For many women, it might be thought becoming a mother means putting their career on hold.
But Sarah Snook has revealed the sleepless nights spent breastfeeding her baby helped her win her Olivier award.
The mother of one said breastfeeding her daughter in the middle of the night gave her the window to learn the 60,000 words of the Oscar Wilde monologue which won her British theatre’s biggest award on Sunday night.
The Australian actress best known for playing Shiv Roy in Succession, for which she won an Emmy for this year, won the best actress Olivier Award for her one-woman performance of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray.
Ms Snook, 36, said she had feared at one point she would not be able to learn her lines for her West End debut and that motherhood has once made her regret taking on such a demanding role.
Sarah Snook has revealed the sleepless nights spent breastfeeding her baby helped her win her Olivier award (pictured at the event on Sunday night)
Snook welcomed her daughter with her husband, Australian actor Dave Lawson, 45, last year
Speaking after collecting her award she said: ‘I just felt ‘what am I doing? Why am I doing a 60,000 word monologue with an eight-month-old baby?’ I felt so stupid.
‘So I was doing a lot of night breastfeeding.
‘And in the evening when I would wake up then rather than being on my phone and feeding her I would run over the lines.
‘I find that if you learn your lines at night and then sleep on them they do go in more effectively.’
Ms Snook went head-to-head with fellow TV star Sarah Jessica Parker, 59, of Sex And The City as well as Sheridan Smith, 42, Sophie Okonedo, 55, and Laura Donnelly, 41.
But the awards ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall was dominated by a revival of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Sunset Boulevard which won best actor and actress in a musical for its lead performers, Tom Francis and Nicole Scherzinger, 45.
This awards season has been one to celebrate for Ms Snook, which saw her triumph at the Critics Choice, Golden Globes and Emmy Awards.
The mother of one said breastfeeding her daughter in the middle of the night gave her the window to learn the 60,000 words of the Oscar Wilde monologue
The Australian actress best known for playing Shiv Roy in Succession, for which she won an Emmy for this year, won the best actress Olivier Award
During the evening she reunited with her on-screen father and Succession co-star Brian Cox
Snook welcomed her daughter with her husband, Australian actor Dave Lawson, 45, last year.
The Succession star made the announcement on Instagram as she penned an emotional tribute to the show after it aired its final episode.
She posted a photo of her and her new baby sitting in front of the TV, ready to watch the finale.
In the caption she wrote: ‘I just watched the final episode of the final season of something that has changed my life. And now, my life has changed again.’