Saltburn creator Emerald Fennell has said her “absolutely amazing” career break has come after years of “working non-stop”.
The 38-year-old said she did not have “even a moment of maternity leave” while working on BBC series Killing Eve and the black comedy film set in the noughties.
She was speaking on the Perfect Day With Jessica Knappett podcast when she also spoke about being nine months pregnant while working on Promising Young Women.
Fennell said: “I’m on a little break basically, in the last five years, nearly six years, actually, really from the start of Killing Eve season two, to a month ago or six weeks ago, I’ve been working non-stop, as well as having two children, and not really having even a moment of maternity leave or anything like that.
“I was nine months pregnant (when directing Promising Young Women), I gave birth three weeks later. Three weeks after principal photography.
“And then straight to the edit. I was like, it’s fine, (it’s) what happens in anyone’s life, but particularly in a woman’s life, is that you know the two things tend to come at the same time, don’t they.
“You’ve spent 10 years, 15 years working to get to the stage and that’s also at the time when you kind of you know if you want to have children sort of the time when you kind of need to start thinking about that. So it’s inevitable.
“I actually think what was really great for me in lots of ways is it’s important to say, it can be done.
“It can be done. I spent a lot of my 20s anxious that it’s not possible to do this stuff, and it’s hard. It’s like gruelling. It’s physically hard and emotionally it’s not wonderful, but it is possible.
“This is the first time I’ve had some time off in five or six years and it is I’ve got to say, absolutely amazing.”
Fennell also revealed she had been suffering with “intrusive thoughts, nightmares” and “night sweats”.
She added: “If I could live my dream life, half of my time would be asleep.
“I would, and as it is now, I have four to five hours’ sleep and it is an absolute misery.
“It’s a combination of factors, it is children don’t sleep, intrusive thoughts, nightmares, night sweats, the horror, the existential horror of death.
“Things that might happen to the children, things that might happen to me. It’s just the night time, it used to be for fun and snogging and dancing and watching sexy late night films.
“And now it’s just for the cold hand of terror around my neck.”
The full interview is available on the Perfect Day With Jessica Knappett podcast which can be accessed on all podcast platforms, with a new episode every Thursday.
