Being a working mom is not easy. You have to be willing to screw up at every level.
The daunting task of being a mother, a wife, and an independent career or professional person is really taxing.
Being a working mother means that you are always disappointing somebody.
Playing the lead in a film where you shoot for three months away from home is not an easy thing for me when my children are in school and my husband is running a theatre company.
I tell young players who want to be coaches, who think they can put up with all the headaches and heartaches, can you live without it? If you can live without it, don't get in it.
A woman - even if she is the primary breadwinner - really needs to keep in mind that at some point, she may have a diminished earning capacity because of the fact that she will bear children. Of course, this is case by case. I had two kids, and it didn't really slow me down at all.
I had to make a living. I had the mortgage to pay, I had the school fees to pay. I had bread and butter to put on the table. You know your worth as an actor, but you have to get a job.
I'm married to Kevin, a photographer whose career has put him on the campaign trail with presidential candidates and sent him on assignment to far-flung places for long periods of time. It was sometimes rough when our children were small, and I was beginning to write in earnest.
Hollywood's fickle. It's always been that way, and it will always be that way. And it's always going to be somebody new and exciting comes along. That's just the way it works, and it will always work that way. And I think that if you give it everything to the exclusion of your own real life and family, you've sold yourself down the river.
I've never met anyone who has convinced me to say, "No, I'm not gonna take the next Spielberg film, I think I'll stay here and have a baby." I've never met anyone of that caliber.
A lot of women feel like they put their ambitions on hold sometimes because they do hold down the household and that's something that has to change.
Well, I love being a head coach. And when my kids were younger, it just didn't feel right at the time. I was happy where I was. I actually got away from football for a couple years until I figured out how much I missed it.
Before the last Olympics, we had meat raffles at the local surf club to get petrol money to go to training, to help out with the bills. But I know there are a lot of athletes worse off and that all athletes, at some stage of their careers, have made sacrifices.
How could I have been a wife, a mother and a singer? Who takes care of the piccolini when you go around the world? Your children would not call you 'Mama,' but 'Renata.'
How is it that she [Hillary Clinton] ends up in Arkansas with a philandering husband who makes 25 grand a year as governor, and she has to provide the income for the family at the Rose Law Firm, in Arkansas? How does this that happen?
Having it all means different things to different people. I think it's an individual choice. Nothing is perfect. Everyone makes sacrifices. For me, it's worked out well. I have children. I have a very interesting career. But it's not for everybody.
Years and years ago, like in 2006, my wife, I didn't have a car, she would drive me to weigh-ins, we would sleep in broken-down motels and I would fight the next day. Just me and her.
I feel so blessed that I have a job where I can spend long periods of time with my family. Most moms don't have that choice. But wearing so many hats - mother, wife, actress - does take hard work; you always have to be thinking about your family's best interests.
I just look for interesting supporting-biggish supporting parts, and try to do one a year, and that's my limit. Some women can do it and that's fantastic, but I can't. You make choices as a wife and mother, don't you? You can't have it all. I don't care what it looks like.
What's the level of compromise for making that kind of money? How far do I have to sell my soul? What's the price of that? And I don't know if I want to make those kind of compromises any more. I think I'm a different person. I think I've matured to a great extent. I think that I want different things now. That it's not about the celebrity status that you receive because you're doing the next hot movie. It's about doing good work.
The truth is that the more you get paid, the less freedom you have. They never pay you for nothing.
I've always liked the idea of being a father. And I've always romanticised it, because I lost my father when I was young. In a way, all of the complications that come with my career are about that.
I think some people will die on the stage, and I'm not so sure I want to do that. Like, I want to have kids! I'm totally fine with saying that. I think some people are scared because they're worried it's going to ruin their career, but I want to live a full life.
Otherwise, to be a movie star, it's a lot of compromise and also a lot of headaches. You can't do what you want. You become a prisoner of your fame. This happened to me in France and I don't want it.
It's more pressure on women to - if they marry or partner with someone, to partner with the right person. Because you cannot have a full career and a full life at home with your children if you are also doing all of the housework and child care.
