Maggie Gyllenhaal: How I Balance Work and Motherhood
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As both a mother and an actress, Maggie Gyllenhaal -- mother to 3-year-old Ramona with husband Peter Sarsgaard, 38 -- has felt torn in two very different directions.
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"I had been so focused on Ramona -- and she's been everything to me -- but I'm also an actress," the star, 32, tells UsMagazine.com. "It's not possible to do it perfectly."
Gyllenhaal, who stars in Crazy Horse (out now), says that she took the role as a single mom because "I wanted to do something for me."
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Still, this isn't her first gig since giving birth to her daughter in October 2006.
"I made The Dark Knight and Away We Go, but I was only on set for a few days," she recalls. "So, in a sense, [Crazy Horse] is the first thing that felt like the kind of work that I'm really used to."
Although she was able to put her child-rearing experience to work for her in her latest drama, she isn't opposed to taking a bigger leap with her next character.
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"Being a mom is so present in my mind and my work," she tells Us. "It's the most important thing about me, but next I'd like to play someone who's not a mother. Really!"
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5You do mean "Crazy Heart", right? Unless there was a name change for the movie at the last minute that I am unaware of, this is quite an embarrassing typo or editor's mistake. In addition, the same error was in your magazine's printed copy. Perhaps I should adjust my standards, but for a non-tabloid publication, I expect better.
It seems a little rehearsed as a comment; like her publicist told her to say it to be likeable. Agree that she and other actresses are probably not the best role models for us real working moms. Agree with comment above but like her. Shame on me for reading her stuff for "real-world" advice.
Yeah, maybe if Maggie had a non-Hollywood REAL JOB she would know a different kind of balancing act. Acting is not what I call a "real job" anyway. Yes, memorizing lines must get tiring and all the takes but to be honest, it doesn't seem that hard to say a bunch of lines and let the money roll in. What balancing is she referring to? Talk to some regular folks, Maggie, and find out.
I agree with Get Real's comments.
While I applaud her devotion to both her daughter and her work, she is in a profession where you can do the kind of work you want, take extended time off, and go back whenever you want. I understand that acting is indeed work, but it's not like other jobs, where you can't do any of that, plus, you aren't making a lot of money to begin with. So, please tell me, what's this talk about "balancing" motherhood and work? Try a regular job for once, and then come back and tell me about balancing THAT and motherhood.