In fact, the acclaimed actress-turned-movie-maker says the process of creating "Take This Waltz" was "definitely a lot scarier" than it was with her feature directorial debut, "Away From Her," because it involved her original screenplay.

By contrast, "Away From Her" - for which she won a Genie Award for best direction and an Oscar nomination for best adapted screenplay - was based on Alice Munro's short story "The Bear Came Over the Mountain."

"It was a short story I loved, so even when I didn't necessarily have confidence in myself as a filmmaker, I had confidence in the story. And even if the script wasn't perfect, I knew that at its spine there was a story that I loved," Polley, 32, said in an interview just days before Saturday's eagerly awaited "Take This Waltz" debut at the Toronto International Film Festival.

"When it's something you've invented from scratch, it's a lot harder to have that kind of confidence and that kind of faith throughout the process. But it's also really exciting and rewarding because you've come up with an idea, completely in isolation, you know - lying on your bed staring at the ceiling, and then all of a sudden there it is; you have all these amazing collaborators to help you make that real and tangible and physical.

"I think it's thrilling and it's also a lot more terrifying."

"Take This Waltz" stars two-time Oscar nominee Michelle Williams as Margot, a 28-year-old writer who questions her marriage to a cook (Seth Rogen) when she meets a handsome, rickshaw-driver neighbour (Luke Kirby) during a sweltering summer in Toronto. Sarah Silverman co-stars as Margot's sister-in-law, who is a recovering alcoholic.

Polley said she started writing the screenplay when she was editing "Away From Her."

"I think that all my short films, and then 'Away From Her' and this film, are all about looking at long-term relationships and the intricacies and complexities and maybe underlying, uncomfortable moments and decisions in long-term relationships. So this felt like an extension of them," said the Toronto native, who recently married PhD law student David Sandomierski and is expecting a child with him (she's 3 1/2 months along).

"Although it's an extremely different film from 'Away From Her' in many ways."

"Away From Her" and "Take This Waltz" are similar in that they both paint an unvarnished portrait of what the years can do to a relationship.

But while "Away From Her" features a couple in the twilight of their lives, "Take This Waltz" has characters still coming of age.

"Take This Waltz" also has much more humour than "Away From Her."

Polley said it wasn't intended to be a comedy but she felt it was important that the film have a sense of joy and playfulness about it.

"It's a film about desire and falling in love and about how addictive that is and so I felt like to achieve that, we had to feel as an audience, I think, some of the things that you feel at that stage in life," she said.

"There's a sort of vibrant colour that the world takes on and a playfulness and a kind of hysterical laughter that all of a sudden intrudes into your life, I think, when you're in that state, so I wanted the film to reflect those things."

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