Claire Danes covers the latest issue of Porter to promote the last season of Homeland, which is apparently still happening (I’m still shocked). Claire has been giving a lot of magazine interviews for her promo, and I have to say… I’ve been enjoying them? I used to not care about her that much, but she is legitimately wonderful in Homeland and she’s grown into one of the most talented actresses of her generation. Speaking of, Claire is 40 now, and she seems very content with her life these days, which also makes her an interesting interview subject. She even talks about Hugh Dancy and how he’s a crafter! LOL. You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:

On playing Carrie in Homeland: “I’ll miss playing such a brilliant, intrepid, impulsive, flawed hero. She’s a pain in the ass but she is always right in the end. She tends to prevail in her own perverse way. She did heinous things, over and over again – we tested the audience’s sympathy all the time.” But she was also unwaveringly fearless and capable. “To pretend to be that was pretty intoxicating. It’s so fun to have that swagger.”

How her life has changed in the past decade: “When I started Homeland, I was barely married, and now, we just had our ten-year anniversary and we have a seven-year-old and a toddler – WTF? And we’ve been such citizens of the world. Both our sons learnt to crawl in Morocco [where much of Homeland has been filmed], and I have some amusing breast-pumping photos in Moroccan green rooms.”

Motherhood: “It’s reorienting, but I love it and I’ve always wanted this. So it was really interesting playing someone who didn’t love it and didn’t want it,” she says of Carrie, who voluntarily signed over custody of her daughter in season four. “I was really glad to explore that, because I think it’s still a very stubborn taboo. Women are allowed a lot these days, relative to what they have been, but they’re still not quite allowed to not want to be mothers.”

Hitting pause on her acting career to go to Yale: “It was really good for me to go to college, because I was a bit frightened of women. On film sets, I was always surrounded by adults, so the last time I’d spent any real time with other girls was in junior high, so they froze in my mind as these intimidating, cruel creatures. Then I went to college and discovered, ‘Oh, people grow out of that.’”

Turning 40 last year: “I always felt the age I am now, so it’s nice to catch up with my actual age. It feels appropriate. I was weird,” she shares, candidly, of her younger self. “I’m not being cute – I was properly odd. I didn’t know how to hang out; I had to be applying myself all the time. I have never skipped a class in my life, my socks are always pulled way up to my knees. I’m supremely nerdy; I was never cool.”

Falling for Hugh Dancy: “Well, Hugh’s a big nerd, too. When we first started sorta-kinda-dating for real (ish), I had an ornament-making party for Christmas, and he helped organize it. Then he made an ornament of cowboy paper dolls, and I thought, ‘and he crafts?’ That was it. You have me for the rest of our lives.”

[From Porter]

Do you ever wonder why two people are together and then you find out some minor thing about them and you’re like “sh-t, it all makes sense now”? That’s what just happened to me with Claire and Hugh. I’ve always thought they seemed like an odd couple, like she’s kind of cutesy-hipster-intellectual and he seems so stiff and dry. But now I know that they’re crafters who craft together and it all makes sense. In this interview, she even talked about how proud she was of Hugh for making a papier-mâché head for his Halloween costume. They are crafting nerds and they are perfect for each other.

Photos courtesy of Porter and WENN.