Paul Dano is still constantly “figuring out” parenthood.
Paul Dano has revealed he and longtime partner Zoe Kazan are still ‘figuring’ out parenthood ‘every week, month, season, year‘ as the Hollywood couple balance demanding careers with raising their two children
The actor, 41, opened up about balancing Hollywood careers with family life alongside his longtime actress partner Zoe Kazan, 42, admitting the pair are still working out how to tackle it out “every week, month, season (and) year” as they raise their two children while continuing demanding acting and writing schedules.
Paul – who has daughter Alma Bay, six, and a son, three, with Zoe told People
About his domestic life, while promoting his new political drama The Wizard of the Kremlin: “It’s a really tough question because we figure it out every week, month, season, year.”
He added: “The two working parent thing can be really challenging, but I think we’re also really blessed that we get to do work that we care about. So it’s important that we somehow make it work for each other and for our family.”
Paul explained his family relocated to New Zealand for seven months in 2025 while Zoe worked on East of Eden, which stars Florence Pugh and adapts John Steinbeck’s celebrated 1952 novel for Netflix.
Zoe adapted the series and also serves as an executive producer.
Paul said the extended stay abroad “turned out to be amazing”.
He added: “The school for our daughter was incredible and we made some wonderful little friends in that community, but we’re also very happy to be home in Brooklyn. I guess we just take each wave as it comes.”
Paul and Zoe have been together since meeting during the 2007 Off-Broadway production of Things We Want, directed by Ethan Hawke.
Since then, both have become major figures across film, television and theatre, with Paul earning acclaim for performances in projects including There Will Be Blood, Little Miss Sunshine, The Batman and The Fabelmans, while Zoe has built a career spanning screenwriting, Broadway and acting roles including She Said.
Paul’s comments come amid another busy period for the actor, who has remained one of Hollywood’s most respected character actors following recent appearances in Mr. and Mrs. Smith, Spaceman, The Studio and Fantasmas.
He also stars alongside Jude Law, Alicia Vikander and Jeffrey Wright in The Wizard of the Kremlin, in which he portrays a fictional political strategist rising through the ranks of Vladimir Putin’s inner circle during the 1990s and 2000s.
Meanwhile, Zoe recently returned to Broadway for the first time since 2010 with a revival of Doubt, having last appeared on screen portraying New York Times journalist Jodi Kantor in She Said – the film chronicling the reporting that exposed allegations against disgraced movie producer Harvey Weinstein.
Reflecting on entering his 40s while raising young children, Paul told People: “Probably the first thing I think of is actually not age that changed me, but probably parenthood is the first thing – where becoming a parent has forced me to grow up in a much different way.”
He added: “So I think more than turning 40 or or 41 or 42, it’s sort of learning through my kids and how to meet them at the ages that they’re at and what they ask of you.”
