Olivia Wilde needs to continue acting to keep "learning".

Olivia Wilde

Olivia Wilde

The 35-year-old actress made her directing debut with 2019 comedy 'Booksmart' but she has admitted she felt "insecure" about not having an education in film and that's why she felt like she couldn't become a director until now.

Olivia also vowed to continue her acting career as she loves learning by watching other directors in action.

Asked what stopped her taking to the director's chair before now, in an interview for PorterEdit's Women in Hollywood feature, she admitted: "Fear. For a long time, I was insecure that I hadn't been to film school. Then I realised my career was film school, because I was shadowing brilliant directors, seeing different techniques and asking endless questions, and I continue to do that. That's why I think I have to keep acting, so I can keep learning."

The 'In Time' star previously admitted she had to learn to "balance" her work and home lives.

Olivia - who has five-year-old Otis and two-year-old Daisy with her partner Jason Sudeikis - said that when both she and Jason were working on 'Booksmart' - which he starred as Principal Brown in - she had to make sure she struck a good balance between working and being at home with her brood.

She said: "I think for every working mother, that's the balance: Figuring out how much you can bring your kids to work and how much it will distract you. And I know there's a lot of mom guilt out there, thinking about, 'Shouldn't I be able to do it all at the same time and do it all perfectly?' And you can't. It's a balance.

"I shot four weeks of nights on Booksmart. I would come home at 7 am, get the kids up, make them breakfast, get them ready, take them to school, and then melt, just collapse. That's not something I could do for a sustained period of time, but for this moment, I was like, 'This is my dream come true. I get to direct a movie, I'm going to give it my all and make it work.'"

Tagged in