Farmiga balances roles in ‘Bates Motel’

By Luaine Lee

McClatchy-Tribune News Service

PASADENA, Calif.

Before she had her two children, actress Vera Farmiga used to knit her husband a sweater every year. It was not the artist in her that compelled her to do it; it was the peasant.

Farmiga’s parents are from Ukraine, and she grew up folk dancing, playing the piano and steeping in the enchanting tales her paternal grandfather would spin.

“I just remember him holding me, my best friend, my cousin — who’s a year younger than me — and just telling us stories about princesses — and kind of living vicariously through these other girls’ experiences of life. ... Stories are important, not only for entertainment but as a social platform. And I guess there’s a pride in me, being a storyteller, a sincere joy,” she says.

She’s telling a whopper now. Starting Monday at 10 p.m., Farmiga stars as Norman Bates’ mother in “Bates Motel,” a 10-part series airing on A&E that serves as a prequel to the classic film “Psycho.”

Here she reveals a very different woman from the one we had imagined from the withered apparition glanced in the film. Farmiga plays a loving but determined mother of a teenager who buys a decaying motel in the hopes of starting a new life after her husband’s untimely death.

While Farmiga’s children are only 2 and 4, she’s a fiercely devoted mother, too. “Right now my focus is my children, and it’s just stimulating them and shaping them, molding and shaping them to be the best little people that they can,” she says, seated on the overstuffed bench in a lobby lounge here.

“For weekends now, it’s not about my needs but my children’s needs. My children’s needs are my needs.”

She admits that it’s difficult combining a demanding career and child rearing. But her husband, former musician and now film producer Renn Hawkey, shares the responsibilities. “My husband steps in, and he’s daddy day-care if we end up with no help. He knows if I can’t do it, then he’s the second best. We switch off. If I’m not working, then I am there.”

She occasionally contemplates quitting, she confesses. “Because it really depletes me, and I want as much energy as I can to love my family to the best of my ability. And when I’m not up Saturday morning 6 a.m. with them, it’s a bummer because I’ve been working till 3 a.m. the night before. But I’m not complaining. It’s a really joyful career. And it comes with many perks and an amazing quality of life. But I try not to be that [negative] person. I try to be grateful for it and stay positive — yeah, it’s depleting.”

Unlike most actresses, Farmiga’s not obsessed about her next job. “I’m a provider for my family, so in that respect, sure,” she says. “But I also think there’s a handful of other things that I’m interested in that if I ever got bored or complacent, I would look elsewhere. That’s just my nature. I’ve always been a kind of roll-up-your-sleeve and let’s-be-passionate about what you do.”

Aside from finding greater purpose in motherhood, Farmiga says she’s also found the love of her life in her husband.