It is difficult to reconcile family life with work. This is why there are women who decide to sacrifice their career when they are at the peak of success to dedicate themselves to their children. They can afford it because they have a more than comfortable economic situation, as is the case with many actresses. After combining intense filming far from home and long promotional tours, many performers take a break to stop being absent mothers and become present mothers. The latest to announce a temporary retirement from cinema is the British Emily Blunt (40). In one of the many interviews she has done to present the film Oppenheimer, which opens next week, she has acknowledged that she has worked non-stop in recent years and that the time has come to stop and be with her husband , actor John Krasinski, and the two daughters they have in common: Hazel (9) and Violet (7).
“I never feel like I’m doing well. But this year I’m not working”, Bruce Bozz revealed on the podcast. “In 2022 I worked a lot. My oldest daughter is now 9, and I feel that there are cornerstones in her day that are just as important as when she was a child. Shootings that take up a lot are becoming less and less frequent for me because of the emotional cost they have”.
As revealed by the protagonist of hits such as The Devil Wears Prada, Salmon Fishing in Yemen, The Girl on the Train, A Quiet Place or The Return of Mary Poppins, these were the insistent questions that her daughters asked her almost every day like: will you wake me up?, will you take me to school?, will you pick me up?, will you put me to bed?, the ones that led her to make the decision: “I need to be there for them”.
Before Emily Blunt, many other actresses made the same decision. Cameron Diaz, now mother to 4-year-old Raddick, retired from acting when she married musician Benji Madden, saying family was her priority. Just over a year ago, during the promotion of La ciudad perdida, Sandra Bullock announced that she was temporarily retiring from acting. “Right now, and I don’t know how long it will be, I need to be in the place that makes me happiest. I take my job very seriously when I work. It’s 24 hours 7 days and I just want to be 24 hours 7 days with my children and my family”, confessed to Entertainment Tonight, the actress, who has two adopted children: Louis (13) and Laila (11) .
Almost a decade ago, Eva Mendes was away from the filming sets and completely dedicated to her two daughters Esmeralda (9) and Amada (7), the result of her relationship with the actor Ryan Gosling, whom she met in the until now his last film Río perdido. “I wanted to be at home with my babies and, fortunately, my other businesses allowed me to do that more than acting,” explained the businesswoman on social networks. He also justified the decision because the roles he was offered did not excite him.
Phoebe Cates was a young actress very famous in the eighties for titles such as That Exciting Course or Gremlins. She married actor Kevin Kline and left her blazing career when her first son, Owen, was born in 1991. She even had to be replaced at the last moment in the film Father of the Bride. Three years later, Greta was born and today, about to turn 60 (July 16), she is still married to Kline and runs a fashion store in New York.
Michelle Pfeiffer, after starring in great hits such as Dangerous Friendships, The Fabulous Baker Boys, The Russian House, Frankie and Johnny or The Age of Innocence, married screenwriter David E. Kelley, was the mother of Claudia and John and retired to a ranch in San Francisco, to enjoy privacy and raising their children. “It seemed that it was getting harder and harder to say yes [to a job], and the papers didn’t justify leaving my family,” he said in an interview. “I didn’t want to interrupt his routine again and again, so I started being very picky about when I worked, where I worked and how long I was away, which limited my options.”
Since 2017 when she became pregnant for the first time, Elena Anaya slowed down her work considerably and concentrated on advertising and her real estate company. “I had to stop my career, press pause and take some time to fulfill a dream and do the best thing I could do in my life, which is to be a mother.” He now has two children with his partner, costume designer Tina Afugu Cordero, and continues to prioritize the family: “Now I have to take into account if I need to travel, if I can take the children to the shoot, more important factors than work, but the life goes on and you need to be able to be in everything”, he confessed last year to La Vanguardia Magazine.
