Maggie Gyllenhaal: "I Was Also A Woman And An Actress And Not Just A Mother"

Actress Maggie Gyllenhaal was just nominated for her first Oscar for her role of a single mother in the film Crazy Heart. The Secretary star, who welcomed daughter Ramona in 2006, says that, like many moms, she knew it was time to do something for herself. In an interview with the Huffington Post, Gyllenhaal reveals her inner conflict with returning to a film set. "My daughter was almost two when I made this movie, and I was having that feeling that parents must have intermittently throughout their children's lives. I had it for the first time, like I had been focused almost completely on my daughter, on being a mother, and I had this surge of a feeling that I needed to do something for me. I was also a woman and an actress and not just a mother. I worked."

The actress touches on leaving daughter Ramona for an extended period, saying "I did The Dark Knight when she was seven months old and I also did Away We Go, but Batman was literally 15 days over eight months. It was very different. It was difficult, but my focus was on my eight-month-old. As much as I could, it was impossible for me to take my focus from her." She adds, "[The time it took to do] Away We Go was three days. So, this was in some ways the first thing [I've done]. If I say that I needed something for me it was this movie. I had so much built up and kind of welling in me that needed to be expressed after having become a mom. And it's in the movie."

The actress found the common ground of being a mother, in her character in Crazy Heart, Jean, which drew her to the role, "Basically that's what's happening with Jean. She's been trying to be a good mom and pull it together after what must've been a complicated beginning with this child. She's at an emergency state of what I'm describing and she just feels like, "I need something for me. I need something that feels good to me. I don't care if it's bad for me. It's better if it's bad for me."

Gyllenhaal is a native New Yorker, who was raised in California, and now resides with husband Peter Sarsgaard back in New York with daughter Ramona. The actress has a new film set for release this year, part two of the Nanny McPhee series starring Emma Thompson, and the first family film for Gyllenhaal, Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang.

Photo: Bauer Griffin