Cate Blanchett's maternal worries

Nov 15, 2007, 7:30 GMT

Italian fashion designer Giorgio Armani (L) and Australian actress Cate Blanchett pose for photographers at a lighting up ceremony of the \'Armani Ginza Tower\' in Tokyo, Japan, 06 November 2007. World-leading fashion designer Giorgio Armani inaugurated the \'Armani Ginza Tower\' that will open to the public 07 November. EPA/FRANCK ROBICHON

Cate Blanchett worried she did not have enough love for two children.

The pregnant actress - who has two sons, five-year-old Dashiell and three-year-old Roman, with husband Andrew Upton - was concerned she wouldn't feel the same about her youngest son before he entered the world.

She said: "The minute Dash came out, I felt my life was completely changed. Well, not changed, actually - more expanded.

"And then when my second child came along, it expanded even more, because while I was expecting Roman I was thinking, 'Oh, I have such an intense love for the child I already have, how can I possibly love another just as much? But of course, you do, and that's a real life lesson there, when you realise how much love you're actually capable of. It's like more doors open in your personality that you didn't even realise were there.

"It's a trip, being a parent, a privilege - even though it means you get a lot less sleep!"

The 38-year-old Oscar-winning star also revealed she has found acting more difficult since she became a mother.

Before Cate had children she could imagine what motherhood felt like, but since she had her two sons she found playing childless Queen Elizabeth I in her latest film, 'Elizabeth: The Golden Age' very hard.

Cate added in an interview with Hello magazine: "Before I'd had children, I'd played mothers and just got on with it. If you're an actor you have to invent and imagine what it would be like in all sorts of different situations in life - that's what you do.

"But for that one scene when Elizabeth holds Sir Walter Raleigh's baby, it was very odd to be in the inverse position - to have to create that slightly awkward sense of, 'Hmmm, I'm holding a child for the first time, I don't quite know how to hold it and I'll never know what it would be like to have one.'

"Because these days, I do know what it's like, and every time I even see a baby I think of mine and just melt."

(C) BANG Media International