'It changes you infinitely in an overwhelming way': Emily Blunt discusses motherhood and her love-hate relationship with LA life

She became a mother for the first time in February 2014.

And, although she's a successful actress with many roles under her belt, Emily Blunt admits it's looking after daughter Hazel which is the most demanding of her jobs.

Speaking to this week's edition of Radio Times magazine, the 32 year-old star described parenthood as 'overwhelming' in a new interview with the title.

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'It changes you infinitely in a rather overwhelming way': Emily Blunt admits that parenthood is a game-changer

She said: 'It changes you infinitely in a rather overwhelming way. The best way I can describe it is that it’s like this lovely distraction that I always have.

'It’s always there and I love that feeling.'

However, she also added that living in Los Angeles can have its down-sides - especially with a youngster. Discussing her relationship with the city she added: 'It’s complicated! I love so much about LA and I hate a lot about it, too. 

'I hate that it’s a one-industry town and that the quest for success emanates from every corner of it. It can be suffocating in some ways. 

Mamma mia! The acclaimed actress said her daughter Hazel is 'a gorgeous distraction' 

Adding: 'But I love my friends there, I love the weather and it’s a very easy place to raise a child. 

'A lot of the time we live outside of LA in the countryside, in a place called Ojai, which is lovely and offers more respite than the city.'

However, living the Hollywood dream isn't always straight-forward - especially, she says, when so much focus is placed on gender. 

Parenthood: Emily and her partner John Krasinski welcomed their daughter into the world in February 2014

'It’s shocking,' she says of industry sexism. 'But at the same time I’m used to hearing studios crunching numbers on everything, from gender to whether someone has facial hair in the movie.

Read the interview in the new issue of Radio Times

'I did a film in which an actor had grown facial hair for his role and the head of the studio called him and said, ‘Look, we’ve done a lot of background checks on movies with guys with facial hair, and you’ve got to lose the beard.’ The actor said, ‘Great, I’ll lose the beard, and then you can find another actor.’

'They ended up keeping him because he was such a powerful figure at the time… And he kept the beard.'

She continued: 'Sure, I’ve experienced sexism but not that often any more. I do think I’m coming from a place of more confidence now because I’ve been doing this for 14 years and my opinion is more valued than it used to be.

'But I sometimes feel that we can exacerbate the problem by talking about it more. I think you can keep talking about it and create more and more of a stamp of divide. I think we need to do more and stop talking about it.

'We need to come up with practical solutions – like creating programmes to encourage female writers – rather than celebrating women who are already doing all right in Hollywood.' 

Read more in this week's issue of Radio Times

Creating a divide: 'I sometimes feel that we can exacerbate the problem by talking about it more. I think you can keep talking about it and create more and more of a stamp of divide', she said of industry sexism