Mayim Bialik Opens Up About Her Latest Project, the DocumentaryMom & Dad's Nipple Factory(Exclusive)

Mar. 15, 2025

Mayim Bialik.Photo:Jai Lennard

Jai Lennard

“They were a family with a lot of rules about what they were allowed to watch,” Bialik tells PEOPLE. “I think they weren’t allowed to watchBlossombecause we dealt with topics like safe sex.”

Flash forward a few decades and the 48-year-old actress is now an executive producer onMom & Dad’s Nipple Factory,Johnson’s new documentary about the semi-secret business his conservative Christian parents have run for years out of their Eau Claire, Wisconsin, home, making custom prosthetic nipples for breast cancer survivors.

“It’s a rom-com about nipples, is what we kind of jokingly call it,” Bialik says.

Randi and Brian Johnson in ‘Mom & Dad’s Nipple Factory’.Mom & Dad’s Nipple Factory

Mom & Dad’s Nipple Factory

“In many cases, if the nipple can’t be spared — which in many cases it cannot be — a lot of times women are kind of just told, ‘At least you’re alive. Go on your merry way,’ ” Bialik explains. “And of course there’s a gratitude in surviving this aspect of breast cancer. But it’s also not too much to ask, you know, that you feel a sense of cohesion and dignity in your body, and attractiveness.”

Faced with that challenge, Brian did what he has always done: he found a solution, and the innovative technique he developed to create highly individuated prosthetic nipples not only restored Randi’s sense of herself, it also grew into a thriving business.

The four youngest Johnson siblings in ‘Mom & Dad’s Nipple Factory’.Mom & Dad’s Nipple Factory

After operating largely under the radar for years,Mom & Dad’s Nipple Factoryis, in a sense, Brian and Randi’s coming out story, as the couple’s children and members of their community, including their pastor, learn about, discuss and in some cases come to terms with their nipple-making business.

“It was kind of exciting to see people’s minds expanded because of this,” Bialik says of the film. “I’d like to believe that that’s how change happens. It happens incrementally.”

The actress, who earned a Doctor of Philosophy in neuroscience in 2007 and is a certified lactation consultant, says thatMom & Dad’s Nipple Factoryis a prime example of the sort of work she wants to be involved with, both as a performer and with her production company, Sad Clown Productions.

“I’m interested in telling stories that often aren’t told or that aren’t often told the way that we’re seeing them told,” she explains. “I really do believe in people surpassing political or religious or social norms and being able to find what unites us. I’m a real lover of humanity, and people can be complicated, but I think this is the kind of story that feels like we’re really elevating an aspect of the human experience that we often don’t see.”

‘Mom & Dad’s Nipple Factory’ director Justin Johnson.Mom & Dad’s Nipple Factory

As a person of faith herself, Bialik says she also responded strongly to director Justin Johnson’s story of pulling away from his conservative family only to find common ground with them years later in life.

“That’s also part the story: how he easily could have been the black sheep of the family when he was sort of exploring his independence and moved to New York. The notion of understanding his family on a deeper level allowed them to understand him more. And it’s kind of sweet,” she says. “Even though he still is very different from his parents and does not consider himself part of the faith as it were, there are still things that unite us.”

Fans of Bialik’s Emmy-nominated role onThe Big Bang Theorymay also see something of an echo of her character, Amy Farrah Fowler, andJim Parsons’s Sheldon Cooper in Randi and Brian Johnson.

“Yes, Brian’s got a bit of a Sheldon vibe, I think,” Bialik agrees. “I think that also really did appeal to me. I’m a person who onThe Big Bang Theoryrevolved in circles about unusual people and interesting people and people who did things differently.”

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Mayim Bialik and Jim Parsons in ‘The Big Bang Theory’.Michael Yarish/CBS via Getty

Michael Yarish/CBS via Getty

Mom & Dad’s Nipple Factorybegins a limited theatrical run on Sept. 6 before arriving on VOD Sept. 10.

source: people.com