Elisha Cuthbert Reveals Why She Took 4-Year Hiatus From Hollywood

Elisha Cuthbert is opening up about the very real reason she took a step back from Hollywood.

During an appearance on NBC’s Today on Tuesday, June 16, the Girl Next Door star revealed that she put acting on hold to spend time with her children and husband, former NHL star, Dion Phaneuf.

“I realized I worked all four years through our first child and it was really hard to separate that mom from the working person I was,” Cuthbert shared, while promoting her return to the screen in the new Prime Video series, Every Year After.

“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 continued. “I just felt like I needed to be at home with the kids and I enjoyed every minute.”

Now that her children — daughter Zaphire, 9, and son Fable, 4 — are getting older, the actress said she feels ready to return to work.

“They’re in school now full time,” she explained. “I feel like I have the space and the energy and the heart to kind of leave them and do it.”

Every Year After is Cuthbert’s first major acting role in four years, following the 2022 crime thriller, Bandit, which saw her star alongside Academy Award winner, Mel Gibson.

Prior to that, Cuthbert appeared on the Netflix sitcom, The Ranch, in 2020, which ran for four seasons and starred That ’70s Show alums Ashton Kutcher and Danny Masterson, as well as Landman‘s Sam Elliott.

The Canadian-born actress first got her start in modeling before making her acting debut at the age of 13, but it was in the early 2000s when she really got her big break with the beloved comedy, The Girl Next Door. Cuthbert went on to star in more fan favorites including Old School, and the hit TV drama, 24.

Elsewhere during her Today appearance, Cuthbert reflected on the cutthroat nature of celebrity in the early aughts, saying she faced “a lot of pressure” at the height of her career.

As for her Every Year After co-star, Sadie Soverall, the 43-year-old film and TV actress said she’s glad to know the 24-year-old won’t be up against the same level of scrutiny.

“It was a lot of pressure,” Cuthbert noted. “Sadie Soverall, it’s nice that she’s in a time now where she doesn’t have to worry about those things. It’s very different.”