Rachel Brosnahan has said she hopes her new movie prompts people to have “conversations that are still taboo” and acknowledge not every path to motherhood is “Instagram-perfect”.
The Marvellous Mrs Maisel actress, 30, stars in I’m Your Woman, about a mother forced to go on the run with her baby after her husband betrays his partners in crime.
She told the PA news agency: “I loved that this was a story about a woman who becomes a quiet woman action hero; a genre which I’ve never seen a woman like this at the centre of before, or women like these.
“These are the characters that disappear at the beginning of the traditional, amazing, 1970s crime genre.
“And to be able to turn the lens on their story was really exciting.
“And on top of that, it’s also a really different exploration of motherhood than any that I’ve ever seen, acknowledging that not everyone’s path to motherhood is Instagram-perfect, or traditional, and it doesn’t click for everybody right away.
“And I hope it gives permission for us to keep having those conversations that are still so taboo.
“I didn’t know, and have never heard, that for someone the realisation that they’re not able to have children, it’s not just incredibly traumatic, but can also present as a form of PTSD.
“I had never heard that, and we should be talking about that a heck of a lot more.”
The US star said the script also reminded her of her own experiences of a time she realised what she was capable of.
She said: “I feel like it’s definitely happened. Without getting into a tonne of detail, but there was an experience in my life when we were in the middle of a very sudden… extreme crisis, where I think I would have imagined that I would fall apart, I was so, so surprised by this sudden clear-headedness.
“It was extraordinary, it was like the entire world went away, and suddenly I was able to see a clear path forward and solve a problem ahead in a way that, to this day, I have no idea where it came from. And it was a real surprise.”
I’m Your Woman will launch globally on Prime Video on December 11.