She may have an Oscar to her name, but Marcia Gay Harden's 9-year-old daughter isn't interested in her expertise. The two of them have done some acting together, and Marcia recounts, "At one point I was giving her a tip and she said, 'Mom, I have a director on the set!'"

The star is pursuing her acting career while raising three kids, and compares the experience to a circus act. "Any working mom knows it's like juggling frogs trying to do everything you want to do with your kids and everything you're doing with your work, and, oh my God there's the husband too!" It gets even busier this time of year as she fits in holiday traditions to their routine. "We do the stockings, we do the Christmas tree, we do the ornaments, we do the going out to find the Christmas tree," Marcia says. "I think traditions are important, I think for the kids to be involved in something using their imagination and their intelligence is super important." That includes the design of their holiday card each year which is photographed by her brother, Thaddeus Harden.

She also has a movie out this season, the Stephen King horror flick The Mist, a story about a group of townspeople who are trapped in a grocery store by an unidentified mist. Marcia's character is a religious extremist who causes her own sort of trouble during the crisis. "She's divisive ... and she ends up, you know, wanting to sacrifice people," Marcia says. "She's not a nice lady, even at the premiere my husband was yelling 'kill her.'"

Extra video! Marcia Gay Harden reveals a "dirty" secret about Clint Eastwood. Click on the video above to get the juicy details.