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Maggie Gyllenhaal finds being scrutinised by people a "complicated thing".
The 36-year-old actress has impressed TV fans with new miniseries The Honourable Woman, in which she plays British baroness Nessa Stein who gets involved in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Maggie has also made a name for herself on the big screen in hit films such as White House Down and The Dark Knight.
Now she is older, the brunette star has learnt the ways of the industry to an extent but still struggles with others' judgement of her.
"In some ways, there’s still that pressure, but I’m aware that falling into the trap of that really doesn’t work, and it doesn’t make you feel good. The only thing that makes me feel good is to look the way I want to," she explained to elle.com which asked if she feels less strain to be posturing in Hollywood as she's aged.
"I think being an actress and being scrutinised and being observed is a complicated thing. It takes a lot of work to think through how to manage that. And I’m not an expert. I’m starting to become one, but I don’t have it down. I changed my clothes three times before I came here!"
Maggie has often spoken about how proud she is to have been given the part of Nessa. One of the reasons she got involved with the programme was because she can empathise with her alter ego away from the camera.
"Really, this story is about a woman beginning to come to terms with where she actually is, the damage she’s actually living with, how she deals with it. In the first episode, she’s doing an incredibly [convincing] performance. And I really relate to that. I think a lot of people do," she added.
"It seems like in your thirties, that performance starts to break down, whether you mean it to or not. I’m dealing with it - and so is this character. Coming to terms with the darkness and perversity and pain and damage inside every human, just by virtue of being human, is a lot of what this series is about."