Mommy methods! Kate Siegel’s daughter, Theodora, is two months old, and breast-feeding her baby girl on set has helped the Haunting of Hill House star become a “more capable actress.”
“We feed every three hours,” the Netflix star, 36, told Us Weekly exclusively at the Film Independent Spirit Awards on Saturday, February 23. “It’s good at creating perspective. When you start to get frustrated with work or if you feel like you’re not doing a good job, you’ve got the grounding force, your family there. And you can’t spend a lot of time staring at your own bellybutton, you know?”
Siegel added: “So for me, it gives me the freedom to play. It gets me out of my head, and it makes me a more capable actress, I hope.”
The actress shares Theodora and Cody, 2, with her husband, Mike Flanagan. The Haunting of Hill House director, 40, also has a son from a previous relationship with actress Courtney Bell.
When it comes to raising their little ones, who are “stubborn” like their mom and “funny” like their dad, the Oculus star gets a lot of help from her partner.
“We believe that our relationship, our union, is kinda the basis of our whole life. Our creativity, it’s the root of our structure,” Siegel told Us. “So we make sure that that stays alive. After the kids go to bed … [we have] conversations. Just a time to kind of say, ‘You know, I’ve been struggling today, and it’s hard to be breast-feeding, and I feel guilty for not paying attention to my two-year-old.”
Flanagan doesn’t fix the problem, but listens, which the Maryland native finds “incredibly romantic.”
As the working mom maintains a busy schedule, she doesn’t worry about finding the exact right balance between work and family.
“There is no balance, there’s just the moment. And sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t,” she said. “Both of those are okay.”
With reporting by Antonia Blyth
