COVER STORY
Emily Blunt is enjoying one of the most diverse and interesting careers in Hollywood. She has shone in everything from comedy and drama to sci-fi and horror, all the while being part of one of the industry’s truest happily married couples. Now, after focu
Emily Blunt has had one of the best careers in Hollywood. Now she stars with Dwayne Johnson in their new comedy.
Emily Blunt is sipping tea at the side of a draughty soundstage in downtown Atlanta, Georgia. She looks every inch the adventurer in a costume befitting the eccentric Dr Lily Houghton, her alter ego in the comedy Jungle Cruise. Blunt’s co-star, Dwayne Johnson, in complementary safari attire, walks towards us, catching some of our conversation about the success of A Quiet Place, the blockbuster thriller in which she starred, alongside her husband, John Krasinski, who also directed it.
“I was just talking about A Quiet Place,” she tells him. “Oh, didn’t see it,” he responds. “It kind of did well,” she deadpans, her gaze fixed on him while she understates the obvious. (The film’s box office receipts were in excess of US$340 million on a budget of US$17 million). Johnson laughs, shrugging his shoulders, “Didn’t see it.” She smiles and shakes her head.
It’s this same banter and camaraderie between them that is evident on screen. They are not faking it. It seems they have met their match on and off-screen. An assistant director signals her and Blunt nods before swiftly resting her cup on a nearby stool. She picks up her khaki hat and readies herself to run through the makeshift Amazon jungle.
Watching Blunt, I’m reminded that this slightly built movie star is no stranger to action sequences as evidenced in sci-fi thriller The Adjustment Bureau, as well as her turn in Edge of Tomorrow, opposite Tom Cruise. She looks completely believable as a female Indiana Jones archetype. Johnson looks on, his massive arms folded and his face lights up watching her. She returns from the scene with a deep sigh and a mile-wide smile. “When they told me the film was a two-hander with Dwayne Johnson, I said, ‘Who is that guy? Is he new to the scene?’” she winks, knowing he’s within earshot. Johnson leans in while she continues.
“I was a little cynical when I started reading the script for a movie in which I’d be ‘the girl in a Dwayne Johnson movie’. But then I realised, ‘You’re the girl in this movie,’” she turns to Johnson. The humour isn’t lost on this hulking former world wrestling champion, a behemoth standing at 6 foot 5, and weighing in at 260 pounds. He nods slowly, “Yes, I’m the girl.” He adds, “Emily was game from day one. She is playing this doctor in a very Indiana Jones inspired way with all the wisdom and badassery.”
ADVENTURE IN HER BLOOD
Given the subject of the movie, how does Blunt rank herself as an adventurer in real life?
“I’m pretty adventurous,” she considers. “Actually, when we were growing up, my parents would take the family on really extraordinary trips. My dad would save up money and take us to Egypt and South Africa and Australia and Morocco and Israel,” she says. “So I grew up going to these really incredible countries and immersed in different kinds of cultures. I was so interested by it … even if some days I was a bratty 13-year-old while my mum would be dragging us to some ancient ruins in Crete,” she chuckles.
“So, it’s been instilled in me from a young age – the need to travel and the need to see other worlds and the possibility of what’s out there.”
Listening to Blunt, an eloquent and articulate actress, it’s difficult to reconcile her fluid speech with the fact that she was a stutterer during her formative years. Despite the years when her parents would take her to speech and relaxation coaches, what worked for Blunt was when she began acting and the stuttering stopped. She now sits on the board of the American Institute for Stuttering. “I feel like I have a real sense of purpose with this foundation
“IT’S AN EXCITING TIME FOR WOMEN AND WE CAN FEEL THE TIDE IS TURNING.”
because it’s so personal to me and I understand exactly the anguish and the hardship of what these kids and these adults are going through,” she says. “There’s a lot of misinformation about stuttering and I think that is my job to enlighten people on what it’s about; that it’s not anxiety ridden, it’s not that you have a mental disability, it is that you have a nervous disposition. It’s neurological, it’s hereditary, it’s genetic and it’s nobody’s fault.”
She pauses. “And the kids can do nothing about it and so of course I have so much empathy, so much sympathy for them because it’s also the kind of disability where because you cannot speak, you can’t even explain it to people.” A frown appears. “You know something, what I love is that I’ve never met a mean stutterer. Once you’ve been humiliated, you’ll never do it to anybody else. Ever.”
Back to easier waters, Jungle Cruise is set in 1917, based on the famed Disneyland ride, and mostly takes place on a riverboat helmed by a wisecracking skipper (Johnson) who takes the good doctor and her brother (English comedian Jack Whitehall) on a mission into the jungle to find the Tree of Life, believed to possess healing powers. All the while, the trio must fight against dangerous wild animals and a competing German expedition.
ON-SCREEN CHEMISTRY
Much of the appeal is dependent on the chemistry between the two leads and theirs – as I’ve already seen up close – does not disappoint.
“Chemistry is the space between,” she says. “It’s not something you can bottle up and sell, and chemistry is not something you have with everybody. You can fake it, it’s not as much fun but you can do that and I have done that, but there’s been certain films where I haven’t had to do that, like this one, and it’s just been way more exciting to do the scene. You can play off each other in such an intrinsic way.”
Besides remaining remarkably unaffected, Blunt also deserves credit for steering one of the most diverse and interesting careers in Hollywood. She has proven there is nothing she can’t do – having nailed a beleaguered assistant to a nightmare fashion magazine mogul in The Devil Wears Prada (2006), Queen Victoria in The Young Victoria (2009), a kickass FBI agent in Sicario (2015), and a derailed alcoholic in The Girl on the Train (2016), before adding singing and dancing to her CV, too, with 2014’s Into The Woods and as beloved literary figure Mary Poppins in Mary Poppins Returns (2018).
Chatting to Blunt again, 18 months after being on the Atlanta set, this time via Zoom from her New York home, I find the upbeat optimist in her still, with gratitude galore on the side. With the world still deep in COVID-19, she was promoting her rom-com, Wild Mountain Thyme, opposite Jamie Dornan, and the world had changed in every way since we last spoke.
She says of her COVID-19 experience, “I’m in a position where I’m able to see the silver linings and I’m very grateful. I enjoyed the sense of togetherness that we had as a family with my children and having no schedule. No need to be rushing out the door, grabbing school bags and lunches,” she smiles. “I think when you strip all of that away, all of that white noise, all of that madness and you get to just be and be with each other, I think that was a real discovery for me. I mean, how do you want to really spend your time? What is really important? What matters? I think that’s what I learned a lot during this time.”
Did she learn anything in the kitchen?
She laughs. “Well, I did do a lot of cooking. I finally managed to figure out how to make a chocolate chip cookie. I’ve never considered myself a good baker but I do love to cook and I made about 20 different kinds of chocolate chip cookies. I’ve now nailed it,” she grins
triumphantly. Does her significant other display any culinary skills? “John cannot cook to save his life,” she chuckles. “But with home schooling, he does the maths because I’m genuinely dreadful at maths and he’s also better at arts and crafts, while I’m better at English.”
Blunt grew up the second of four children. Her father is a barrister and her mother a teacher and former stage actress. (Blunt’s older sister, Felicity, is married to Stanley Tucci – the couple met at Emily and John’s wedding in 2010). Now Blunt and Krasinski are raising their two daughters: Hazel, 7, and Violet, 3.
FAMILY VALUES
It must be quite a juggle for Blunt to navigate a prolific movie-star career while parenting two small children?
“I don’t think it’s more of a juggle for me than it is for any other mother out there or any other father. I think John should be brought into the loop with this as well because it’s often women who get asked, ‘How do you juggle it?’, but actually it’s hard for him to juggle everything, too,” she says. “I’ve never been away from the kids for longer than a week and he’s never done longer than two weeks. If you can fly back for 24 hours, then you do it.”
She and Krasinski are regarded as one of Hollywood’s truest happily married couples, and the subject of love rears its head. “Oh gosh. That’s a big word. It’s too overwhelming, too ethereal and difficult to sum up. And besides, I’m from England. I don’t do very well with this kind of talk,” she laughs. But she does offer, “I hit the jackpot with John, especially as a dad. He’s completely devoted to them.”
In person or via Zoom, Blunt comes across as very much herself. She is, as her name suggests, rather direct with no time for disingenuity. She’s quick-witted and selfdeprecating with a no-nonsense demeanour. Much prettier in person, her blue eyes sparkle when she smiles and her laugh is infectious. Her career, meanwhile, remains on the ascendant. With cinemagoers still in thrall to A Quiet Place Part II, she is moving on to her much louder next project. “It’s called The English, and it’s a Western,” she laughs. “It’s epic and as witty as it is violent. It’s my first Western and I can’t wait! My heart is racing just speaking about it.”
Is she honing her horseriding skills? “Well, yeah, I’ve been practising. I ride three times a week. I hadn’t had a lesson since I was a kid so my legs were rather surprised by their inability to walk the next day. I was put on a slow, plodding horse and gradually I graduated to a sort of Ferrari of a horse,” she smiles. “I’m improving but I’m very aware I need to look the part, so I have a lot more practising to do.”
Blunt could best be described as a quiet achiever. Despite her success, she retains an inherent English sensibility where there is no tolerance for brashness or self-congratulatory behaviour. “Well, I’m British. I think we tend to not want to appear too big for our boots. which is a common theme, and to not enthuse too readily about yourself, to not appear to know your value or know your worth,” she shrugs. “But at the same time, after a while you get to a point where you become unapologetic about what you want. And while I think it’s a harder thing for women to reclaim that idea of ambition, ambition is really just dreams with purpose, and there’s certainly nothing wrong with that.
“It’s an exciting time for women and we can feel the tide is turning and for me and my girlfriends, we talk about it all the time – that things have shifted,” she adds. “But there’s more work to be done.”
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Emily Blunt spent her formative years struggling with a debilitating speech disorder. She talks about her adolescent stuttering, the bullying she endured and her work with the American Institute for Stuttering. mindfood.com/emily-stutter
“I HAVE NEVER BEEN AWAY FROM THE KIDS FOR LONGER THAN A WEEK.”
EMILY BLUNT