Maggie Gyllenhaal & Emma Thompson Cover Good Housekeeping

Nanny McPhee co-stars Maggie Gyllenhaal and Emma Thompson quickly struck up a strong friendship on the set of the family film. The closeknit pair tell Good Housekeeping how they bonded over movie-making and motherhood.

Recalling a rainy day in London when Maggie and her daughter Ramona, 3, came over for lunch, Emma laughs, "The entire child looked like she had been knitted by hand."

Maggie reveals that, both over tea and on the set, Emma has shared some wise words on motherhood.

“Emma gave me the best piece of advice…I had one day on the set when I was overwhelmed. I was a newlywed, I had a 2-year-old…I had quite a long scene with five children and animals, and I remember cracking a little bit.... Nobody knew but Emma, and she said, ‘Mags, you have got to allow yourself to drop the ball, because nobody can keep all those balls in the air.’”

"You were a young, young mum," Emma says. "And I remember saying to you, 'It's really hard, and don't let anyone tell you that it isn't.'"

"One is a child when one has a child," Emma, who has 10-year-old daughter Gaia continues. "No one says, 'You will never be the same again.' Which is the truth! And we're all supposed to be happy all the time. What is that about? Why have we lost contact with the possibility of saying, 'Do you know what? I can't do that. Sorry, I can't manage that as well.'"