Emily Blunt is taking a year off acting to be there for her children's milestones

It felt like the right choice for her family right now

Emily Blunt attends a photocall for "Sicario" during the 68th annual Cannes Film Festival on May 19, 2015 in Cannes, France.
(Image credit: Photo by Pascal Le Segretain / Getty)

Every working parent knows that balancing their children and their job requires a lot of forethought, planning, and prioritising.

For Emily Blunt, right now that balancing act means giving up acting for the year, so she can focus on her children in a way that works for her family. With that in mind, she does have two films awaiting release: Pain Hustler and the much-talked about Oppenheimer, but these were completed prior to her work break.

"This year I’m not working," Emily revealed on the Table for Two With Bruce Bozzi podcast (via Vanity Fair).

"I worked quite a bit last year, and my oldest baby is nine, we’re in the last year of single digits.

"I just feel there are cornerstones to their day that are so important when they’re little. And it’s, 'Will you wake me up? Will you take me to school? Will you pick me up? Will you put me to bed?'

"And I just need to be there for all of them for a good stretch. And I just felt that in my bones."

We're so happy for Emily that she was able to make a decision that feels right for her and her little ones in this moment.

The Mary Poppins Returns actress shares daughters Hazel, 9, and Violet, 7, with her equally famous husband John Krasinski.

This isn't the first time Emily has addressed wanting to be present for her daughters and prioritise them over her work — which is why she never leaves them for more than two weeks at once.

"Because even though they’re hardy, and they’re used to this strange life, it’s still rough on them when I have to go away," she told Harper's Bazaar in June.

"There are cornerstones of the girls’ day that I don’t want to compromise on — like, will you wake me up, take me to school, pick me up and put me to bed? And I just want to be able to say, yes, yes, yes. It’s such an exhale for me to be able to do that."

Iris Goldsztajn
Iris Goldsztajn is a celebrity and royal news writer for Marie Claire. As a London-based freelance journalist, she writes about wellness, relationships, pop culture, beauty and more for the likes of InStyle, Women's Health, Bustle, Stylist and Red. Aside from her quasi-personal investment in celebs' comings and goings, Iris is especially interested in debunking diet culture and destigmatising mental health struggles. Previously, she was the associate editor for Her Campus, where she oversaw the style and beauty news sections, as well as producing gift guides, personal essays and celebrity interviews. There, she worked remotely from Los Angeles, after returning from a three-month stint as an editorial intern for Cosmopolitan.com in New York. As an undergraduate at the University of California, Los Angeles, she interned at goop and C California Style and served as Her Campus' national style and LGBTQ+ editor. Iris was born and raised in France by a French father and an English mother. Her Spotify Wrapped is riddled with country music and One Direction, and she can typically be found eating her body weight in cheap chocolate.