Maggie Gyllenhaal has Emma dream

Jan 4, 2010, 12:59 GMT

Maggie Gyllenhaal wants to be like Emma Thompson.

The 32-year-old actress - who recently starred alongside the British star in 'Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang' - wants to turn out just like Emma because the 50-year-old Oscar-winner gave her great advice on how to cope with being a working mother.

Maggie - who has a three-year-old daughter Ramona with her husband Peter Sarsgaard - said: "I want to be her when I grow up. Emma was the one who said to me - when I was a newlywed, I had no nanny and I was working on this movie. She said, 'You have to let yourself drop the ball. Human beings do that. If you don't, some really important part of you won't survive.' She wrote it to me in a text. I think about it all the time."

The 'Dark Knight' actress - whose brother is actor Jake Gyllenhaal -feels like she has "sacrificed" a lot since she gave birth but admits she still makes mistakes as a parent.

She told the USA Today newspaper: "Being a mother forces me to be so responsible. I'm very protective, and I try to keep Ramona out of this Hollywood stuff. But I make mistakes. I have that tug of wanting things that feel good to me and trying to figure out what I have to sacrifice. I haven't been perfect at that."

Maggie also believes motherhood has softened her "fierce" personality.

She added: "When I was in my 20s, I thought the idea was to be as strong as you could in my work, in my life. To just be fierce and bold. I don't think that anymore. I've gotten softer. You have to be so brave to feel your feelings. You have to have a different kind of strength to reveal the ways in which you're weak and the things you're ashamed of."