Jamie Chung Talks Motherhood And Her Upcoming Movies - Exclusive Interview

Many fans have been following Jamie Chung's journey ever since she first appeared on the MTV reality series "The Real World: San Diego." However, she's come a long way from being the college student we all saw back in Season 14. Today, Chung is taking over our big screens, but she also has another big job behind the scenes: She's a mother of twin boys.

As all parents out there know, it's a major responsibility to be in charge of a baby — let alone two of them. When these little ones begin crawling, anything in their paths quickly becomes a potential danger. Looking away for even a moment can cause a disaster once they start chewing on something as small as a battery. Because of that, partnering up with Duracell for their #PowerSafely campaign just made sense for Chung.

Between starring in two upcoming films, spending time with her boys, and spreading the word on Duracell's bitter-coated lithium coin batteries, Chung sat down with The List to tell us all about what's new in her world. In an exclusive interview, the actress shared how motherhood has influenced the type of projects she's now a part of, opened up about working with her husband on their new film "Junction," and revealed if she'd ever want to return to reality TV.

As a mom, Duracell's bitter-coated batteries sound like such an amazing idea to help keep our little ones safe. Can you tell us about your partnership with Duracell's Power Safely campaign?

Sure. I'm also a new mom, and I have two 8-month-olds, and they are at the stage now where they've discovered that there's more than what's five feet in front of them. They're so curious, and they put everything in their mouth. That's the first thing that they do.

Duracell.com launched a Power Safely Check quiz that you can take online, and what it does is it walks you through every room that you have in your house, and it reminds you what items in your house possibly use these lithium coin batteries. Shockingly, there's a lot of things: your car fobs, your key fobs, your car clickers, remote controls. Even your sensors on your doors for your alarm — that takes lithium coin batteries. There's a lot of products in our house that use these batteries.

The bitter coating is the last thing, [the] last level of defense for your child. Ultimately, what you need to do is you need to go through your home, check to see what items take this battery, keep it out of reach of children, [and] replace it by using the Duracell safe-coated batteries. Replace those, and keep it out of [reach]. 

Know what to do if something does happen. In a blink of an eye, a child can ... You turn around for one second, and they're across the room, putting something in their mouth that they shouldn't be. It's really important to me, and also to communicate to my community of parents, to watch out for that.

There's this great informative video that is online at Duracell.com. You can take the safety quiz and also help spread the word, because that's the most important thing: to tell other parents about the hazards if a child were to potentially swallow a lithium coin battery.

Since becoming a mom, have the types of acting roles and projects you've taken on changed?

Yes, they have changed, because anything that takes me away from them for too long ... It's overwhelming for one parent to take care of two kids — [or] any child at all. But to have twins is a whole other level of energy that is needed to parent, so I don't want to leave my partner alone or have to leave him alone and go off on a job.

We've relied heavily on our family and our friends for help. A lot of people are like, "Get a nanny," but I'm very hands-on. I like doing it myself, and yes, I'm happy to accept the help, but if I'm available to do it, and I'm around to do it, then I would most absolutely raise my own kids.

It's changed a lot. You look at every project [from] a new perspective because you're like, "Is this role worthy of taking me away from my kids?"

You are starring in an upcoming movie called "Junction," which is your husband's [Bryan Greenberg] directorial debut. How did this project come together, and what made you two want to work together?

Actually, Bryan picture-finished, so we're done with shooting, but this is a script that was really close to him, and he worked on it over five years ago. I remember we were in our New York apartment in Brooklyn, and I was like, "What are you doing? Let's hang." He's like, "No, I need to get these ideas on paper."

He was hunkered down, and he churned the script out. He'd been working on it for a while and finally got it into development, which is impossible to do these days, especially independently, to get a film made. For him to accomplish that, film it, and have amazing actors be a part of his film — and a great crew — it's such an accomplishment, and I'm so proud of him.

What was it like being on set together?

We've been on other sets together, but this is the first time that we were on set where he wore the director's cap and the actor's cap all at once. I have to say, it was a turn-on. [laughs] I found that to be very attractive, but I knew that he was going to be great, because he has the perfect temperament for it. He's very patient with people, he's good at communicating to other people what he needs, and he has a vision. Creatively, working with him as an actor, as he's done for me for all of my auditions ... He's fantastic. He's really fun to work with, and it was honestly one of the best experiences to be able to work with him.

You recently also wrapped on a film called "Reunion," too, which is a horror-comedy. What was it like balancing those two genres for your role?

Oh, my goodness. I feel like I always play the characters that ground everything, and everyone else is so hilarious. There's ... My God, we're talking about Michael Hitchcock, we're talking about Jillian Bell, Lil Rel Howery, Billy Magnussen, Nina Dobrev — an insane cast.

I felt bad for the director [Chris Nelson], because there was so much coverage to do [and] there's so many jokes, and everything was happening so fast. Yes, there was a horror element — it's more of a murder mystery. You're trying to solve the case of who killed Chace [Crawford]'s character, and it gets a little out of hand, and it's really fun. It's like the game Clue, but watching it unfold.

Was it hilarious working on a comedy with those actors?

Oh, my God. They're so funny. There's so many takes where you rehearse it, sure, but as soon as they turn it on, you're like, "This is great." The director always gave us an option to do what we wanted, to ad-lib, so there were a lot of joyous moments that came out of that as well.

Would you ever want to share your life again on reality TV?

Hmm. Aren't we all living in our own little reality television show on social media? [Laughs]

That's true.

What I loved about being on a reality show in my early 20s was that it was such an important time that shapes us into young adults. The importance of that was learning and meeting people that you normally wouldn't have met otherwise, who were from different socioeconomic backgrounds and from different cultures, all living under one roof. That itself is an insane social experiment. 

I grew a lot from that. I do think that it's possible to get adults together. It would be a lot more tame.

Now that you're a mom, it's a little bit different.

It would be a little different. So I'd probably pass on that, but it was one of the most interesting moments and experiences that I got to live through, and I'm very grateful for it.

For more information on Jamie Chung's partnership with Duracell's #PowerSafely campaign, head over to the Duracell website to take their Power Safely Check quiz. When it comes to hidden dangers in your home, Duracell's lithium coin batteries come with a bitter coating to discourage children from swallowing.

This interview was edited for clarity.