Annette Bening's Balancing Act

Annette Bening recently sat down and talked abou motherhood withe Life. The following is an excerpt from the article:

LIFE: You’ve talked about being physically affectionate with your kids.
BENING: It’s so important, isn't it? My husband [Warren Beatty] is very affectionate, and I think it’s equally important for the father. Kids need physical affection, no matter how old they get.

LIFE: Have you had talks about sex and drugs?
BENING: Lots of little conversations, all the time—so they don’t feel like This is The Talk. But at my kids’ ages, absolutely. They explain things to me [laughs]. I'm kidding, but it is back and forth. I believe in that. I believe in trying to be as open as I can. And they get a lot of education in school; I believe in that, too.

LIFE: Were there specific things you wanted to adopt or avoid when you became a mother?
BENING: I’m such a different creature from my mother. I always wanted to be a mother, from the time I was really little. But wanting to be an actor was the center of my life for so many years, in sometimes very modest circumstances—community college in San Diego—but play after play after play. All of my social and intellectual life was centered around that. I love San Diego, but I didn't want to stay there, I wanted to be part of a larger world. I wanted to have economic independence. It's so important, to make your own life, your own paycheck. When I eventually did have kids, in my early thirties, I was the first one among my entire acting class.

Read the rest of the article in the LIFE Magazine in your local newspaper.