Elisha Cuthbert has opened up about stepping away from acting for four years to focus on her family. The actor said she found it difficult to balance work and motherhood after continuing to film through the early years of raising her first child. When she had her second child, Cuthbert decided to pause her career and spend more time at home. She is now returning to the screen with Prime Video’s upcoming series ‘Every Year After’.According to ANI, Cuthbert spoke about her break during a recent appearance on the ‘Today’ show. The ‘24’ and ‘The Girl Next Door’ actor said becoming a mother changed how she viewed work and made her reassess the time she wanted to spend away from her children.
Elisha Cuthbert on taking a break from acting
Cuthbert said she had worked throughout the first four years of her older child’s life. Looking back, she said it was difficult to separate her responsibilities as a parent from her life as an actor.“I realized I worked all four years through our first child,” Cuthbert said. “And it was hard to separate that mom from the working person I was.”She and her husband, former NHL player Dion Phaneuf, share two children. After welcoming their second child, Cuthbert said she wanted to be fully present at home.“So, when we had our second, I just felt like I didn’t want to waste any second of it and I didn’t want to be on set,” she said.The actor added, “I just felt like I needed to be at home with the kids and I enjoyed every minute.”Cuthbert’s last major screen role before the break was in the Netflix comedy series ‘The Ranch’. She also appeared in the 2022 crime film ‘Bandit’.
‘Every Year After’ marks Elisha Cuthbert’s return
Cuthbert said her children are now in school full-time, which helped her feel ready to work again. “They’re in school now full time,” she said. “I feel like I have the space and the energy and the heart to kind of leave them and do it.”Her return comes with ‘Every Year After’, a coming-of-age drama based on Carley Fortune’s novel ‘Every Summer After’. Cuthbert plays Sue Florek, the mother of Sam and Charlie.She said she had not read Fortune’s books before joining the series. But after reading the novel, she became a fan. “It’s crazy because I hadn’t read any of Carley’s books and then I got on the show,” Cuthbert said. “Obviously had the script, but I wanted to read the novel. And then I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m a superfan now.’”Cuthbert said the series felt like the right project for her return to acting.