Entertainment

Anna Friel: I don’t think the perfect mother exists

The International Emmy-winner stars as a mother struggling to do the best for her family in forthcoming emotional thriller Deep Water.
The International Emmy-winner stars as a mother struggling to do the best for her family in forthcoming emotional thriller Deep Water.

Anna Friel has said that the perfect mother does not exist – but that some mothers are better than others.

The actress, from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, plays a mother struggling to do the best for her family in ITV emotional thriller Deep Water.

The 43-year-old, who is herself mother to teenager Gracie, said that while she thought there was no such thing as a perfect parent, she had friends who appeared to be able to do it all.

Anna Friel and daughter Gracie
Anna Friel and daughter Gracie (Ian West/PA)

Speaking to PA, she questioned whether being perfect was something worth striving for, or even possible.

She said: “I don’t think it exists. I think there’s mothers that are better than others.

“I’ve got a friend called Rachel who’s got four children and is a full-time teacher and still makes homemade bread… and I just don’t know how she does it.

“That’s all she has room for, I think. But is perfection anything anybody should ever strive for? And does it exist? And if it does, I think you would have to be quite conceited and self-obsessed.”

Friel stars alongside Sinead Keenan and Rosalind Eleazar in the Lake District-set six-part series, adapted from the Windermere novels by author Paula Daly.

Lake District from the air
Windermere in the Lake District (Owen Humphreys/PA)

The International Emmy-winner also said the Me Too movement had “opened a can of worms” and allowed women to ask questions they previously thought off-limits.

However, she said Deep Water was not about that, and was simply “a look at life”.

“If you think of the Me Too movement, that’s just opened a can of worms that will never be shut,” she said.

“Where does it go to? And I just think it’s causing more and more debate in so many areas.

“It’s making people ask questions that they didn’t feel that they could or were allowed to.

“But I don’t think this drama is about that, I think it’s just a look at life. They call it an emotional thriller.”

Deep Water airs on ITV on Wednesday August 14 at 9pm.