Walking through the lavish hallways of the Langham Hotel in Pasadena, it's easy to get lost in the expansive property until you hear model turned actress Brooklyn Decker's distinct laugh. You can spot the stunning blond a mile away, but it's her huge personality that commands a room. Joking with me about how sweaty she was ("sitting in front of a room full of journalists is nerve-racking!"), we sat down in a separate lounge area to snack on bar food and gossip about love, friendship, and her new show, Friends With Better Lives. And since she just celebrated a major milestone with tennis-star husband Andy Roddick, you might want to listen up.
Glamour: I need to say congratulations first because you and Andy have now been married five years!
Brooklyn Decker: Isn't that crazy?! Thank you. I was a child bride. I was a total child bride. [Laughs]
Glamour: How did you know he was The One?
Brooklyn: Is it cliched to say, "You just know?" You just do. I think it's someone who is a good teammate. You can have someone that you love, someone that you are super passionate about, and someone that is your perfect match, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they are a good teammate. Having someone to go to bat for you and with you is the biggest thing.
Glamour: Kevin Connolly was telling me you are totally Miss Homemaker.
Brooklyn: I am. That's very sweet of him. I will make you ice cream and give you wine, and those are my specialties! I travel so much for work, so I want to make my work family feel comfortable and mesh with them. Home base is in Austin, Texas, so we live there. It's where Andy's from, and we work here in L.A.
Glamour: How did Friends With Better Lives come about?
Brooklyn: I love comedy, and it's something that I really, really wanted to explore. I feel comfortable in it, but I don't excel at it, which is exciting. It's a challenge. I don't feel at ease at all when I'm shooting. I had never done pilot season, but I had done some television. I love this character, and I love the people involved.
Glamour: The heart of the show is about friendship. So what is the best lesson your best friend has taught you?
Brooklyn: To say no. She is a bitch, and she's amazing. She's like, "You need to stand up for yourself, and if you're not going to, I'm going to do it for you!" All sorts of things. A lot of it is just over-extending yourself. She says, "If you don't think you can deliver on a promise, don't promise with an effort to try because you're going to be disappointing." For instance, a friend asked me to dinner tonight, and I said, "I would really love to, but I haven't seen my cast in five months. We're probably going to grab drinks and a dinner. It's not planned, but I can see that happening. I don't want to commit to you and then have to cancel." It's that kind of thing that she has taught me to do. So often I try to do everything, and I'll just end up making myself nuts.
Glamour: What will you never understand about the opposite sex?
Brooklyn: The type of porn they want to watch! [Laughs] I don't get it! And it doesn't correlate with the person they are at all. I know my guy friends too well. They are like family. I'm like, "You? You?" It's always shocking, and I don't understand. It's not my husband by the way, it's my guy friends.
Glamour: What do you know for sure about love and relationships?
Brooklyn: That if you're not laughing, it's not working. Even when I'm fighting—I can be a total asshole sometimes—if there's not some humor in it, it's pretty bad.
Glamour: What makes you laugh the most with your husband?
Brooklyn: He's just the most clever person I've ever met. He has such a quick mind, which at times can be incredibly frustrating because he's always quicker than I am. He's so clever, and his humor is very snarky. It always makes me laugh.
Glamour: Fill in the blank: My life motto is...
Brooklyn: This particular saying has really stuck with me... "Don't shrink who you are." Meaning, I can get very shy in intimate settings, and [a yoga teacher] said, "Be the fullest expression of yourself. Go big. Because if you do that then you give others the permission to be the fullest expression of themselves." It just means you're being inhibited, and that is hard to do. It's a new one, but I've been working to remind myself of that every day.
Glamour: What's your best advice for dealing with jealousy involving a friend?
Brooklyn: I was jealous of Majandra [Delfino, who plays Abby], who just had her baby. I was like, "Give me that baby!" It wasn't jealously, but it was a longing. She has two kids (with husband and About a Boy star David Walton) and she just has it together. That was really, really cool. I don't think I want that right now, but seeing someone with their child and madly in love, I thought, I really want that.
An all-new episode of Friends With Better Lives on CBS airs tonight at 8:30 P.M. ET/PT. What did you guys think of Brooklyn's character in last week's premiere?
