Emily Blunt assured fans she is not quitting her acting career after sharing in an interview that she was taking a step back from Hollywood.
“Honestly, that story got so, sort of, overblown,” the actress told Deadline Thursday at the London premiere of her new film “Oppenheimer.”
“I was just taking some downtime — not quitting Hollywood,” she reiterated, adding that she was “just taking some months off to be with the kids.”
Blunt, 40, made headlines earlier this week when she revealed on a podcast that she planned to take a break from her job.
“This year, I’m not working. I worked quite a bit last year, and my oldest baby is 9, so we’re in the last year of single digits,” she said on iHeart’s “Table for Two with Bruce Bozzi” Monday.
Blunt — who shares daughters Hazel, 9, and Violet, 7, with her husband and fellow actor, John Krasinski — added that she feels that her children are at the ages where “there are cornerstones to their day” that she doesn’t want to miss.
“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,” she said.
The “Devil Wears Prada” star explained that there is an “emotional cost” to her and her family when she is consumed with a project and that she is “very prone to guilt.”
“I think maybe all mothers are,” she said. “You’re just prone to feeling bad for, God forbid, wanting something outside of being a mother.”
However, Blunt stressed that she supports working moms.
“I’m a huge advocate for women being ambitious. It’s just dreams with purpose. It’s not an ugly word,” she said.
The “Marry Poppins Returns” star’s comments on her career in Hollywood come shortly after she shared that she hopes her kids do not pursue acting.
“My toes curl when people tell me, ‘My daughter wants to be an actress.’ I want to say, ‘Don’t do it,’” she told Harper’s Bazaar UK in an interview published in June.
“Because it’s a hard industry, and it can be very disappointing. A lot of people tell you not to take things personally — but it’s completely personal, especially when you’re being judged on how you look. So you just have to endure that side of things.”
Blunt and the “Office” star, 43, have been married since 2010.
