Lizzy Caplan doesn't mind being the breadwinner. In fact, she kinda prefers it.
As the Masters of Sex actress reveals in Elle Canada's November issue, "It's a really conscious choice to be, say, the woman who goes out and works while the husband stays at home. It's 2014, and if your husband makes less money than you, people ask you if that's 'weird' for you. It's pretty mind-blowing."
Caplan often ponders gender stigmas, given her role on the Showtime series that's set in the 1950s. As such, she realized she wants to raise her kids differently. "I don't want it to be an assumption that I will be the one to stay home and raise the kids. Now, I could have kids and want to do that, I have no idea—but from where I sit now, that does not sound all that appealing to me," she explains. "I really want kids, and I want to be fully involved in their lives, but I don't want to sacrifice my own goals to be a mother."
The Mean Girls actress once dated Matthew Perry but now admits "it can be s--tty " dating other actors. According to Caplan, "I actually romanticize the idea of a stay-at-home dad. Partly because I think that's a very sexy thing, but also because if there are two working actors and both of them get a job and they have a baby, the woman is going to stay with the baby. I see it all the time. It just seems very unfair."
Caplan also describes her 20s as a time of "fun and a lot of painful growth."
"It felt like if my 20s were—you know those Reebok Pumps? If my 20s were pumping it, then my 30s were like the release button. It was amazing. I'm 32 now, and everything they tell you is true: You just kind of chill out; you become more yourself," she tells Elle Canada. "It has been a very welcome shift."
These days, the Emmy nominee is happier than ever. "For the majority of my life, I have been a very, very anxious person. Now I'm just not willing to be anxious about half the s--t I used to be," she says.
"I'm putting down roots, and that's nourishing me in ways that are surprising," Caplan continues. "In the past, I would have downplayed it because the idea of beginning to get what I've worked for would overwhelm me and I'd have to pooh-pooh it. But now I can safely say that I'm enjoying it in the moment."