Blunt’s sharpener for the red carpet
Emily Blunt tells Bryony Gordon about being nominated for a Bafta – and why she needs a shot of tequila before she hits the red carpet
Actress Emily Blunt tells The Daily Telegraph why she will need a shot or two of tequila before the Baftas tomorrow.
When Emily Blunt steps on to the Bafta red carpet tomorrow night, resplendent in a gorgeous designer gown and most probably dripping in diamonds, know this: she has just had a shot of tequila. While most Hollywood actresses prepare for awards season with strenuous workouts and discreet trips to their favourite cosmetic surgeon, the 33-year-old admits to a slightly different tactic: booze.
“I quite enjoy the whole thing now,” she says of the pantomime that is awards season. “I used to dread it. I found it hard to wrap my head around the exposure. When you actually really think about it, it’s a sort of strange thing to do, to walk down a red carpet with a ridiculously overthe-top-gown. So I do tend to look at it as a sort of spectacle, and embrace it as that. I have fun. I get ready, enjoy the dressing-up part. And I do a shot of tequila and get in the car.” Is that all she drinks? “No, not usually. Usually it continues so I can get through the night.”
This is the weekend that Emily Blunt goes up against the likes of Emma Stone, Amy Adams and Natalie Portman for her portrayal of a troubled young woman in The Girl on the Train. She is realistic about her chances of winning – she says she was “surprised” to get the nomination, “really touched, really quite blown away”, because the critics were not kind to the film, a big-screen adaptation of the multimillion-selling novel by Paula Hawkins. “You have no control over that kind of thing. You just have to do the jobs you love and make the choices that feel true, and if people want to tear it apart then that’s part of the deal in this profession.” But were there an award for Biggest Girl Crush, Blunt would surely walk away with the title. Ever since the Roehampton-born actress sashayed on to our screens as the bitchy magazine assistant in 2006’s The Devil Wears Prada – more than holding her own against Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci, who would later become her brother-in-law (more of which later), she has scored roles as Queen Victoria in The Young Victoria, done big-screen action alongside Tom Cruise in Edge of Tomorrow, and been a “raging alcoholic” in The Girl on the Train, where she had to play a woman who frequently wets herself, blacks out and vomits. She is nothing if not versatile. “The feedback I’ve had from most women is, ‘Oh, thank goodness, we’re being represented as women who are flawed and imperfect’,” she says of the film. “That’s what I liked about it – it was a film about a woman’s right to be bad.” Next, she will explore a woman’s right to be very, very good, playing Mary Poppins in the sequel to the much-loved 1964 movie – surely an easy task for someone so warm and intensely likeable. “It’s thrilling, thrilling,
‘Being cast as the next Mary Poppins is thrilling – it’s going to be fabulous’
thrilling!” says an excitable Blunt of the role. “What can I tell you about it? Just know it is all fabulous.”
Are there lots of songs? She mishears me. “I thought you said, ‘Are there thongs?’ and I thought ‘Wait, why are we talking about my underwear?’ ” But yes, she says, there are all new songs.
“It was always quite knee-knocking to sing in front of other people, but I have no excuse now. I’ve just got to do it! I’ve been to a couple of really fantastic singing teachers, and now I’m learning to enjoy it, rather than be embarrassed by it.”
Blunt is no-nonsense, grounded, fun. We are both in London when we are connected for our interview over the phone via her agent in New York – a palaver that the actress recognises as faintly ridiculous. When we speak, she is on a day off, cooking miso black cod for her sister, the charming literary agent Felicity Blunt, who married Tucci after an introduction from Emily. Felicity and Stanley live in Barnes, while Emily has made a home in Brooklyn with her husband, the American actor John Krasinski.
They have two daughters – Hazel, two, and Violet, eight months – and last year Blunt got dual citizenship, meaning she was eligible to vote in the last election (for Hillary, of course). What does she make of her adopted home right now? “I have very, very complicated feelings,” she says, thoughtfully. “I think the best thing to do in situations like this, where everything feels rash and chaotic and fearful, is to get organised. That’s what’s been so rewarding and illuminating about seeing the very peaceful protests and the women’s march. In a strange way, the United States has seemed like a rather ironic statement for a while. But people are really teaming up, being galvanised into doing good, so I am trying to maintain a sort of hopeful attitude rather than sitting in a resentful place.”
She also went to the women’s march in London, but her agent comes on to the line to request that I ask no further questions about Donald Trump. “I know, I know,” apologises Blunt. “Everyone wants to talk about it. I understand.”
For now, Blunt is in London, filming Poppins. She isn’t quite sure that her eldest child has grasped what her parents do for a living. “She must feel really confused. She went to see Daddy at work when he was doing a play at the Public Theatre in New York and it was a very modernistic set, a very stark set, with this bright blue stage. ‘Daddy’s working on a blue stage’ was all she would talk about. Then she came to see me on set, where I was on a green screen stage, and she must just think we are bizarre.”
Blunt laughs down the line. “Hazel watches Peppa Pig and she sees that the mum works on a computer at home and Daddy goes to work in an office, and she’s like, ‘My parents are INSANE! Why can’t you just be more Mummy and Daddy Pig?’ ”
As Blunt is currently in the throes of playing the world’s most famous nanny, she has no qualms about discussing childcare. “We have an amazing nanny, an incredible one. And my mum’s around. My husband has been around a lot.”
And nobody ever asks him how he manages fatherhood and work. “It’s really interesting. You’re made to feel a bit defensive about the fact you work. I’m only just learning to be like ‘Yeah, I have a nanny!’ I think maybe because my job looks a bit frivolous and not like work, maybe that’s why the question comes up.”
How does she feel about actresses being on “parade” on the red carpet? “I feel it’s similar to the film choices I make. Just wear what you want to wear and as long as you feel comfortable, it matters not what anyone else thinks. If people want to be like a pack of vultures and be mean about it, then that’s on them. It’s like, ‘Come on, it’s just a dress! Let’s talk about something that really matters. Who cares what I’m wearing?’ ”
She jokes that, tomorrow night, she might need to do another shot of tequila in the car. “Maybe I could go on the red carpet with a hip flask,” she laughs. “You’ll be judging the size of my bag to see if I have anything stashed in there.” Go on, I laugh, you know you want to. “OK,” she laughs. “Done!” I think I’ll always be a bit in love with Emily Blunt.