Sienna Miller: Becoming a Mother 'Changed Everything' About Her Career
Photo by Pierre Suu/Filmmagic/Getty Images
Sienna Miller has one person to thank for her career re-boot: her daughter. The actress, whose latest films Foxcatcher and American Sniper are already generating Oscar buzz, told the Guardian that 2-year-old Marlowe not only reordered her priorities but altered the way movie makers perceive her. “I think having a baby really changed everything, if I’m honest,” the 32-year old revealed in a Jan. 4 interview.
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“The stakes are higher,” she explained. “You have someone that you want to be proud of you eventually.” Her little girl also reminds Miller — who is engaged to Marlowe’s dad, actor Tom Sturridge — to make the most of every moment. “You’re aware of your own mortality,” she added. “For me, as soon as I had a baby I had a vision of my life — and what was left of it.”
The idea that she’s settled down since becoming a mother also seems to appeal to movie executives, Miller says. The Brit endured years of negative press following her high-profile split with former fiancé Jude Law and subsequent affair with married father of four, Balthazar Getty, in 2008. And she admitted she “burnt a lot of bridges” in her personal life that soured casting agents on her professional likability.
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When Miller became a mom, things turned around. “People who read the negative things [about me], the people who need persuading, are probably ignorant enough to assume, ‘Well she’s got a kid so she’s serious now,’” she said. “Which, of course, isn’t the case. I’m still whoever I was. Maybe more mature, but the same. So amongst that ignorant, ridiculous area of my industry, I’m sure opinions of me have changed because I’m a mother now.”
This transformation isn’t unique to Miller, whose comments mirror the reflections of thousands of women who spoke with author Reva Seth for her 2014 book, The MomShift: Women Share Their Stories of Career Success After Children. “There is a real trend in maternity becoming the catalyst for more meaningful work,” Seth tells Yahoo Parenting. “I repeatedly had women tell me that they wanted their children to be proud of what they did, or that they wanted to feel that the time they were spending away from their children was for something that mattered to them.”
As for the view of mothers as more substantive than women without children, Seth chalks that one up to chauvinism. Younger looking women too often pay a penalty in terms of getting taken seriously, she says, adding, “Having a child seems to counter this. Women told me how clients, colleagues, and bosses all took them more seriously once they became parents.”
Or perhaps it’s the confidence that Seth says moms project — which ultimately makes a difference in how the 71 percent of mothers who work outside of the home are perceived.
So where does that self-assurance come from? “Some women said they felt braver in terms of going for goals that had previously made them nervous,” says the author, a mother of three. “Others said they felt more grounded, and so in a better position to reach for something that had previously eluded them.”
The rest, like Miller, reported that they wanted to be a role model for their little ones. “Many women said they wanted to personify the ideals that they hoped their own children would have,” Seth reports. “And this made them push themselves out of their comfort zone.”
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