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The British actress spent time with pregnant
women and those who had suffered stillbirths or miscarriages
while preparing for a role that she said scared her with the
weight of its responsibility. One woman allowed Kirby to be
present at the birth of her child.
"I didn't know anything about labor. And I definitely didn't
know anything about losing a baby. And those things scared me
because I thought, if I get this wrong, I'm letting down every
woman who's ever given birth," she said.
"We see a lot of men die (on screen), but you don't see a lot of
women giving birth," Kirby added.
The 32-year-old British actress has received glowing reviews and
a Venice film festival award for playing a young woman looking
forward to being a mother but whose life is upended by loss and
grief. The 24-minute opening home birth sequence was filmed in a
single, unbroken take.
Kirby, who also played the young Princess Margaret in TV series
"The Crown," says that far from putting her off, making the film
had made her more eager to one day have a child herself.
She described childbirth as an "incredible thing, this like
primal, animal, act of creation. It's miraculous."
"I don't know when it's going to happen but I'm really looking
forward to giving birth. And I can't wait."
The film, co-starring Ellen Burstyn and Shia LaBeouf, was
inspired by a personal experience of loss suffered by its
Hungarian director, Kornel Mundruczo, and his screenwriter wife
Kata Weber.
Weber said making the film "feels like therapy for us."
"This served as something that can break the silence and it
feels like it could be the case for others too," she said.
(Reporting by Jill Serjeant; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
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