The ‘Mother and Child’ star dishes about dealing with heartache and the only celebrity who’s made her nervous

Watch the video at iVillage

Meanwhile, “Mother and Child” (written and directed by Rodrigo Garcia) also tells the stories of two other women in the Los Angeles area — a physical therapist named Karen (played by Annette Bening) and an attorney named Elizabeth (played by Naomi Watts) — who have their own adoption issues that may or may not have to do with what Lucy is experiencing. I recently caught up with Washington at the “Mother and Child” press junket in New York City, where she talked about why she’s been playing so many maternal roles, how her experience doing the Broadway play “Race” has affected her as an actress, and what it’s like to be a member of Barack Obama’s administration.

Do you have any personal ties to Inwood House, a non-profit organization aimed at sex education and helping pregnant teens? The New York premiere of “Mother and Child” was organized in part to benefit Inwood House.

Our producer is in with them. Which one of our producers is it? Lisa Marie Falcone … Lisa is awesome.

What attracted you to the “Mother and Child” script?

It was brilliant. It’s just an incredible piece of writing. It was an incredible piece of dramatic literature just on the page. I felt when I was reading it that I can already see these women and hear these women. That for me is a sign that I want to really do this project when I’m reading it. I can I hear Lucy in my head and I can see how she walks and all of that. That was very vivid for me. It’s just a beautiful piece of writing.

It was very clear to me that this was a film about three women who undergo massive transformations in their lives over the course of the film. That is fantastic for us actresses, because we often are the people who hold hands of the people who are going through traumatic transformations in their lives, so it was great. It was really exciting.

How did you get geared up for the emotionally wrenching hospital scene?

It’s interesting because I’m not a mother and I’ve never tried to be a mother. It’s nothing that I could not relate to specifically in those terms, but I do know what it feels like to want something very much that you can’t control. I understand that. I also think that it’s the magical “what if,” which is what we do as actors. We ask ourselves, “What if that happened to me? What if it did? How would I feel? What would I do?” And then, “What if I [were] Lucy? How would she feel? What would she do?”

I always feel that the emotional truth comes from, “What do I know about this? Where can I relate to this? Where do I have to do to match my heart to what her heart is going through?” Character is then how that is expressed. Character to me, “How does she walk? How doe she talk? We both run, but is how does she run?”

There was sort of a surprise that happened that when we blocked [the scene], we talked about this would happen, that would happen, then the scene would be over. You know that a role is really beautifully written when you find surprises along the way. So we were doing that scene in the hallway, and then it was over. And in the moment, I thought, “Wait a minute, this woman doesn’t give up.”

The whole film is about [Lucy] think it’s going one way, then the universe changes it on her. She goes back, and now she’s got it. She’s very tenacious. In the moment, I decided to go for it again, which wasn’t something that we rehearsed, but I felt that like that was who Rodrigo had written: a woman who wouldn’t give up after one try; she would go for it again. You got these wonderful surprises along the way when the material is really great and you’re working with great people.

What do you think about the relationship that Lucy had with her mother, Ada? Did your own mother influence you in any way?

I have a really kick-ass mom. She is awesome. She’s really smart, really supportive. She desperately did not want me to be an actor, but put up with it anyway. She’s a pretty incredible good role model. She’s somebody who has balanced a marriage, motherhood, and a fantastic career. She’s now a retired professor of education. I don’t know how she did all that, but she somehow did. We have a really great relationship.

It’s different than the relationship [Lucy and Ada have] in the film. I think they have a little more obvious tension than my mother and I have, but I like their relationship in the film. There’s a lot of kinetic energy. And working with S. Epatha [Merkerson, who plays Ada] was so great. She’s so good and I felt so lucky when Rodrigo told me we had her. She brings a really nice quality to the dynamic of our relationship, because she is so kind of grounded and real, and Lucy is an uptight perfectionist. I really like their dynamic. It’s different from the dynamic with my mom, but I really like it.

How has it been for you on Broadway (in the play “Race”), and how that may affect you in moving forward as an actress?

It’s been great … You know when a couples’ therapist says to a couple, “Go on vacation and remember why you fell in love with each other”? I feel that way about my acting because I fell in love with acting on the stage. Because it’s been so long since I’ve done a play, it’s almost like I forgot my first love. It’s been really nice to meet my lover and fall in love again. It’s great. It’s really, really great.

Can you talk about Lucy as a mother and that scene where she has a mini-meltdown from being overwhelmed at taking care of a baby?

I’m glad you asked me that! This is so funny to me! This always happens. Men always see that scene and they get a little bit alienated and a little like “I don’t know what to think about this,” and a little bit concerned about her. And women see that scene and they’re like, “Thank God,” because there’s not a single woman who’s been a mother that hasn’t felt that way at some point.

That’s what I’m hearing that constantly in interviews from women who are like “That was great. I totally remember that morning when I felt like that. I can’t imagine being a single mother and not having someone hold the kid so I friggin’ take a shower.” It is interesting to me that this is consistently the response …

Every mother goes through that. That’s what is so interesting. Men think, “She’s not ready. She’s having a hard time because the baby’s adopted.” They think all these things and women who are mothers just go, “I am so glad to see that on film because I felt that way.” I know enough women who’ve gone through that. I’ve been with enough girlfriends [who are mothers] and I go, “Who are you? Give me that friggin’ baby and please, go take a nap!” I’ve been in that situation with so many girlfriends.

I think she is going to be a great mom and I think you see that at the end of the film. It’s something that she’s really wanted and it comes to her in a great way. What I thought a lot about in that scene and prepared for in that scene was, in talking to new moms, she’s massively sleep-deprived, which is what most new moms go through. It’s funny because she’s a cranky infant dealing with a cranky infant.

Why do you think Lucy was desperate to adopt a baby instead of an older child?

I think Lucy definitely is a bit of a perfectionist, and she has an idea of the way things are supposed to go. I think a lot of what the film is about is watching her let go of a lot of those pre-conceived notions; they keep getting peeled away. When we meet her at the beginning of the film, she is this very tightly wound person who is going to control things and desperately trying to control a situation that she can’t.

By the end of the film, we see a woman who has come to terms with living life on life’s terms and accepting things as they are, but I think that’s a big journey. In her vision of being a mother, she wants a baby from the beginning. That’s as close to the experience of giving birth that she can imagine, and she’s trying to get as close to her idea of what she thought motherhood was supposed to look like in her life.

Part of Lucy becoming a good mother is that she allows Karen to come into the life of the child. What would the process have been in allowing Lucy to make that decision?

When we see [Lucy], she is doing a great job as a mother when she meets Karen. I think she looks very comfortable in her motherhood at that point. I think the choice to say yes is a symbolic journey of showing how open she has come. At the beginning of the film, she is so closed-off and anxious.

And by the end of the film, she takes this risk of opening up her home to somebody, despite of what she has been through with a biological family. She’s not worried about the legality of it, the danger, she’s open now. In a lot of ways, I think that is what the film is about. It’s kind of about the more inclusive ways that we as a society are beginning to define family because of all of the ways that families happen now. You look at the families in the film and there are so shapes and configurations — ethnically, religiously, [with] age — it takes on so many forms. I think it’s a really beautiful subcurrent of the film.

You’ve been very political. Why are you so interested in politics?

It doesn’t come out of what I do. I went to rallies and marches with my parents as a child so I come from a political and academic background. I don’t believe in letting go of who I am as an American because of what I do, so I bring it with me.

We live in this democracy and I try to take my part in the responsibility of the participatory democracy that we live in. So I don’t waste my voice, and I participate. I am a woman. I am a person of color. I did come from a disenfranchised community in the central east Bronx. My politics are very personal. I try to have an understanding of the world we live in. I try to advocate for equality in all kinds of ways and levels.

A lot of my politics now manifest through arts advocacy, in supporting arts and education, First Amendment rights, and media literacy because I feel that what my life is about. In a lot of ways, art is our biggest form of cultural diplomacy, and it’s the thing in life that has had the most profound impact on who I am.

Did you share any information on women’s with your “Mother and Child” co-stars while you were doing the movie?

No. To be honest with you, this was shot as three separate films. We didn’t have a lot of interaction with each other. Naomi [Watts] and I were on set for one day, because we both had scenes at the hospital, but we never really worked together. We’re joking that we’d actually like to do a movie together because we like each other. I worked two days with Annette [Bening], but we didn’t have a whole lot of interaction with each other. However it was an estrogen-heavy set; there was a lot of women, but I don’t think we specifically talked in any way [about women’s issues].

How was it working with Rodrigo Garcia as a director?

He’s great. Rodrigo is really great and supportive. He’s very technical and he’s not really interested in talking about the deconstruction of your character as an actor. He really trusts you. You’re the actor and you’ll do the work. He doesn’t get in there too much. There’s not a lot of rehearsal. He really believes that you’ll come to the table with your “i’s” dotted and your “t’s” crossed, ready to go. And then he creates an environment that’s really supportive for everybody to do their best work in every department.

You are a big supporter of Barack Obama. Is there anything that people should know about him that might surprise people?

I’m actually in the [Obama] administration now. I was recently appointed to the president’s committee on arts and humanities. That is a profound honor. It’s very exciting for me. It’s a committee that works with the East Wing and the West Wing. We work in partnership with the National Endowment of the Arts, National Endowment of Humanities and the Smithsonian Institute. It’s really exciting and very fun. I was just sworn in and it was great. It’s been a real privilege to set this course in history, to have been part of the [Obama presidential] campaign early on, in the primaries, to now being a part of the administration. It’s a journey I will never forget and one that I pinch myself about every day.

What’s next for you?

I am doing eight shows a week right now [on Broadway] with “Race.” I have another film at Sundance called “Night Catches Us,” which is currently in talks with distributors. I did another small role for a director I love, Jacob Estes, in a Tobey Maguire film called “The Details” … ["Night Catches Us"] is a really beautiful film. It catches up with these characters 10 years after the [Black Power] movement. Anthony [Mackie’s] character has been underground and on the run, and my character has become part of the system … She’s a civil-rights attorney. You meet these characters 10 years later, and they’re trying to make sense of their lives, both personally and politically. It’s a really neat film.

And you also play a mother in “Night Catches Us”?

Yes. It’s interesting. Motherhood is a through line in my work. There are two characters in my entire film career who have not been a mother, been pregnant, or talked about having been pregnant: [my characters] in “The Dead Girl” and “Fantastic Four.” Even in “Our Song,” I’m a 16-year-old girl who talks about having an abortion. In “Save the Last Dance,” I played a single mom. In “Ray,” I had about 16 actors who played my kids. In “Lakeview Terrace,” [my character] became pregnant …

So it’s a really interesting thing that comes up in my career. A lot of actresses don’t have that. I’ve learned most of what I know about changing a diaper on a film set. It’s true. I had to learn how to change a diaper for “Save the Last Dance.”

From the Examiner

The secret to Kerry Washington’s cozy camaraderie with her mom, Valerie?

“I hired this really beautiful woman to pretend to be my mother. She’s actually an actress,” Washington cracks.

Her mom retorts that her daughter “was coached to say all these really nice things.”

In reality, the two have a warm, supportive and bantering dynamic. They walk into Alice’s Tea Cup holding hands before settling in for afternoon libations.

Washington is appearing in the Broadway play Race while promoting her drama Mother and Child, in theaters. It’s an intimate look at three maternal relationships; Washington plays Lucy, a perfectionist who is eager to adopt because she’s unable to conceive. Her movie mom is more critical than supportive. Washington’s real-life mother, Valerie, a retired education professor and schoolteacher, inspired her performance, but in an unexpected way.

“Their relationship is really different from ours. There’s a little more tension and pressure in their relationship,” says Kerry Washington, 33. “I did have to ask my mom questions, because she spent a couple of years trying to conceive me.”

What was Kerry like as a kid, growing up in the Bronx?

“She was never difficult. Challenging, yes. She had a mind and mouth of her own. Always eager to let you know what she thought,” says Valerie, 70. “When she was 7, she decided she wanted to fly by herself, to be on a plane by herself. She had a cousin in Boston, so we arranged for her to fly to Boston for the weekend.”

Adds Kerry: “It’s when I started talking that I became difficult.”

When Kerry first thought about becoming an actress while studying theater at George Washington University in D.C., her mom told her instead to be a lawyer for actors, urging her to find a career more stable than drama.

Today, she’s proud of her daughter and is “awestruck” when she’s at one of her premieres. She is on edge when she sees her daughter on screen in perilous situations.

“I was sitting next to my mother at the premiere of The Last King of Scotland, and she was hyperventilating. I’m like, ‘I’m right here! No one has chopped me up. I’m right here,’ ” Kerry says.

Mom says she’s “getting better” about being at ease on Kerry’s turf.

“It’s just wonderful to see how she has evolved in this world and how she can handle this world,” she says. “And yet she can be the kid who comes home for Thanksgiving dinner and fools around with her cousins.”

Retorts Kerry: “I’m faking it.”

Today, with Washington working in the same city as her parents, she spends more time with Mom. They vacation together in upstate New York, where they each own a house on a lake.

“That time at the lake, that is our sanctuary. All of the cousins, all of the cousins’ kids — everyone goes up. We hike and swim and watch movies. There’s no TV. There’s a DVD player. Everyone cooks together,” Kerry says.

Reveals Valerie, prompting laughter from her daughter: “When they hang out, they tread water. If you want a private chat with no one else around, go out and tread water.”

Adds Kerry: “Everyone in my family swims really well. The joke is that we’ll all swim way out into the lake and just sit there. We stay out there and tread water and chat.”

So does Valerie give her single daughter romantic advice?

Kerry sits up: “I’d love to hear this answer.”

Valerie remains relaxed: “I don’t think so.”

Kerry: “You don’t really tend to do that.”

Valerie: “Her dad’s favorite saying is, ‘As long as you like him, I’ll like him.’ ”

From USA Today

Q: What appealed to you about this story? What it said about motherhood, adoption, families?

A: Actually, what appealed to me was the character and the challenge of playing this woman who goes through this incredible journey and evolution. These three women do that, and often in film you don’t get that as a woman — we usually get to be the person who holds hands with the person who has a journey.

Q: Your character, Lucy, is a bit of a control freak when we first meet her.

A: Yeah, when she’s talking to Cherry Jones’s character? We meet her at a time in her life where, up until now, pretty much everything has gone her way. She’s got the perfect little husband and the bakery and the pearls, and suddenly she’s faced with a situation she can’t control. So a lot of what I think the film is about is watching a person learn how to let go of control. We watch her surrender not by choice but because the rug gets pulled out from her. And the person we see at the end of the film has really learned to live life on life’s terms, in a wholly different way.

Q: Do you have control-freak tendencies in real life?

A: I think I have tendencies at different times. Not so much anymore. It’s probably a life journey for all of us, and part of being a human being, that we fall prey to thinking we’re in control. A lot of life is showing up and trying to participate and trying to live life proactively. But, at times, you do have to let go.

Q: If you chose this project because of the character, how do you choose your other films?

A: It depends — what mood I’m in, what’s going on, what’s available. I remember when I was doing The Last King of Scotland, and it was so emotionally draining, that I said I really, really want to do a a silly, fun comedy next. And that’s what led me to do [the Wayans brothers'] Little Man, which is the most fun I’ve ever had on a film set.

Q: How about Night Catches Us, which showed at Sundance this year?

A: Well, that has sexy Anthony Mackie from The Hurt Locker, so that was hard work! [Laughs] It’s about two people who were Black Panthers together, and the movie catches up with them ten years later. I love history, so I did that because I was really curious about different movements for change in this country. And I do look good in an Afro! [Laughs]

Q: What about The Details, which hasn’t come out yet?

A: That’s because it’s a director I really love, Jacob Estes, who did Mean Creek. Jacob is brilliant and wonderful, but I just came in and did a couple of scenes. It’s a really modern story about marriage, with Tobey Maguire and Elizabeth Banks, and I play a friend of Tobey. I did that right before we went into rehearsals for the play Race.

Q: Has doing the play changed how you approach film roles in any way?

A: I feel like my acting is in a different place now. There’s an athleticism to doing theater, where you have to show up consistently in a different kind of way, so I feel like I’m in really good shape as an artist right now. I’m excited to see how working on film feels like now, with this experience under my belt.

Q: You’ve directed music videos — what about directing films?

A: I’d love to keep directing. I was offered a music video to direct last month, but, with the play being extended until June 13, it’s too much of a time commitment. Directing a film is something I’d love to do down the line — I’m really open — but I don’t think I have that clear of a career path in that section of my life. Not in any section of my life, right now. I think I’ve had periods of my life where I was more like Lucy, and now is not one of those times.

From Film Critic

Needless to say, she is a very, very busy lady. But, since this is The Film Strip, I began the interview with questions about her upcoming film.

Kerry, there are a lot of issues covered in ‘Mother and Child,’ but was there one specific that drew you to this project?

Kerry Washington: I just really loved the writing. When I first read the script, I just found it to be so authentic, so real. I felt like I could already see these women and hear these women. That’s kind of a clue for me when I really want to do something, when I’m reading it and I feel like the film already exists for me in my mind’s eye. So the moment that I read it I knew that it was something that I wanted to do.

You did something that might seem transgreesive in this film when it comes to showing it’s not all it’s cracked up to be sometimes?

KW: That’s right. That’s a big taboo in our society, that this doesn’t always work out. But anyway that’s one of the things, again, that I really loved about the film, that it’s just so honest and just so real. I think that parenting, I’m not a parent, but I think that parenting is the most important responsibility that a person can take on ever. I think it has its ups and downs. So, to have the courage to have written about that honestly, I tip my hat to Rodrigo [Garcia] because I know lots of moms who feel overwhelmed, particularly single moms. It’s funny because men will often comment on [one particular scene] and go, ‘Whoa. That scene is a little bit alienating,’ and women all go, ‘Oh my God, I know exactly what that feels like.’

You had some intense scenes with Shareeka Epps. How was that?

KW: Yeah. Shareeka Epps. What a brilliant actress. I feel we are so lucky that Shareeka decided to be an actress. When you look at her work in ‘Half Nelson,’ her work in this film, she is so f@#king badass. She’s just great. I loved working with her. I’m a fan of hers. I respect her immensely. It was so fun to be on set with her and to collaborate with her. It was an honor really. I’m excited about her future.

Do you think Sam Jackson’s character might ever at some point go looking for the child he had with Naomi Watts?

KW: I don’t know. I didn’t really do that actor’s homework but it is an interesting idea, the roles that the fathers play in the film. It is really interesting. To be honest with you, I’m thrilled to see Sam Jackson in a romantic lead. I think he’s amazing.

Your films have dealt with some heavy topics and not much fluff. Is this by design?

KW: Right. Well, ‘Fantastic Four’ is a little fluffy. No offense to my fellow cast-mates.

Are you drawn to the more serious projects at this point in your career?

KW: I think I’ve always been. I don’t think there’s ever been a point in my career where I’ve run away from films that contain complicated social issues. I mean even my first big studio film, ‘Save the Last Dance’, that film was about race relations. I played a teen mom living in inner city Chicago and I played the person who called her out on the race issues and why it was challenging for that community, that this woman was going to date this guy. So from the very beginning of my career I’ve been lucky enough to do work that’s meaty and that is filled with the complications of who we are as human beings.

You really held your own on the Bill Mahr Show.

KW: Yes, often that seat is not represented well on that show, the entertainer’s seat. I don’t come from a showbiz family. I come from a really academic background. My mother is a retired professor of education. I actually didn’t think that this is what I was going to do for a living. I didn’t major in acting in college. I have a liberal arts degree and I studied social sciences and I think that I tend to approach my work, quite honestly, as an anthropologist. The goal is to go native. I immerse myself in the world of the characters and I try to give myself a lot of socio-political background and historical background because for me it’s so important. Take for example maybe my most known work, a film like ‘Ray’; that’s a woman living in the ’60’s who is faced with a husband who’s cheating on her and who has an addiction. A woman of color in the ’60’s who’s faced with that situation has vastly different options than a woman in 2010 who’s faced with that situation. So to me if you’re aware of the socio-political context, the historical context then you can make more informed decisions about the psychology of the character because it’s a different woman who stays in 2010 than a woman who stays in 1963. They stay for different reasons. They live in different worlds. I do think that way. It’s funny, even on ‘Fantastic Four’, that is not a political film in any way but I guess I’m also aware that we live in a world where everything means something even when you may not necessarily want it to. So on a film like ‘Fantastic Four’, that was a comic book that was written in the ’50’s. There were no characters of color then in the comic book. We sort of convinced the studio to be open minded about it and it’s something that I’m very proud of because it means that today in 2010 that cartoon on television has a black character named Alicia Masters because I played the role in the film. It means that kids who watch that cartoon get to see themselves. They’re not alienated from the world of the cartoon because my team had the courage to go, ‘What about going black with that role?’ So I think that we live in a political world. Maybe I’m sort of unfortunately aware of that or fortunately.

Will there be another ‘Fantastic Four’?

KW: I don’t have any news for you on that.

Other than the eight shows a week you’re presently doing on Broadway, what’s next?

KW: I have another film that I finished. It was a film at Sundance this year called ‘Night Catches Us’ which is currently in talks with distributors and another film that I did, a small role in a film called ‘The Details’ that I really love.

Can you give some heads up on ‘Night Catches Us,’ The Black Panther Film?

KW: Actually, the film takes place ten years after the Panther movement. It picks up with two people, myself and Anthony Mackie and it’s sort of how we’re making sense after the movement. He’s been sort of underground and on the run and I’ve been raising a kid from another guy who died in the movement. So we find each other and are trying to make sense of our past, both personal and political.

From eurweb

From Style List

As the 2010 Sundance Film Festival beings today, Kerry Washington’s accomplished the the indie cred-burnishing feat of having two buzzy films here. The first is Tanya Hamilton’s Night Catches Us, where Washington reunites with her She Hate Me costar Anthony Mackie in the story of two ex-Black Panthers, and the second is Rodrigo Garcia’s female triptych Mother and Child, which made its well-received debut in Toronto last fall and costars Annette Bening and Naomi Watts.

Before either of us left for Sundance, I spoke to Washington about her festival entries, the limits of control, and the challenges of her current Broadway stint in David Mamet’s Race.

Back in 2001, you had Lift at Sundance, and it helped jump-start your career. What do you remember about that experience?
What do I remember about that? [Laughs] I can’t believe it was that long ago. It was really exciting for me. The first film I ever did went to Sundance, Our Song, but I wasn’t able to go because I was shooting Save the Last Dance. Sundance is cool, though. Everybody talks about how much the festival has evolved and changed over the years, so I’m kind of excited to go back and see what it’s become.

Night Catches Us is a period piece that takes place just around the time you were born. Was it fun to go back and revisit some of those hair and wardrobe details?
Yeah, but it’s not exactly revisiting — I was barely ambulatory then! [Laughs] No, it was really kind of cool. I mean, I feel really lucky because between this and Last King of Scotland and Ray, I’ve been able to cover a lot of this past century, which is pretty fun.

So tell me about who you and Anthony play in Night Catches Us.
We play two people who were heavily involved in the Black Panther movement ten years ago, and then for different reasons, we’ve moved on. He goes underground and I become slightly more mainstream in my approach to civil rights and justice. We don’t talk to each other for ten years, and then when his father passes, he comes back into town and we’re sort of forced to deal with a lot of the mysteries of our past and forced to face some of the complications involved in a movement like that.

How has she changed in those ten years?
She becomes a civil rights lawyer and tries to become more of an advocate within the system. Instead of operating outside the system like the Panthers, the Weathermen — a lot of those groups at the time — she gets her law degree and works as an advocate for people in the community who may not have access to legal representation otherwise.

How did you come to the film?
Well, there was actually another actress cast in the film first. I had known about it for years through its development and I was really looking for another film to do before I gave my life over to the Broadway stage, which is what I’m doing now. For some reason, this actress had to go back out of the project, so it was one of those lucky things where I got to do this literally right before going into rehearsal for what I’m doing now. It’s great that it worked out because I had heard about it and read about it so much. Well, maybe not so great for the other actress. [Laughs] But happy for me!

Mother and Child found distribution after Toronto, and we’ll see what happens with Night Catches Us. Does it scare you when your films’ releases are kind of up in the air?
I don’t know if “scared” is the right word. I think sometimes it’s unfortunate that a film might not have a larger audience. Like with Lift, we didn’t have theatrical release, we were sold to Showtime, and for that reason I think we were seen by a much wider audience. Sometimes you have those stories where films find a home, and other times you don’t. I don’t think I’m scared of it, but I think in the indie world, you go into it thinking that those are the possibilities. For that matter, I’ve done big studio movies that are sitting on a shelf somewhere. Anybody who’s looking for security and stability should not gravitate toward this business.

Let’s talk about Mother and Child a bit. Rodrigo and Garcia clearly loves actresses. Do you love him back?
He’s just lovely. I just love him. I don’t know a single person that works with him or for him that doesn’t feel that way — he’s just awesome. He’s a great, great, great man…patient and thoughtful and generous.

I think you can tell how much he enjoys female characters because he’s not afraid to show their flaws, too.
I think what it is is that he’s very invested in the truth of humanity. You don’t tell the truth about a person unless you’re invested in their humanity — nobody is all good or all bad. I think Rodrigo has the courage to tell stories about women, not just women who are in the supporting role to push along the man’s story. I think he just allows room for that.

Your character is consumed with having a child. What’s motivating that strong urge for her?
Oh, God. If we knew that….[Laughs] I think she’s the sort of woman where that’s part of what she wants for herself. I don’t really know if there’s a way to articulate that as a woman — I think for a lot of women, you just get to a time and place in your life where you think, “That’s what I want.” What’s difficult about her is that she’s having difficulty getting [pregnant], and she’s always someone who’s either been in control or had the illusion of being in control in most areas of her life. She’s a perfectionist and very accomplished and then this thing comes along, which is nature, and she can’t control it. We have our Blackberries and our schedules and our calendars, and we think we get to decide on everything, then things come along and remind us that we don’t have complete control.

Was that a sobering thing to learn as an actress with ambitions?
The trick is to live a life as proactively as possible. For me, to maintain my passion and my drive, and to allow for my desire and ambition and goals, it’s important to also detach from the results. It’s a real balance to be both proactive and ambitious and courageous, and also to be detached and accepting and flexible. I think that’s the big balance in life.

How much was making your Broadway debut in a play like Race part of those goals?
I grew up in New York, so I fell in love with acting on a stage, not in front of a camera. Theater has always been very important to me and I had been looking for the right project to do as as Broadway debut. I’d been looking for a while, and when this came along, it was a no-brainer. I really, really wanted it, and it seemed like a good way to come back home, so to speak, to New York and the stage.

A lot of actors love theater because they get so bored with the leisurely, “hurry up and wait” mentality of shooting a studio film. Still, you’ve done your fair share of quickly shot indie movies, like Night Catches Us.
I think the biggest difference is acting in and out of sequence. You’re right — on a film like this, you’re working a lot, and in a way, it’s longer hours, although doing a play is so athletic. What’s different is that you spend a whole day focusing on what could be a minute and a half in the movie, so you have to be very clear about the emotions and the shots of that moment, and you have to be able to place it within the context and the arc of the other 100 pages of the script. When you’re doing a play, it’s like every day is a piece of the puzzle, whereas in theater, you’re going through the entire story every night. Each moment builds on the moment before it in a different way.

Did anything about it surprise you?
It’s been a long time. One of the things I love about theater is the enormous humility it requires. Again, there’s the illusion of control; in film, you get to go, “OK, that was great, print that and let’s move on,” and then you move the camera and go to a different scene. You have this idea that you’re in control and you’ve got that. In the theater, you can say, “That was really great, that was perfect,” but it’s like, “Oh well — good luck tomorrow!” The play is not done with you, and you don’t get to be the one to call the shots. I love that about theater.