear to God, I open them and I was like, “Oh my God, I have to do specific places and I have to represent people from specific places. I have that one video, Calabasas Mom. What if I just did that for every other city? What if I did Long Island? What if I did all this?” I just listened and felt what I needed to and wasn’t thinking of somebody else and what they were feeling. And I got this beautiful answer. And the second I landed in LA, I did Long Island Mom, Palisades Mom, and followed that with Newport Mom. And it was such a defining moment. And anytime I need inspiration, I come back to that moment and I just sit with myself and I’m like, “Okay, block everything else out. Let’s get a message from the universe. What do you need?” And it really helps.
Playboy: So, since you’ve made us laugh for so many years, I’m curious who makes you laugh.
Amanda McCants: I live and work with my little sister and she is the funniest person I know. I wake up, I laugh with her, we’ll fight, then we’ll laugh again. Yesterday was such a busy workday, but we got to go to lunch together and ate at our favorite restaurant and laughed throughout the whole lunch. I feel like that has been a game changer in my business to have her. Someone I trust so much and I’m able to laugh with.
Playboy: You’ve done standup before, haven’t you?
Amanda McCants: I did. I tried every type of comedy because I knew once I do something, I [would] go 100%. So, I tried everything so I knew which one I would like the most and which one felt most me so I could just go into that. I was 21 years old in a green room with 40-year-old men who were all very nice and very respectful. But it just wasn’t my thing. But I tried it. And I’m so grateful I did because I can say I did it.
Playboy: I feel like standup is the bravest. When I go see it, I’m just like, “God, you’re 10 times braver than I’ll ever be because you’re in real time getting those reactions.”
Amanda McCants: I ended up being so bad. My first show was my best show ever and my family was there and I rocked it. And then once I knew “Okay, I did it,” I feel like I just kept going downhill and I was like, okay, we need to stop. Stick to the skits. And I’m just too tired to leave the house at night.
Playboy: Hot coffee take – what coffee does everyone else think is amazing that you think is garbage?
Amanda McCants: I just don’t understand little espresso shots. I drink a 32 oz cold brew every single morning. I need a big daddy. Give me big or nothing. I want to savor something.
Playboy: What’s your sign and how spot-on do you think it is?
Amanda McCants: I am a Scorpio, Pisces moon, Libra rising. I get depressive spells because of my chart. I am intense. I am jealous. I am sexual and that is my outside appearance. My Pisces moon is the way I communicate. And I am emotional and loving, so I fall in love about 13 times a year. I get hurt 11.
My Libra rising is I love beautiful things. I love fairness and everyone in my family has Libra in their chart and it’s kind of connected. So yeah, I love that. And when I was born my mom got my birth chart number printed for me. It’s a 50 page thing. She would read it to me when I was younger. Astrology is a big thing in my family.
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