Related: Mum's The Word For Gwyneth

Pregnant Gwyneth Paltrow is taking inspiration from her mother, Blythe Danner, who put her acting career on hold to raise Paltrow and her brother, Jake.

Now that the 31-year-old actress is expecting a child - though she will not say when she is due - with her husband, Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin, she said: "I might not work for ages."

"My mother turned down every fantastic movie there was," Paltrow tells W magazine for its June issue.

"She turned down these amazing things that would have made her a huge movie star."

Paltrow played poet Sylvia Plath opposite Danner last year in the film Sylvia, which she says is "the thing I've done that I'm most proud of".

"There are certain women in this business who have children, and I just think, 'You must never, literally never, see them,'" Paltrow says.

"You can't do movies back to back to back and see your child if they go to school."