Geena Davis Is ‘Tragically Technology Dependent’ on Her Kids (Exclusive)
Geena Davis can always count on her three kids to bring her into the future.
In an exclusive conversation with PEOPLE during the Big Screen Achievement Awards at CinemaCon 2024 in Las Vegas earlier this week, the actress, 68, opens up about how she is not technologically savvy.
“I learn so much from them,” Davis says, referring to her three children — daughter Alizeh and twin sons Kaiis and Kian — whom she shares with ex-husband Reza Jarrahy.
“Tragically, I’m technology dependent on my kids,” the Beetlejuice star continues, adding: “They’re generous with their time and really interested in social issues.”
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Davis was in her 40s when she gave birth to her children — Alizeh in 2002 and Kaiis and Kian two years later in 2004. She has since said that she is “grateful” that she waited to become a mother.
“I wanted to wait, hoping that I could still have kids, but I thought, ‘I’ll be more evolved the longer I wait,’ ” she said during an appearance on ITV’s Loose Talk in October 2022. “I didn’t have a lot of self-esteem, but I was really determined that my children would have self-esteem.”
As they got older, Davis’ kids eventually inspired her to become an activist in Hollywood, which led to her starting the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media in 2004.
“I was bothered by the idea that we were showing kids a very imbalanced world from the beginning … I saw that there were so far fewer female characters than male characters,” she told PEOPLE in 2020. “I didn’t intend to make it my life’s mission, but it has become that now 15 years later.”
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Speaking with PEOPLE at CinemaCon, Davis also reflected on how her three children never followed her into a career in the entertainment industry.
“They’re all over 18 now, and I was like, ‘None of them want to be actors? I did it!’ ” she jokingly exclaimed. “Except, now two of them want to act. I’m like, ‘Ah!’ But that’s okay. I would have had a hard time if they wanted to be child actors.”
