Emily Blunt poses on the red carpet upon arrival for the UK premiere of 'Oppenheimer' in central London on July 13, 2023. Photo: AFP
Emily Blunt says she is ready for a change of pace after numerous Hollywood projects – including Christopher Nolan's upcoming Oppenheimer – cut into her personal life in recent years.
The Devil Wears Prada star opened up about her latest efforts to strike a balance between work and family before Oppenheimer faces off against Greta Gerwig's Barbie at the box office on Thursday (July 20).
Blunt spoke to podcast host Bruce Bozzi for the most recent episode of his Table For Two.
"It's one of those things when people are like, 'How do you balance it?;' I never feel like I'm doing it right, you know,'" Blunt said in the episode published on July 10. "But this year I'm not working."
Blunt, who shares two children with A Quiet Place co-star John Krasinski, has taken on film and television gigs every year since 2020 – with even more projects on the horizon, including 2024 action film The Fall Guy.
However, at home, the actor feels she is missing out on important moments with daughters Hazel and Violet.
Krasinski and Blunt married in 2010 and welcomed Hazel in 2014. The couple announced the arrival of Violet in June 2016.
"My oldest baby is nine. Like we're in the last year of single digits," Blunt said. "I just feel there's cornerstones to their day that are so important when they're little."
She added: "I just need to be there for all of them for a good stretch. And I just felt that in my bones."
Like many working mums, the Mary Poppins Returns star said she feels guilty when she pursues her ambitions and has to spend time away from her family.
She also said that her Hollywood obligations varied in commitment. While she did not list productions by name, she said she's not taking on as many "time-consuming" opportunities due to the "emotional cost on me, on the kids, on balance".
Later in the podcast episode, Blunt admitted she struggles to find a reasonable work-life balance and often sways from one extreme end to another.
"I'll work too much, then I'll have a complete reaction against it and an aversion to being on a film set for a long time," she explained. "Then I'll want to desperately work again. So I don't know I do (the balance) moderately."
Since the British actor broke out in the early aughts, her career has spanned decades and genres.
She has also starred in Gnomeo & Juliet, Looper, Sicario and Into The Woods. But Blunt told Bozzi her own children couldn't care less about her impressive resume and joked that they "have no desire to watch me in anything."
"They just want me to be their mum," she said. – Los Angeles Times/Tribune News Service
