Katie Holmes has revealed she found it impossible to go back to work straight away after having daughter Suri because she was such a nervous mum.

The Giver star's daughter is now eight years old and Katie has a stack of films lined up for release, but she said it took her a while to return to work after giving birth.

She told Du Jour magazine: "I totally admire women who go back to work six weeks after giving birth, but when she was little, I was not ready. I was a very nervous mother - like, sleeping next to her crib - and I was in that mode for a long time."

The Batman Begins actress also explained she'd had a dry spell of work after splitting from husband Tom Cruise.

She said: "It's the life of an actor. We don't really have a lot of choice in the matter. You have dry spells, and then you have times when there is a lot of opportunity."

Katie continued of her career: "It's been an interesting journey. Even when I was young, I was like, 'I hope I'm taking all of this in.' But I don't know how you ever measure that, and I've always been kind of calm about it. I just want to be inspired."

Admitting to being nervous at work, too, she said: "I think I've gotten more comfortable with acting over time. Early on, I could never get out of my head. I'd be thinking, 'I have to get the job.' And even when I had the job, I was afraid that I was going to get fired, or I just had the mentality of, 'I need to be good enough.'

"But the more projects you do, the older you get, the more life experience you get, you start to understand storytelling better. So you're a little bit more confident going in. You're not afraid of getting fired: You just want to contribute."