Very funny and charming interview with the actress Emily Blunt. They’re talking about her new movie – a horror movie – her family, childhood memories, and not very good choice of films for kids.
Emily Blunt: Very nice music. Very British.
Stephen: Well, we want to make it nice for you.
Emily: Right home just then.
Stephen: How have you been?
Emily: So good.
Stephen: You're a delightful person.
Emily: Well, that's nice.
Stephen: You and your and your lovely husband John Krasinski...
Emily: He's okay.
Stephen: He's okay. You're really the draw, let’s face it. We all know you from The Devil Wears Prada, Young Victoria, Edge of Tomorrow, Into the Woods, Sicario, Girl on the Train. Now you’ve got A Quiet Place, and, of course, Mary Poppins.
Emily: Yes, down there.
Stephen: Down here. The Mary Poppins.
Emily: Slightly glittery eye.
Stephen: A little glittery eye.
Emily: A bit sinister.
Stephen: How bad to say that! I always thought Mary Poppins seemed a little sinister to me.
Emily: Well, I think she's creepy.
Stephen: She is. Because she comes unannounced. She takes over the house.
Emily: Yeah.
Stephen: She supplants the father figure.
Emily: Yeah, oh absolutely.
Stephen: Boom! She's out of there.
Emily: She doesn't even say thank you and she’s gone. But I loved doing it. It really was awesome.
Stephen: The Disney lawyers are walking in behind you now.
Emily: I’m about to get blow darted buy them, yeah.
Stephen: Some people who saw you in Edge of Tomorrow or Sicario, said “I didn't know she did action movies”. But actually, I found out, you have got a long history of training for action movies. Coz as a child, is this true?, you did something we called “hamster rescues”.
Emily: Yeah, yeah.
Stephen: Now, what is a hamster rescue? Is that are British thing we don't know about or what?
Emily: Number one, you just have to be jacked for a hamster rescue, really jacked.
Stephen: Okay, how old are we talking about?
Emily: Like 8. So, I was jacked at 8. I quite enjoyed rather dramatic role play games that my friends were like “that sounds lame but we'll go along with it, coz I'm at your house and I kind of have to do it”. So, I would like to pretend this poor hamster, I had this lovely hamster called Tigger who probably died before he should have done, because of what I put him through. We would sort of hide Tigger under a sofa cushion and then I sort of pretend the roof was falling in. And I like “Get Tigger! Roof’s falling in!”. I dive and I rescue Tigger. It’s awful!
Stephen: Were there adults watching you do this at the time?
Emily: My mum had four kids. I think she was, like, that sound like they're okay.
Stephen: Because torturing animals is one of the signs of a sociopath. Generally, we get those kids medication now.
Emily: I know.
Stephen: So, well, yeah, I totally get that. And your friends did or did not like this?
Emily: They, kind of, went along with it, but I think they thought it was strange. Which you do as well! It's okay.
Stephen: No, it’s… Anything you do sounds charming.
Emily: (laughter) Good.
Stephen: Now, you're working with your husband. He wrote and directed this new movie called “A Quiet Place”, which is a horror film.
Emily: Yeah, yeah.
Stephen: About a vaguely featured place where there are species, monsters, that are just snatching people who make any sound.
Emily: Yeah, they are attracted, highly acutely attracted to sound. So if you make noise, your dead, basically.
Stephen: Aha, and are you good with horror?
Emily: I mean, I don't particularly love horror movies, but I love this one because – John wrote it, number one, and it is amazing.
Stephen: Did he write it with you in mind?
Emily: No. Because when he pitched me the one-liner of it, because he'd been offered it as an actor. I was, like, oh, that was amazing, you should direct that movie, that's amazing. And then he wrote it, and I previously suggested a friend of mine for the film, and then I read his script and I was, like, “you need to fire her, now. Like, you need to call her and fire her”.
Stephen: We have a clip here where you're being silent in a bathtub and why?
Emily: Because I'm in labor and I can't make a sound, because there's some kind of hideous creature coming up.
Stephen: Outside. And if you make any sound, they’ll snatch you out of a bathtub, and your newborn baby.
Emily: Yes.
(short video clip)
Stephen: That is... No epidural or anything.
Emily: Nothing. This is an apocalyptic world we're in.
Stephen: On the plus side, you didn't have to learn any lines.
Emily: Isn't that great? Yeah.
Stephen: You were called on day one.
Emily: That’s a huge plus. That scene was funny coz some crew members were slightly disturbed by it, and they were, like, male crew members who said, it's not something I needed to see. And then women were, like, crossing their legs, watching.
Stephen: Did you, are you gonna allow your kids to see this?
Emily: When they’re 50, at least.
Stephen: How old are they now?
Emily: They’re 4 and almost 2.
Stephen: Oh, ok. The 4 is ready for this.
Emily: She’s ready for it, right?
Stephen: Totally. The things they learn in kindergarten now… Is she off at school now?
Emily: She's at school. And that's a whole other thing, talk about not being able to protect your kids, like we do in A Quiet Place.
Stephen: Yeah, they go off. And just when they're perfect, just when they're toilet trained, and they're great company, schools says “we'll take them now”.
Emily: Exactly. I was, like, she's so delightful. And I was sitting with her the other night, we put the baby to bed, and – I call her baby but she's almost 2 – I was sitting with Hazel on the kitchen stools, having a chat. It was, like, some nice older child’s time, you know, some bonding time. It was about ponies and, like, sweet things. And then she just looked at me and she says: “I'm gonna smash your face in”. And I went, what? And I won't say who taught her it. Let's just say his name is Bobby. But she said, Bobby says that. And well, Bobby clearly has not learned any manners and he makes bad decisions.
Stephen: Yeah. So, if she starts abusing the hamster, just get help, just get help.
Emily: Yeah, she's she's on that.
Stephen: When you were a kid, were you allowed to see scary things or inappropriate movies?
Emily: Oh, my dad was always – he was sent off to the video store and would come back with the most inappropriate films.
Stephen: The movies he wanted to see.
Emily: Oh, the movies he wanted to see. So he would come home with “Jaws” and “Pretty Woman” and stuff.
Stephen: Really? How old were you?
Emily: Like, 9, you know, or 10. So inappropriate.
Stephen: What did you think of it?
Emily: Well, I didn't – I just accepted it as that's how people interact. And the scene where she offers him the condoms, you know, when she founds the condoms, remember that? And there's so many different colors and flavors, anyway, and I was, like, why – that's so cool, she's giving him sweets to choose from. And my dad would be “Yeah, yeah, absolutely, just sweets, and he can choose which one he wants”.
Stephen: So he wasn't going to explain what condoms are – but he was fine with you watching a movie about a prostitute who's bought for the weekend by a billionaire.
Emily: Totally fine with that. He was explaining it to my mom, it will go right over their heads. No idea what's going on. Which I clearly didn't. I was disturbed when I watched it later on in life, and, “oh, the condoms!”.
Stephen: Yeah. It's an odd movie. It's not as strange as…
Emily: it is so good!
Stephen: It is so wonderful.
Emily: Big mistake, big, huge. Love it. The best.
Stephen: Well, this is the part we'll edit out. (Laughter) We won't? We won't edit it out? That's also a Disney movie. “Pretty woman” is also a Disney movie. That's when Disney went from, like, princesses to prostitutes.
So nice to see you again. Good luck with the flying. A Quiet Place is in theaters April, 6th. Emily Blunt, everyone.
