Blunt’s dramatic turns

British-American actress Emily Blunt turned 35 yesterday. Aref Omar lists some of the Hollywood star’s movie roles

1 MY SUMMER OF LOVE (2004)

This drama, based on the novel of the same name, was Blunt’s big screen debut. Her role as a privileged girl in a relationship with a working-class tomboy was also a breakout performance by the actress. A lot of scenes and dialogue were improvised during the filming of the movie, which told a story of deception and love in the English countryside.

2 THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA (2006)

Blunt received Golden Globe and Bafta nominations for Best Supporting Actress for her role as a snarky and manipulative senior assistant in this dramedy. The movie follows the adventures of a new graduate (Anne Hathaway) aspiring to make it in the world of fashion news by working under an icy and domineering editor-in-chief (Meryl Streep) of a top fashion magazine. Actor Stanley Tucci, who plays an art director in the film, married Blunt’s sister, Felicity, six years later.

3 THE YOUNG VICTORIA (2009)

Blunt plays the titular character in a dramatisation of the turbulent first years of Queen Victoria’s rule in this period drama, which saw her receiving Golden Globe and British Independent Film Awards nominations for Best Actress. She had played another Queen of England, Katherine Howard, in the 2003 TV movie, Henry VIII.

4 THE ADJUSTMENT BUREAU (2011)

This romantic sci-fi thriller, inspired by the Philip K. Dick short story titled Adjustment

Team, has Blunt playing a contemporary dancer in a relationship with a politician (Matt Damon), who discovers that chance events are being manipulated by an intelligence network using advanced technology. Some of her dance scenes were apparently completed using a body double, with her face digitally inserted onto the dancer’s body.

5 SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN (2011)

Blunt received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress for her role in this feel good romcom drama, based on the novel of the same name. In it she plays a financial adviser who recruits a fisheries expert (Ewan McGregor) to help realise a sheikh’s project of bringing the sport of fly fishing to Yemen.

6 LOOPER (2012)

Blunt plays the mother of a special boy who gets involved with a hired gun trying to escape his own assassination in this thrilling sci-fi movie. In order to realise the look of her Kansasnative farm worker role, the actress tanned herself and had her hair dyed sun-bleached blonde.

7 EDGE OF TOMORROW (2014)

Based on the Japanese Young Adult novel All

You Need Is Kill, this sci-fi thriller sees Blunt playing a hard-nosed soldier who helps another military personnel (Tom Cruise) trapped in a time loop to defeat invading aliens. Cruise had wanted to work with her and recommended Blunt to the producers for her role. This was her first action film and she apparently had to perform her action scenes for five months in a metal suit that weighed 40kg.

8 INTO THE WOODS (2014)

Blunt was pregnant during the filming of this musical fantasy based on the Broadway musical of the same name, which required her scenes to be specifically shot to hide that fact. Ironically, she played the wife of a baker who couldn’t conceive in the movie, which followed the adventures of the couple in trying to find a series of magical items from classic fairy tale characters for a witch (Meryl Streep) in order to break a curse put on their family.

9 SICARIO (2015)

Apparently director Denis Villeneuve wanted Blunt in this dramatic crime thriller after seeing her in The Young

Victoria. This movie sees the actress playing a tough role as an FBI agent enlisted by a government task force to aid in the war against drugs at the US-Mexico border. Blunt based her character on four female FBI agents she spoke to during her early preparation, whom she described as being shy and having loner qualities.

10 THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN (2016)

This mystery drama based on the novel of the same name saw Blunt receiving a Bafta nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role award. In it she plays an alcoholic divorcee, who becomes involved in a missing persons investigation that eventually spirals out of control and threatens to have dire consequences on her own life.