The gynaecologists would come down to the ER set and into the trailer during her filming breaks, with a syringe of sperm. There she'd be, wearing her hospital scrubs and lying with her legs straddled. It didn't work, so then it was IVF. Every day she had to inject herself, same time, same day. If she was on a different time zone, she'd have to wake herself up in the middle of the night. In the first attempt, they were only able to retrieve five eggs and were meant to get eight and they didn't fertilise, so she had to start all over again. Even the doctors were amazed she was so calm. She says she was helped by kundilini yoga and by a therapist, Niravi Payne, author of The Whole Person Fertility Program. Payne apparently believes infertility can be traced back to experiences in the womb or childhood that have blocked you, and until you release them you can't conceive. "She's a wonderful woman. I only dealt with her on the phone, because she lives in Florida, but through talking you discover things about yourself you were not aware of, memories you've suppressed, anything that's a block. She also looks at family patterns. It all leaves an imprint." So did you have a pattern to unblock? "Yes, so did my husband, but it's extremely personal." She talks in easy-going therapy-speak, but I have to ask, was she perhaps blocked by the fact that she has a sister who was handicapped? Did that make her afraid of the birth? "She didn't receive enough oxygen at birth." So it wasn't as if she worried that it was hereditary? "No. But because of my age, I had a test, CVS [chorion villous sampling]. I certainly think there were fears I hadn't acknowledged, fears of what my mother went through during the birth process, but I learnt to get rid of those, so I wasn't fearful any more." She said her mother had not spoken much about giving birth. "But that's because I never asked. Also, I really didn't think there was a problem. I didn't feel it was anything that needed to be discussed, but obviously it did, and I did it with my therapist instead." Did you do it with your mum later? "No. Maybe that conversation will come up, now I've been through the birthing process." She talks about the feeling of absolute unconditional love. "You see this thing just for a few seconds and that love is already there. The last 40 days, I haven't left the house except twice to go to work, but now her 40 days are up." We both stare at Salome and she stares back, as if rather admiring herself. She has lots of hair - her mother's trademark thick curls. Has the dynamic of Kingston's relationship with her husband shifted? "Florian is very hands-on. He does all the laundry. He does the diapers, I do the breast-feeding." She likes it that he works at his computer and when he comes away, he's not working. With an actor, it's as if there's always something inside your head. She recalls being shut out by Fiennes and was mindful that it should never happen again. In the British season of ER, she's pregnant. In the US one, she's just had the baby. Does she wonder how long ER will survive? "I do. You don't know this in England yet, but Anthony Edwards [Dr Greene] is leaving next season." Is he going to die? "That I don't know. I don't know if it's necessarily damaging, because we've seen George [Clooney] and Julianna [Margulies] leave and it hasn't changed the ratings. But once Tony's gone, I'll be questioning how long it will run. At the moment, I am going to enjoy it to the fullest. Maybe there will be a sequel to Croupier." For the first time, I see a fleck of vulnerability. She did a lot of gambling to research Croupier, but says she is useless at it because she is terrible at maths. She watched in casinos in Vegas and London, but says she could not become hooked herself. "I observed a friend becoming addicted to gambling and found that extremely disturbing. I don't have an addictive personality." Not to anything? "I like shoes and handbags, but if I couldn't afford them I wouldn't buy them, not because I'm careful with money. I'm not. I just don't have the addictive personality. I think this is the reason why I love life, and I can't bear to see other people destroy theirs. An addiction can take hold of you and destroy your life." What about relationships? Had she never been addicted to a man? "I don't think it's about addiction, but it certainly can destroy a life. I wouldn't like to say I was addicted to any of my relationships. Others might disagree, but I don't think so," she says, pointedly. She claims not to be addicted even to acting, that there were lots of professions she fantasised about, including being a doctor, but there was the problem with the maths. One gets the impression that she could have done anything she set her mind to. Even at the point where she knows she's done very well - top-rating series and critically acclaimed movie - she still says she'd never punish herself by taking her work too seriously. "I love my work, but if I saw it was detrimental to my relationship with my husband, I'd do something about it. I'd work less. I'd even give up, actually. Because, as much as I love it, it's not the most important thing in my life." The baby is finally sated, eyelids drooping, husband and dogs come back in, and they leave, looking like they know what their most important thing is. HOME |