Playing a mother in the drama Things We Lost In The Fire made mom-to-be Halle Berry, 41, realize how much she wants children.

“I choose movies that allow me to express whatever I’m most needing to express in my personal life,” she says at a screening of Things We Lost In The Fire presented by Variety/Moving Image. “In this case, I really wanted to be a mother. Every single thought on my mind was ‘motherhood, motherhood. How is this going to manifest in my life? It’s gotta happen, I can’t miss it, I can’t miss it.’ This movie came along and I was drawn to it. I realized after making this movie that I am meant to be a mother. I got to mother two beautiful, smart children for three months, and I realized I’m really, really meant to be a mother. There’s no mystery that as soon as that movie was over, it started to materialize in my life. It was a validation that I think I needed in some way.”

Things We Lost In The Fire is in theaters today.