Katie Holmes gives herself a curfew.

Katie Holmes

Katie Holmes

The 37-year-old actress wants to be a "dependable" mother to her 10-year-old daughter Suri - who she has with ex-husband Tom Cruise - so ensures she is home at a sensible hour when she isn't working.

She said: "When I'm not on set, I'm being a mom. I'm doing mom stuff.

"When I go to an event, I leave at 10pm because it's really important to me to be a mom that is dependable."

Despite her high profile, the former 'Dawson's Creek' actress insists she never has to avoid things she likes to do because of the attention she attracts.

Asked if there's anything she wishes she could do if not under scrutiny, she told Modern Luxury magazine: "That's an interesting question because I kind of do everything I feel like doing.

"I don't monitor my behaviour for press purposes."

The 'Touched With Fire' star thinks it is "important" Suri has an ordinary childhood just like she did and insists the youngster will always come before her work.

She said: "It's important to me.

"We do a lot of cousin time with my nieces and nephews. I think the most important thing in my life is giving my child the childhood I want her to have. That comes first. That dictates where I work and when I work because it's my main job right now."

Katie has just finished working on 'All We Had', which she directed and stars in as Rita, who is struggling to raise her 13-year-old daughter Ruthie.

And the brunette beauty felt that when making the move into directing, she should choose a subject matter she felt "comfortable" with and could relate to, so thinks she chose the right project.

She said: "I thought, if I'm going to do something I've never done before, I should pick something I feel comfortable with.

"I'm from a family of five children, and I have three sisters. That female relationship is familiar to me.

"A mother's love is greater than anything; it's definitely a universal theme.

"I think seeing Ruthie fight her mother is natural to [any] mother/daughter relationship. But Rita is very much a child herself, which makes them more original in their relationship.

"I felt like we haven't seen that kind of story too much between mother and daughter. I thought that was worth telling."