Super Emily looks majestic (and Dick is still vivacious)
POSING hand on hip in a daringly low-cut white gown and with a playful smile on her lips, she doesn’t look like a nanny – particularly one as practically perfect in every way as Mary Poppins.
Emily Blunt, who takes the role in the eagerly awaited sequel to the 1964 film, swapped Mary’s demure costume for something more show-stopping at the premiere in Los Angeles.
The British actress, 35, replaces Dame Julie Andrews as the magical nanny who transformed the lives of the Banks children. This time, Mary visits the now grown-up pair in Depression-era London. Miss Blunt wore a billowing white Yanina Couture gown for the gala opening of Mary Poppins Returns. She was joined on the red carpet by the unstoppable Dick Van Dyke, 92, who played chimney sweep Bert in the original with a famously atrocious Cockney accent and features in the sequel in a new role. He is Mr Dawes Jr, son of the elderly bank boss he also played – under heavy makeup – in the first movie. Van Dyke has a song and dance number which sees him kicking up his heels on a table top. ‘Everyone on the set was surprised I could do it. And nobody was more surprised than I was,’ he told Parade.
He added: ‘I never thought I’d revisit this movie. Being in the cast just thrilled me.’
Mary Poppins Returns, which will be released in British cinemas on December 21, won a standing ovation at Thursday’s premiere and is already being tipped for success at next year’s Oscars after early previews.
According to one reviewer, Gregory Ellwood of The Playlist, Miss Blunt is ‘absolutely superb and her performance puts her smack dab in the middle of the best actress race’.
Producers may be hoping to rival the five Academy Awards won by the original, including best actress for Dame Julie, now 83.
The sequel also stars LinManuel Miranda, 38 – creator and star of hit stage musical Hamilton – as a streetlamp lighter called Jack, who is an old friend of Mary Poppins.
Ben Whishaw, 38, and Emily Mortimer, 46, play the grown-up Banks children and there are also roles for Dame Angela Lansbury, Meryl Streep, Colin Firth and Dame Julie Walters, but Dame Julie does not appear.
‘Nobody was more surprised’