Career: Actress with three new films, ‘The Sisters’, ‘The Dark’ and ‘A History of Violence’; previous films include ‘The Cooler’, ‘Auto Focus’ and ‘Payback’. Was a cast member on TV’s ‘ER’.

Age: 38

Child: Jackson McDermott, four.

Married to: Dan McDermott, a screenwriter

“I became a mother four years ago. Jackson Blue McDermott was born in a thunderstorm after a 22-hour labour at our old home in Beverly Hills at 2:22 am. I remembered screaming at my best friend, ‘Don’t ever do this!’ But an hour later, holding my son in my arms, all thoughts of pain vanished, and I wished nothing but this same bliss for every woman. There was nothing like the feeling of working together to squeeze his little soul out into the world. All thoughts of ‘I’ had vanished. From that moment, I was no longer an ‘I,’ I was a ‘we.’

“I no longer choose a movie only because it will creatively fulfill me. Instead, I think of how long we may have to be separated and if it is a movie I would be proud to show him as he grows older. The hour Jack was born, I was born, too. I became a mother when I forgot about myself. I was an entirely different woman, a woman who no longer had the time or luxury or desire to live in a daydream of the future.

I love the life Jack and his dad and I have built. I love being a part of a ‘we,’ present, involved and in love.”