Olivia Colman essays the role of Leda, who has a very impressive background but is not a natural mother, in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut. This begs the question: what is a natural mother? Is she the one who devoted her entire life to nurturing her children and has made peace with the fact that she is just a mother now and nothing else? 

Colman and Gyllenhaal’s movie tries to look at the concept of motherhood through a different lens-from the eyes of a high achiever Leda. In a recent Netflix Film Club video, Gyllenhaal and Colman along with the rest of the cast dissect Leda and motherhood.

As Gyllenhaal says, Leda is a fascinating character. She is smart, aced her exams, and is a professor of comparative literature at the University of Boston. She had a loving husband, two daughters who were born in a gap of two years, but she ended up leaving them. What went wrong? 

Gyllenhaal was sure that she was “fundamentally sane“.

“I know two things about Leda. Two really important things. One was-she can’t be crazy.” 

As the movie progresses, viewers get to take a look at her inner struggles that she had been fighting ever since she had her first baby at 23. Leda loved her daughters but wanted to live her life on her own terms. The movie is at times painful but it shows the side of motherhood that Hollywood rarely portrays.

Coleman adds, “I love that all this stuff was talked about completely honestly.” 

How did Olivia Colman end up playing Leda? 

According to Colman, the deal was sealed over lunch with Gyllenhaal. 

But Gyllenhaal has something else to say. 

“I’ve sometimes had this as an actress where a director has imagined me as something which is way different than anything I’ve done. It’s almost like you have a cosmic…like, how did that person know to come to me for this? And I felt that way about Olivia,” said the director.

Her co-star Jessie Buckley who played the younger Leda emphasized that no one can stop themselves from falling in love with Colman. The actress gained appreciation for her portrayal of the conflicted character and scored nominations for the Best lead actress in the Oscars.

Have you streamed the Oscar-nominated movie yet? What did you think of the portrayal of motherhood in The Lost Daughter? Comment down below!