BABIESMotherhood Inspired Maggie Gyllenhaal to Work
July 11 2008, Published 8:00 a.m. ET
Many new moms would prefer an extended maternity leave to spend time with their children over going back to work, but not Maggie Gyllenhaal.
The Dark Knight star got right back in the swing of things seven months after giving birth to now-21-month-old Ramona, her daughter with fiancé Peter Sarsgaard.
"You see women who don't go back to work at all after they have a baby. I have felt in the past few months incredibly inspired and I really want to work," Maggie tells Parade.com. "I feel like I have something new to say having spent this time with my daughter. I'm just looking for the right things to say it in."
Though she was excited to get back on a movie set, Maggie's mind was more often on Ramona than nailing big scenes with Christian Bale and Heath Ledger.
"A big portion of my mind was with her always," she says. "But it was kind of a great job for a new mother because I'd work a couple of days and then have a week off. I had a lot of time to be with her."
While some parents may be wary of doing stunts lest something happen to them, Maggie didn't back down from performing them in the Batman Begins sequel. The 30-year-old replaces Katie Holmes -- who gave her blessing to Maggie -- as A.D.A. Rachel Dawes in the thriller and, in one scene, plummets from a skyscraper.
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"It was the first time I've ever done a stunt. And it was great," Maggie says. "It was fun being dropped from a building. I wasn't scared, I just did it."
