Jodie Turner-Smith says being a mother has made her “advocate ever harder” for herself.

Jodie Turner-Smith

Jodie Turner-Smith

The 34-year-old actress welcomed her daughter Janie into the world in April last year, and has said being pregnant made her realise how mothers are “discriminated against” in the workplace, and pushed her to do more to stand up for herself and other women.

She said: "Being a pregnant person taught me to advocate even harder for myself. You see the ways in which you're discriminated against as a pregnant person in the workforce. I mean, even in our business, people treat you different. That was interesting."

Jodie – who has her daughter with her husband Joshua Jackson – shot her latest project, Amazon Prime Video film ‘Tom Clancy's Without Remorse’, whilst she was in her second trimester.

And the actress said filming action scenes while pregnant made her realise how strong she is.

She added: "I learned so much about myself. There were definitely times where I was like, 'Well, I really think maybe I'm in over my head here.' I just really got down to business and pushed through. I'm so excited to share that eventually with my daughter, like, 'I was pregnant with you when I did that.' "

Now that she’s a mother, Jodie has begun to carry herself differently in the world because she knows her “child is watching”.

Speaking to People magazine, she said: "My child is watching. I have to, in my ways, show her how to be a person that loves themself. Loving yourself means having boundaries, means standing up for yourself, means standing up for what's right in the world. We're seeing so many things happen in the world that are not right."

Tagged in