Annette Bening may be nominated for an Oscar, but being a mom has always been her ultimate prize.
“My mother is 95 and I always aspired to be like my mom, I still do,” Bening, 65, recalled while walking down memory lane with Savannah Guthrie on the Today Show on Tuesday, March 5. “I wasn’t a perfect mom. I think I did pretty damn good, especially for working and everything, but I always, always wanted to be a mom, from when I was a little kid.”
Lamenting on why she always had the desire to become a parent, she added, “My mother wouldn’t have more kids — maybe that was part of it? So, I was the kid in the neighborhood that was always babysitting and hanging out with the little ones. And it was just in my DNA.”
Over the years, Bening’s dream of having children became a reality when she tied the knot with husband Warren Beatty in 1992. The pair welcomed their first child, son Stephen, later that year. Son Benjamin arrived in 1994, followed by daughter Isabel in 1997.
When they were about to welcome their youngest daughter, Ella, in 2000, Bening remembered that the birth almost came sooner than expected.
“One time when I was nominated [for an Oscar] I was extremely pregnant,” she revealed, referencing the 2000 Oscars, where she was up for Best Actress for her role in American Beauty and Beatty, now 86, was honored with the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. “I was just about to give birth, and I know how many years ago it was because that’s my almost 24-year-old.”
She went on to describe the evening, saying, “I remember that night and just the baby was moving so much because of the adrenaline that was coursing through my system. My husband, Warren Beatty, got a big award that night, so that’s one that I’m remembering.” (Bening ended up giving birth to Ella the following month.)
This year, Bening will be attending the Academy Awards once again as she is up for Best Actress for her movie Nyad. In the film, she portrays Diana Nyad – a determined woman who decides to give up marathon swimming to become a sports journalist only to realize decades later in her 60s that she wants to become the first person to ever swim a 110-mile trek from Cuba to Florida. The story is based on the real-life of legendary swimmer Diana Nyad.
This is Bening’s fourth time being nominated for an Academy Award. However, she has never brought home a trophy. Emma Stone, Lily Gladstone, Carey Mulligan and Sandra Hüller are also nominated in her category.
