Family comes first for actor Chris O’Donnell

Actor Chris O’Donnell tells the June issue of Redbook magazine that he deliberately took a step back from acting in order to start a family.

"I was being offered these huge films that would have taken my career to a different level, and I decided to put on the brakes," People magazine reports he told Redbook. "I knew if I continued on that track, I probably wouldn’t have gotten married."

O’Donnell and wife Caroline, who have been married for 13 years, have five kids – Lily Anne, 10, Christopher "Chip" Eugene, 9, Charles McHugh, 6, Finley, 4, and Maeve Francis, 2.

Still, the 39-year old actor admits the challenges of being a dad aren’t any different in Hollywood.

"Maeve starts crying at 6:45 a.m. and we will start kicking each other under the sheets: ‘Maeve is crying. Get her,’" O’Donnell joked in the Redbook interview. "Or you’ll do that fake pretend sleep, where as soon as the other person gets up, you’ll say, ‘Oh, are you going to get her? I’ll stay here then. I didn’t even hear her.’"

O’Donnell is best known for film roles in Batman Forever, Batman and Robin, School Ties and Scent of a Woman. He currently stars as Special Agent Callen in the TV series NCIS: Los Angeles. His character is described as "a chameleon who transforms himself into whomever he needs to be to infiltrate the criminal underworld."