Claire Danes Admits She 'Was Not Looking Forward to' Tapping Into Her Maternal Instincts for “The Beast in Me ”(Exclusive)

Claire Danes had to tap into her own maternal instincts for her latest role — and she wasn't looking forward to it.

While chatting with PEOPLE at a special screening for Netflix's The Beast in Me on Wednesday, Nov. 5, at The Plaza Hotel, the award-winning actress, 46, shares that she "was not looking forward to" tapping into her own maternal instincts for the role of Aggie Wiggs, a grieving mother who recently lost her son.

"Unfortunately, yes. That was unavoidable. I was not looking forward to that element of the character," she tells PEOPLE. "It really is every parent's most dreaded nightmare. But it was essential to who she was, and it drives her. I read a number of books about maternal grief and just...that's the job."

Danes is a mother of three children: sons Rowan, 7, and Cyrus, 12, and a daughter, 2, whose name hasn't been revealed. The Homeland actress shares her children with husband Hugh Dancy. The actors, who met on the set of the 2007 movie Evening, have been married since 2009.

Her role in The Beast in Me is not the first time she has referenced her role as a mom for a film. In 2018, she told PEOPLE during an exclusive interview that she could connect to her role in the 2018 film A Kid Like Jake as the mom of a "gender expansive" child.

“That’s not the case with my son exactly, but I certainly, certainly understand what it is to have anxiety about him being safe in the world and being identified as other in some way and it’s a completely natural impulse,” she said. “I think that’s really at the root of this story.”

While Danes and Dancy maintain their children's privacy, they occasionally share funny stories about them in interviews. Ahead of welcoming her daughter to the family, Danes revealed to Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show in 2023 that her son Rowan was "less than thrilled" about his family gaining a new member.

“Cyrus was sort of resigned to it. I mean, the worst has already happened. His name is Rowan,” she said. "But Rowan has more to lose like he has more at stake and he was categorically opposed to the idea."

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She shared that Rowan even suggested giving the baby to a family who didn’t have one of their own.

“But then we talked about how when the baby comes out, it's gonna be pretty dumb, doesn't know a lot. So, you know, it's gonna need assistance and some educating,” Danes said. “That was interesting to him. He liked the idea of being a sort of condescending presence.”

While at the Golden Globes earlier that year, the Fleishman Is in Trouble star said that she thinks her third baby is "the last" with Dancy.

"This one was a surprise," she admitted at the time. "This pregnancy happened to me ... But we're thrilled."