As a mom, Maggie Gyllenhaal "has something new to say"
Taking some time off from acting to focus all her efforts on daughter Ramona, 21-months, was good for both mother and child, Maggie Gyllenhaal says. Not only did it give the two a chance to bond, it ultimately reignited Maggie’s enthusiasm for her job, the 30-year-old actress says. "I feel like I have something new to say having spent this time with my daughter," Maggie tells Parade, "I’m just looking for the right things to say it in." Her current project — The Dark Knight — hits theaters July 18, and Maggie feels that shooting the film was an ideal arrangement, even though "a big portion" of her mind was "with (Ramona) always." She adds,
My daughter was 7 months old when I started and 14 months old when I finished….It was kind of a great job for a new mother because I’d work a couple of days and then have a week off. I had a lot of time to be with her.
Maggie has also found that her real life experience as a mom gives her unique advantages as an actress. While shooting Farlanders, she had to share a scene with two 11-month-old twins who "never stopped screaming." "If I had not been a mom and known how to calm a baby and known how to talk to a baby and known how to hold a baby," Maggie says, "the whole day of filming would have been wasted."
So I thought, ‘Thank god, I’m a mother.’
Ramona is the first child for Maggie and fiancé Peter Sarsgaard.
Source: Parade; Photo by Bauer Griffin.