Claire Danes always considered herself to be a practical person — even when she was a kid.
“I never felt like a kid,” Danes, 46, admitted during her Tuesday, January 27, appearance on Amy Poehler’s “Good Hang” podcast. “Now that I am a parent and I have actual children, I’m like, ’For sure I was a kid.’”
Danes looked back on her earliest childhood memories and the moment she decided that she wanted to become a professional actor.
“People would tell me most actors don’t actually make a lot of money. It’s an insecure field choice. I had a practical side and I thought … I would be a therapist and do acting workshops on the side to soothe the soul and that was my plan for a good year,” she recalled. “I made an actual announcement one night at the dinner table and said, “Look guys who am I kidding, there is no plan B. I am an actor. Money or no money, this is my calling.’ My parents were like, ‘Uh huh sure.’ I was so serious it was ridiculous.”
Danes also discussed why learning she was pregnant with baby no. 3 at age 44 was a massive shock.
Keep scrolling to see what Danes had to share during her “Good Hang” appearance:
‘Never’ Feeling Like a Kid
Claire Danes opened up about ‘never’ feeling like a kid when she was young. However, that sentiment began long before Danes became a serious actress as a child.
“My first memory, I don’t know if it is real or not. Obviously [I] have no idea. It was preverbal, I was an infant. I remember where I was, by the windows in our loft across the street overlooking Lafayette Street,” she reflected. “And I had been handed to some other adult that I did not know very well. And they didn’t know how to hold a baby.”
Danes recalled feeling exasperated over the moment.
“This is one of those grownups that don’t know how to do this. They’re uncomfortable, there is nothing I can do about it. I’m just gonna have to wait it out,” she said.
Danes’ second youngest memory involved her spending time with her mom while she was learning to walk. While they were interacting, Danes recalled doing “charades” to try to express what she wanted, which her mom couldn’t understand at the time.
“She was really frustrated and I felt such empathy for both of us. I was like, ‘This cannot continue, I really need to crack this language thing. Because poor us, this is too hard,’” she said. “It was like that always and people would always say, ‘It’s so remarkable you can give performances at such a young age.’ What are you talking about? It’s been an eternity, 11 years is so many years. I felt very rich and I got enough material for four lifetimes.”
Her Emotional Reaction to a Surprise 3rd Pregnancy
Claire Danes revealed that when she learned she was pregnant with her and husband Hugh Dancy’s third baby she called her “OBGYN in convulsive tears.” Danes, who also shares sons Cyrus, 13, and Rowan, 7, added that all her kids are “five years” apart, which was not “done by design.”
“I didn’t know it was physically possible [to be pregnant.’ I was 44,” she said. “Rowan was very hard earned, I had to do two rounds of IVF.”
Danes admitted she looked up the odds of “naturally conceiving” at her age and learned it was less than one percent. She also recalled talking to her best friend about the pregnancy before confirming it, and the friend recently had a dream about being in Danes’ pregnant body.
“I had two strong cocktails when we had dinner and the next morning I hit the CVS and [the pregnancy test] was bold and caps lock pregnant and I burst into tears.”
Danes called the experience “deeply humbling” and couldn’t be happier with her baby girl, whose name has not been publicly revealed.
“Then this beautiful girl emerged and she’s the best,” she gushed. “None of this was up to me and I’m just delighted.”
Fighting Back Against a Bully
Claire Danes shared that she took action to confront bullies when she was a teen.
“I went through a period in junior high where I became a vigilante and I would confront the bullies … and I went to the principal’s office one time because I hit a bully,” she confessed. “We talked through the bully and I, and actually we made some progress.”
Danes admitted that she had to “stop” her quest for justice once her actions started going on her school record.
