Django removing object from ManyToMany relationship

If you need to remove all M2M references without touching the underlying objects, it's easier to work from the other direction:

interest.mood_set.clear()

While this does not directly address the OP's question, it's often useful in this situation.

my_mood.interests.remove(my_interest)

Django's Relations Docs

Note: you might have to get an instance of my_mood and my_interest using Django's QuerySet API before you can execute this code.