OVERCOMING A SPEECH IMPEDIMENT TO BECOME ONE OF TINSELTOWN’S HIGHEST PAID ACTRESSES, THE DYNAMIC LONDON-BORN OSCAR NOMINEE IS KICKING OFF THE SUMMER WITH A PAIR OF MAY FILM RELEASES: THE THRILL PACKED STUNTMAN SAGA THE FALL GUY, AND THE FAMILY FANTASY IF, WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY HER HUBBY, JOHN KRASINSKI

BY AMANDA McCOY

In early 2006, buzz was mounting for Wendy Finerman’s (Forrest Gump) soon-to-be Millennial cult classic The Devil Wears Prada. Early trailers revealed a star-studded cast: rising cinematic sweetheart Anne Hathaway as the dowdy, doe-eyed New York newcomer chasing her journalistic dreams, and the inimitable Meryl Streep as the deliciously icy editor-in-chief of the most prominent fashion magazine in the world. (Fun fact: at the time, Streep wasn’t recognized for her comedic chops, thus many doubted her casting as Miranda Priestly. Naysayers were promptly silenced upon the film’s premiere, and Streep even nabbed an Oscar bid for the role.) Supporting roles were equally stacked, featuring Stanley Tucci as Hathaway’s kind-but-candid mentor, and Adrian Grenier as the boyfriend (keep in mind the film premiered at the height of his Entourage fame). One name very few knew, however, was Emily Blunt, a recent Hollywood arrival who made her feature film debut only two years prior as Tasmin in the 2004 psycho logical indie-thriller My Summer of Love. But as credits rolled, it was clear the nation had just witnessed a budding star’s breakout moment.

In her portrayal of Emily Charlton, Miranda Priestly’s ambitious senior assistant, Blunt demonstrates the type of brilliant nuance that would soon catapult her to leading lady status. Emily’s character could have easily fallen into a trope, yet Blunt is able to capture her complexity. She’s introduced as an antagonist, a status-chasing, rank-pulling workaholic with zero patience for Andy’s (Hathaway) idealistic principles and off-the-rack skirts. But as the story progresses, audiences are shown the underbody of Emily’s carefully curated, high-heeled exterior, served in-between hilariously apathetic one-liners like, “I’m hearing this, and I want to be hearing this.” It’s a dance Blunt pulls off without a hitch, a masterclass in restraint and comedic timing. It’s a skill she would flex in a vast variety of genres over the next two decades, from period dramas and dark comedies to sci-fi thrillers and musicals. (Yeah, she can sing, too. See 2018’s Mary Poppins Returns as proof.)

Emily Blunt is Judy Moreno in THE FALL GUY, directed by David Leitch

Born in London in 1983, Blunt battled a speech impediment throughout her childhood. Her stutter was considered severe, and she saw numerous speech specialists over the years to tepid results. It wasn’t until she was introduced to a different method of therapy that something clicked: acting. “I’d try to push the words out, but it was frustrating,” she said in a 2009 Newswire article. “My parents took me to speech coaches and relaxation coaches. It didn’t work. T hen one of my teachers at school had a brilliant idea and said, ‘Why don’t you speak in an accent in our school play?’ I distanced myself from me through this character, and it was so freeing that my stuttering stopped when I was onstage. It was really a miracle.”

L to R: Ryan Gosling is Colt Seavers and Emily Blunt is Judy Moreno in THE FALL GUY, directed by David Leitch

Blunt immediately took to the craft. In 2001, she made her professional stage debut in a supporting role in the famed Peter Hall’s West End production of The Royal Family, and the following year, she nabbed the female lead in Shakesphere’s Romeo and Juliet at the uber-prestigious Chichester Festival. The Evening Standard slotted the young thespian as the London theater scene’s “Best Newcomer.”

T hough My Summer of Love was hardly a box-office jugger naut (it amassed less than $3 million globally), it was widely extolled among indie film critics, picking up the trophy for Best British Film at the 2005 BAFTA Awards. Blunt’s freshman performance as Tasmin, an upper-crest teen in the English countryside who forms an intimate albeit dark and manipulative friendship with a working-class peer, received considerable praise, landing Blunt a bid for the British Independent Film Award’s “Most Promising Newcomer.” In 2005, she nabbed a co-star credit as Natasha in the British television film Gideon’s Daughter, for which she won a Golden Globe. When The Devil Wears Prada premiered the following year, Blunt’s career went on a tear.

Emily Blunt is Mary Poppins in Disney’s MARY POPPINS RETURNS, a sequel to the 1964 MARY POPPINS, which takes audiences on an entirely new adventures with the practically perfect nanny and the Banks family.

“I mean the experience was, it was heaven, that movie was heaven,” Blunt told People, adding she cried when she was offered the role. She later reminisced that, for her second audition, director David Frankel requested she jazz up her wardrobe. “He said, ‘Look, I would cast you, but the studio was wondering if you could wear something more stylish,’” she said. “To be fair, I was wearing a hoodie and jeans when I auditioned for it.”

In 2007, Blunt took on supporting roles in Charlie Wilson’s War (starring Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts), Dan in Real Life, and The Jane Austen Book Club, and she nabbed the lead credit in the supernatural horror Wind Chill. In 2008, she starred opposite Amy Adams in the comedy-drama Sunshine Cleaning (the duo became close during filming, a friendship they still maintain today) and that same year, she was introduced to her future husband, John Krasinski, while dining out in L.A. “It’s kind of a sad, lame story,” Blunt jokingly confessed to Seth Meyers on his late-night show.

In addition to parenting their two daughters, the couple is a dynamic creative team as well. In 2018, Blunt starred in the American post-apoca lyptic horror A Quiet Place and its 2020 sequel, both directed by her hubby (a third installment is slated for 2025). This May, Krasinski’s live-action/animated fantasy IF hit theaters, featuring an A-list comedic cast that includes Ryan Reynolds, Steve Carell, Maya Rudolph, and Blunt as the voice of Unicorn.

DAY 34

“I’ve always been the biggest fan of her, but not until you’re in the room when she does what she does do you know why she’s so phenomenal,” Krasinski told Jimmy Fallon of direct ing his wife.

IF is not Blunt’s only project to hit theaters this May. She also stars opposite Ryan Gosling in the explosive comedy The Fall Guy, which follows former stuntman Colt Seavers (Gosling) who, after amajor movie star abruptly and mysteriously disappears from the scene, returns to setlife to work on his ex-girlfriend’s (Blunt) directorial debut project. The David Leitch-directed film, described by its stars as an ode to the “unsung heroes of the movie business,” is packed with explosions, fight scenes, and high falls (it even holds the Guinness World Record for most cannon rolls in a car), a challenge Blunt accepted with fervor. “The fight scenes, I’m always up for,” she said in a press junket interview. Gosling chimed in with her nickname: “Emily Blunt Force Trauma.”