Annette Bening explains why becoming a mother was always in her ‘DNA’
Annette Bening may have been nominated for an Oscar, but being a mother has always been her ultimate prize.
“My mother is 95 and I have always aspired to be just like my mother, and I still do,” Bening, 65, recalled as she walked down memory lane with Savannah Guthrie on the Today Toon on Tuesday, March 5. “I wasn’t a perfect mother. I think I’ve done a damn good job, especially when it comes to working and everything, but I always wanted to be a mother, ever since I was a little kid.
Lamenting why she always wanted to be a parent, she added: ‘My mother didn’t want to have more children – maybe that was part of it? So I was the neighborhood kid who was always babysitting and hanging out with the little ones. And it was just in my DNA.”
Over the years, Bening’s dream of having children became a reality when she tied the knot with her husband Warren Beatty in 1992. The couple welcomed their first child, son Stephen, later that year. Son Benjamin arrived in 1994, followed by daughter Isabel in 1997.
When they were about to welcome their youngest daughter, EllaIn 2000, Bening recalled that the birth almost came earlier than expected.
“Once when I was nominated [for an Oscar] I was extremely pregnant,” she revealed, referring to the 2000 Oscars, where she was nominated for Best Actress for her role in American beauty and Beatty, now 86, was honored with the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. “I was about to give birth, and I know how many years ago it was because that’s my almost 24-year-old.”
She went on to describe the evening, saying, “I remember that night and only the baby was moving so much because of the adrenaline rushing through my system. My husband, Warren Beatty, got a major award that night, so that’s one I remember.” (Bening gave birth to Ella the following month.)
This year, Bening will be at the Academy Awards again, as she is up for Best Actress for her film Nyad. In the film, she portrays Diana Nyad – a determined woman who decides to give up marathon swimming to become a sports journalist, but decades later, at age 60, realizes she wants to become the first person to ever swim a 112-mile trip from Cuba . to Florida. The story is based on the real life of the legendary swimmer Diana Nyad.
They may be seasoned actors with a slew of Academy Award nominations, but these well-known, critically acclaimed stars, including Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt, have never actually won an Oscar.
This is the fourth time Bening has been nominated for an Academy Award. However, she has never taken home a trophy. Emma Stone, Lily Gladstone, Carey Mulligan And Sandra Hüller have also been nominated in her category.