In fact, she says she was so physically drained in the months following Ennis’s birth that she felt like she could barely hold a conversation, let alone be a series lead. “I was like, ‘I don’t even have time to take showers anymore, so how am I going to function on a set?’”

However, the show eventually came together and Dunst decided it was too good a role to pass up. And so she leaned on her producing partners. “Everyone goes back to work, and I realized that sometimes it’s just starting something for you to realize that you can do it,” she says. “But it’s scary until you actually start.”

Dunst credits her mother-in-law and close friends for helping with child care while she was working long hours on set. “You manage it, and people step in and help you. It’s just so important to ask for that help.”

Dunst had a support system behind the scenes, but that wasn’t the case for her character, Krystal, a woman who is mostly on her own with a young daughter. Dunst wanted to show the difficulties of being a working parent, which is why she wanted to have a child in as many scenes as possible. “Unless the next-door neighbor is watching her or she gets some kind of help, Krystal would always have a baby with her,” she explains. “That’s just her reality, and she’s doing everything she can to survive.” When long working hours on set prevented a real-life baby from being available, Dunst relied on a doll or the presence of a stroller.

Now, with the series finally set to premiere on Sunday, August 25, Dunst is glad she didn’t pass on the opportunity. “I feel like playing Krystal allowed me to let a lot of that rage out that we don’t usually get to express in our everyday lives,” she explains. “It was a very cathartic experience to play someone that didn’t care that much about what others think. The older you get, the less you worry about what everybody else is doing.”

Jessica Radloff is the Glamour West Coast editor. Follow her on Twitter @JRadloff and Instagram @jessicaradloff14.

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