Rooney Mara Celebrates Raising Son River in a 'Creative Household' with Fiancé Joaquin Phoenix

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Rooney Mara is opening up about what it's like parenting with fiancé Joaquin Phoenix.

Speaking with the actor's sister, Rain Phoenix, on her LaunchLeft podcast last week, the Women Talking actress, 37, opened up about how her considerations when selecting roles have changed since becoming a mom to son River, 2.

"This was sort of my first job that I had done as a mother, and so it was a really important experience for me because I wasn't really sure if I could work, if I can do both," Mara shared. "I still don't know, but Sarah [Polley] made it possible on this, that we were working 10-hour days."

Mara also took advantage of the knowledge and advice of other moms on set. "I was able to get advice from Claire [Foy] and Sheila [McCarthy] and Judith [Ivey] and all these moms that I was working with, and River was there on set all the time, in the green room. It was a very idyllic situation, it probably won't happen like that again."

Later in the discussion, Mara revealed she'd always envisioned being a mom, having grown up as one of four.

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Todd Williamson/January Images/Shutterstock Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix

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"My mom had four kids by the time she was 27. So I was like, by the time I'm 25, I'll be done. I'll be ready to stop being so selfish." Mara recalled. "And then I was 25, and I was like, 'No.' "

Asked if she enjoys motherhood, Mara raved, "I love it. I love it so much. I think it's the best thing in the world."

"I mean, it sounds so cliché when you talk about it, but things are cliché for a reason," she continued. "I also have a very privileged life."

Mara went on to acknowledge how privilege makes her circumstances different than those of most other moms, sharing, "Motherhood is very challenging, even when you have a privileged life."

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"I'm so lucky that I have the choice to get to be with him most of the time. That I'm like, 'Oh, I'm just going to work once a year if something feels right and other than that, this is what I'm doing,'" she noted. "Most people don't have that option."

Never having expected to raise children with another actor, Mara said it doesn't feel like River is growing up in a "two-actor house."

"It doesn't feel like a two-actor house because I didn't work for the first three and a half years we were together," Mara explained. "Basically since we've been together, I only worked one or two times and one was really small and short. It feels like a creative household, we're constantly talking about creative things."

Phoenix and Mara first met in 2012 on the set of Her, in which Mara played Phoenix's ex-wife. The couple also costarred in 2016's Mary Magdalene, in which Mara played the titular role, and Phoenix portrayed Jesus.

Mara and Phoenix got engaged privately in 2019, and rumors of an engagement sparked when Mara was photographed wearing a large diamond ring on her left hand.

In September 2020, Mara and Phoenix welcomed their son, named after Phoenix's late brother who died in 1993.