Children always come first for Helena Bonham Carter but balancing motherhood and career is not always easy. The actress hates being away from her kids (Billy, 9 and Nell, 5) for too long so she has her own rule and that’s no filming on location for more than two weeks at a time.

She says: ”Since I had Bill that has been the maximum amount of time I’ve been away. Just long enough to catch up on some sleep but not too long that I miss them and get suffocated by guilt.”

Helena also explains that ever since she became a mother she feels that that is her main job and is not preoccupied with acting that much, but at the same time thinks that thanks to that new perspective her acting skills have improved. ”It’s not my sole purpose so there’s less pressure on it, which, of course, means I do it better. But I also find it’s less important to me now whether I’m crap or good. I take myself so much less seriously than I used to. I used to be so self-critical it was painful,” the 47-year-old star said.

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