I know that some of you are going to start yelling at me or at Emily Blunt, so let me just say: this is not a NEW interview. Like, Emily Blunt isn’t giving new quotes on her citizenship drama every single day. Yesterday, I covered one small part of Emily’s interview with the Sunday Times’ Style Magazine, which is a subscription-access-only outlet. Since I’m cheap, I’m not paying for access. Which is fine, except it takes a few days for other, fancier sites to pony up for access and publish the quotes. Which is what’s happening now. Here are some additional quotes from the same “I became a US citizen for tax purposes” interview, including yet another f—king quote about how she felt “sad” when she was sworn in as an American. Damn it, Blunt.
Her dual citizenship: “It’s mainly for tax reasons. I didn’t want to renounce my Queen.”
Her swearing-in ceremony: “But I felt quite sad, actually. Having to be sworn into a country that wasn’t mine. I know at the core of it I haven’t given up anything, but it was sort of bittersweet… it was odd.”
Aging in Hollywood: “I’ll be up for playing a mum soon. It’s all right. Everyone gets older. I’m ready. I’ve got another eight years of hopefully being relatively attractive before I have to be a witch.”
Her daily routine: “There was a music class involved. Not for me, for my daughter,” she said. After a “lunchtime battle” over vegetables, Blunt said, “then it was time to finally have a shower at about 12 o’clock.”
Being friends with the Clooneys & Anistons: “Oh well, we only hang out with the ‘big’ people.”
She hates eating healthy: “I think that’s your choice. Obviously, if I’m doing a part where I need to be in really good shape, I can’t eat like this. But I’m about to play an alcoholic, so we’re good. And I’m specific about when I choose to be healthy and when I’m not, because it’s so dull to be healthy all the time. Do you know Elizabeth Taylor said on her deathbed, ‘I wish I’d eaten more.’ Don’t you think a lot of people would feel that? Certainly a lot of actresses?”
Whether she enjoyed being in shape for Sicario: “I do but I don’t feel very feminine. I don’t enjoy being ripped like that.”
The new quote about her swearing in ceremony is a lot like her original statements that started this whole kerfuffle in the first place. To be fair, it’s perfectly possible that this interview was conducted a month ago, before Emily got so much backlash about her comments. Which doesn’t really change anything – this is obviously how she really feels about her American citizenship. That it’s “sad” and “bittersweet” and that she only did for tax purposes. It still bothers me that she lives in that bubble of privilege and it’s like she never even considered, “Oh, this came so easily to me, what’s really sad is the fact that there are millions of undocumented immigrants who would love the chance to become citizens.”
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Last click from me on this gal. You don’t like it here – you know where you can go. I feel so bad for the folks fighting to gain citizenship, seeking a better life.
Ditto. She’s getting on my nerves.
That’s what native Americans say to white people complaining about the next wave of immigrants. Maybe everyone SSTFU.
Thank you Neil! Excellent point.
OMG she needs to GIVE IT AN EFFIN REST!!!
Where&WhoTF is her agent?? They suck.
She’s done more damage to her career/appeal just constantly regurgitating her dumb little citizenship trials for the press and playing victim at the backlash than she ever would have just cracking wise.
I was one of the people who thought it was a funny remark (oh what have I done?! After seeing the GOP clown car debate) now after weeks of whining because she fears some lames won’t like her…apologizing, taking it back, then backpedaling the apology, now getting snide to the UK media about the whole thing… she’s just fcking insufferable.
We get it Emily…u want to someday be a Dame and so u don’t want burn your bridges and wanted your fellow English folk to know you were still down…
…just stop already!!
you make an excellent point. So many people cannot get citizenship but here she is buying her way to citizenship and complaining the entire time. For all the talk of privilege and the expectations that come with that, why are we still giving to someone who has no idea what she has?
I am done with this too.
I don’t know what she’s complaining about. Where she came from is not so great anymore and it’s going to get a whole lot worse. It’s getting worse here too but not as fast as over there.
I wish Americans were more open to bettering the country rather than saying, if you don’t like it here, leave. I did leave, I moved to Canada, but I wish the US would better themselves and a lot of people would fight for their rights more so I can come back. Right now, it seems like a terrible downgrade in quality of life(more violent, no universal healthcare, less vacation days, less pay etc).
Less maternity/family leave, less equity in public-school education, less negotiating over pharmaceutical prices, less science & the arts in schools…but Canada has a high-stakes federal election coming up and a lot of its equity and quality of life is at risk under the current radical neoconservative government.
The current government also has not managed the economy well, so a lot of young Canadians head to the USA anyway simply to be employed.
My boyfriend is making 3 times what he was making in the US (professor)and I making nearly 2 times a much. i do hope we don’t swing Harper again though, but overall, I can’t imagine a dramatic reduction in quailty of life. The things you listed are also true in the US.
I have gotten to the point where I would like to live in another country. I am the least likely “type” to want to move away to a more serene country. One would think I would be a gung ho Murica type. I live in small town Texas with conservative to the point of Tea Party relatives. I am a recovering Republican but not a Democrat. To me being called a Republican or a Democrat is the epitome of an insult to me.
America has gotten to be so blood thirsty and violent. We may have always been like this but my eyes have been opened to the global community and the suffering.
I just don’t think she meant it that way. If she hated it she wouldn’t be here, she wouldn’t have married an American, etc.
I think that patriotism is so drilled into our brains since we’re kids that becoming a citizen of another country (when it was never in your plans) must feel like you’re betraying your own country. It must feel so strange and people maybe feel guilt, even if that’s what they truly want. They feel like they’re cheating on their country with another one, almost.
I really don’t take this as ungratefulness or anything bad. It’s just that our own identities tend to be so tied to where we come from that it must feel like a bit of a mindf*ck to suddenly be a citizen of some place else.
You nailed it!
Yes! It is drilled into our heads. I mean think about just the entertainment industry. I remember as a kid going to see Rocky 4, you know with the Russian. America is good/other countries bad. It is pounded into our heads that we must spread the American way through out the world.
Even now with all of the talk of Obama/Putin we are constantly told by the media that America is trying to do the right thing while everyone else has an agenda. Which I am not saying that they don’t but we are given the pro American story.
While all of this is going on Tom Hanks has a new move coming out about Russian spies or something? Is it the pro American agenda?
I’m pretty 100% sure that America isn’t the only country that emphasises patriotism.
The patriotism thing IS drilled into us at a young age. You all pledge allegiance to a freaking flag every morning at school. I think this is SO bizarre. I went to a private French-American School for 9 years and we never recited the pledge of allegiance. Did Catholic all girls’ school and we never did it there either (though we did have morning prayer after school assembly each morning which was meh). Finished up at a public high school for my last two years of schooling and discovered kids were still reciting the pledge of allegiance every morning! I found the concept SO weird and never enjoyed doing it (I have vague memories of having to do it in nursery school). I still don’t even know it by heart. I just think it’s weird to do it in school and wish public schools would get rid of it. May be a controversial opinion but that’s how I feel.
Ditto, STFU already. You made a nice little career for yourself on our shores with your charming accent. The door to England is over there, don’t let it hit your behind on the way out. Cheerio.
BTW, she should take lessons from Craig Ferguson on how to be a gracious citizen.
Seriously Emily, and I say this in the nicest way possible, Shut up!!
You have talked more than enough about getting your citizenship…time to hush now!
This
She’s starting to seem like the person who answers “hey, how are you?” with a monologue about her sciatica flaring up, and it’s allergy season, and she just got a parking ticket, and…”
Yeses to Yeses. I truly understand that it would be a bittersweet moment. In fact, I understood it the first, second and third time I heard about it. Got it. Bittersweet. So long Queen. Sad. Zzzzzzzz
No one in the history of American has ever talked about American citizenship more than her. The framers of the US Constitution, Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence talked less about what being an American meant. WEARY of it now, Blunt. Either give up your American passport and go back home, or zip it up and enjoy the tax breaks.
Yes ! 😆
Really? No one?
She’s only answering questions and telling HER truth. Not THE truth, HER truth.
People who say “Love it or leave it” would probably have a terrible time living anywhere else, and are oblivious that war, famine, natural disaster, economic opportunity, the pull of love and family ties etc. may well find them living outside their birth country at some point in their lives.
They might rethink things then.
Her truth is getting redundant. She should give it a rest.
I know, but it could be that reporters are asking her over and over and out pops her canned answer. Yes if I were here, I would pass on that question.
I still think Emily has said nothing wrong, and I know a lot of you disagree with me and think what she said was disrespectful. But we can all agree we’re tired of this story, right?
So let’s all agree not to comment so it stops getting covered. Who is with me?
I’m in.
Yes! Just top with her.
At the risk of inflating the comment number, I’m totally with you. I was only going to comment to ask people not to comment, so that we can finally let this ish DIE.
I’m with you, Josefa. Never has such a ridiculous fuss been made over something so innocuous. Enough.
@josefa
Yes!! A million times YES!!! I’m so sick of this “story” that just seeing yet another headline on this site about it makes me want to scream. Talk about beating a dead horse.
I don’t think people think that as much as they are tired of her bringing it up and playing victim. She should own it. It was a funny remark and she’s was just joking. No one took it that seriously except some wingnut aholes who didn’t like she dissed their party. Now she’s messed up with the rest of us by backtracking and falling all over herself to apologize. Either way she needs to just go away for a while. She’s become the place people can drop off their extra unused ‘Hathahate.’
I agree. I think I would be nostalgic and a bit reluctant to take on another country’s citizenship. I am Canadian. I would not be moving because my quality of life is terrible. She isn’t either. The tax implications have led her to make a business decision to take on another country’s citizenship. She should not have to feel grateful for that. And her getting her citizenship before those who come from war-torn countries demonstrates the issues with immigration policy (not good or bad, just that there are issues). That being said, a country wants to accept contributing members to society, so of course she is going to be sponsored and accepted more quickly.
Canadians who have dual citizen parents or property in the US are being targeted for taxation by the US like crazy right now. The government is taxing Canadian earnings even if they have not been in the US. There are pockets of people being targeted, and I know two of them. Its been awful and expensive. I can totally understand why Emily would apply for citizenship with how the IRS operates.
Dual US-Canadian citizens are on the IRS radar screen but it’s not due to a change in tax law. The law – on the books since the Civil War, apparently – has always been to file US returns based on citizenship not residence. It’s unique (except for Eritrea) and unfair but it’s nothing new. A lot of Canadians who hold US citizenship by accident of birth, parentage etc. didn’t file for years…the IRS is finally being more, um, “thorough.” There may have been a grace period, but now people are expected to file. Tax treaties will prevent double taxation to a certain point but double filing is a big pain in the posterior. As for the US taxing Canadians for owning property in the USA, property owners of all types, including foreign investors, would be taxed – it’s one way governments worldwide raise money. People with the means to buy property expect that.
It’s funny; some wealthy Americans living abroad are trying to renounce their US citizenships to avoid this tax reach. It isn’t easy, though.
THANK YOU. I’m so sick of reading angry posts about this non-story.
That’s fair.
I am with you. I’m an expat myself, and get where she is coming from. For those who think she isn’t entitled to feel a bit “off” about having to renounce, you would be surprised how it makes you feel if it’s you in that position. Which is precisely why I’ll never do it. But I get where she is coming from. Totally.
It’s not really a kerfuffle, though. It’s a manufactured controversy. Rich woman from one country with work and family in another country gets advised to apply for dual citizenship by her tax-harmonising accountant. That’s what rich people do. Never heard of such a non-story in my life. All it does is wind up the section of Americans who are over-sensitive and entrench the view that ALL Americans are over-sensitive in everyone else. Quicker it dies the sooner we can all go back to being friendly with one another.
But saying that… Kaiser – she was on the BBC this morning saying Americans only have crap curry and she has to come back to the UK to get a decent Indian take-out. LET’S BURN HER! THIS WOMAN’S SINS WILL NEVER END!
Here’s a mean thing to stir up the kerfuffle: I don’t think she has 8 years of being relatively attractive left.
She’s never been to Hicksville, NY then. Phenomenal Indian takeout.
+10000000000000
Comment of the day!
And she is right about the curry too!
(She did say nice things about America too. And didn’t mention citizenship once. But why ruin a good comment when you can just p!ss everyone off by mentioning that she said American curry sucks? Snigger. Sorry!)
Please Emaily needs to sit down because Uk Indian food sucks too. Unless you’ve had real curry in India you don’t know what good Indain food taste like.
That curry won’t be too pleasant towards her today.
It’s like a car wreck pile-up at this point — she did too many interviews at once before this all blew up in her face. I’m sure she’s cringing now.
While I can appreciate her consistency, this one feels self-indulgent. I’m so sad about something I wasn’t forced to do because of something I didn’t have to give up. But it was sad, because my queen, you know.
Her Queen is depressive now that her Blunt is English anymore ,you know
ha! Well done.
I agree with her comment about how Elizabeth Taylor said on her death bed she wished she had eaten more. Every time I pass a Dairy Queen I think to myself that if I die tomorrow I will be so sad I didn’t stop for one last blizzard. What if we get to heaven and there is no food? God will be all “I gave you money, a car, and put every kind of food you could want in your town. That WAS heaven.” I’m not sure a perfect BMI will make up for that…..
There’s an apocryphal (or maybe true) story that when Jackie Onassis was given a cancer diagnosis, she said, “If I’d known this was going to happen, I wouldn’t have done all those sit-ups.”
I don’t think she said anything wrong, but people are going to twist it, so she should just let it go.
Fortunately she did not have to give up her British citizenship. Some countries like Japan don’t allow dual citizenship past a certain age, unless they recently amended that law and I don’t think it has been changed. For example a person with an American parent and a Japanese parent, can have both at birth but eventually will have to choose.
Check your privilege emily!!!!!!!!!
and also
iF yOU dON’T lIKE mERICA you CAN get out!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
She’s still a citizen of the UK, and her wallet benefits. Very sad, and bittersweet…? You’d think she’d be overjoyed, lol
I just turned 40, and she’s right abut the witch thing. You wake up hideous that day, and then get on your broomstick and fly away.
My broomstick didn’t work, so I had to wait around for a twister to send a house to drop on top of me.
“Oh, this came so easily to me, what’s really sad is the fact that there are millions of undocumented immigrants who would love the chance to become citizens.”
This comment still doesn’t hold water. These people let’s be honest try to go around the system. And if Mexico had a great economy and was safe they would all go there. It’s about money and opportunity.
She worked within the system and that how it goes.
The problem is the system.
This bothers me a bit -“Whether she enjoyed being in shape for Sicario: “I do but I don’t feel very feminine. I don’t enjoy being ripped like that.” . So if you’re athletic, if you have abs you’re not feminine? I had this discussion with some friends of mine recently, we were talking about Serena Williams and how some people call her ‘less feminine’ because of her physique. I don’t know…it just annoys me.
yeah, i like her but this annoyed me as well. not to mention that she didn’t look any less feminine in the film.
Well it was personal to her. She didn’t feel that way about everyone just herself. I think that’s fine. I’m certainly different. Would love to be ripped like that.
I’m still a little worried about girl on the train. I hope she gains quite a bit of weight for the role because that’s a requirement of the character. I feel bizarre for saying it, but I’m just excited she’s playing that part and want her to go all out.
Favorable taxes in the U.S. is a big attraction for a lot of former Brits, I don’t see what’s wrong with that at all. It seems to me our system is designed, in part, to attract the best people we can. And I can understand the poignancy of renouncing the queen. I just wish she would stop talking about it.
Agree, money is a big influence AND I wish reporters would stop asking her about it, but now they know it gets attention.
The hypocrisy lies in the criticism that Euro countries have such fabulous health-care and pregnancy leave policies..and the celebs that love to promote these move away so they won’t have to PAY for them…
@boredblond — yes!
At first I defended her but she clearly doesn’t get it. I understand how she feels and she has every right to personally feel sad about having to become an American and only doing it for tax purposes, but she should know better not to actually say this out loud, on record, to the entire world. Now I think she must be a pretty tactless and clueless person. She probably lives in a very elite circle with people like Goop who have the privilege to buy homes in multiple countries and have become anti-American in a way even though they continue to make their millions from an American industry (Hollywood). I like Blunt as an actress, but wow, she really does not understand how her comments can come off as completely ungrateful and offensive to many people. If I ever become a UK citizen, or citizen of any adopted country, I would never publicly complain about becoming a citizen only because I want to save money. It really does sound awful even if she doesn’t mean to be offensive.
Seriously why is anything she said an issue? She hasn’t said a negative thing about America, she said it was bitter sweet. Which I bet if you ask a lot of immigrants including the refugees they might feel the same way. Just because you move to a new country and decide to become a citizen for whatever reason doesn’t mean you don’t miss you home (or what your home once was in some people’s tragic cases) this makes becoming a citizen of a new country bittersweet.
Are some people desperate to come here and be citizens yes of course and it’s often incredibly difficult for them which is terrible. But this attitude some people are showing of if you don’t like it leave it is America at its worst. I’m a 5th generation American, beyond proud to be from this country wouldn’t want to live anywhere else for more then 3 months, but we aren’t a perfect nation. We are a hugely flawed nation that could learn from other countries and when immigrants make comments instead of saying if you don’t like it leave we listened to them maybe we could go a month without a mass shooting, etc.
With Emily she just aid it’s bitter sweet and I think if everyone was really honest with themselves if they were in her shoes they’d probably feel the same way.
I think when she makes it sound like she HAD to take citizenship, that sounds a little off-putting. She had a choice, and she chose the bittersweet one (though actually feeling bittersweet I have no issue with). It’s just when she kind of makes it sound like she had no options to choose from that sounds weird to my ears (i.e “Having to be sworn into a country that wasn’t mine.) She probably didn’t mean it that way, but the phrasing there sounds a little off. The rest doesn’t sound problematic to me though.
It isn’t the best wording, I guess i just can’t get all that upset about it.
Whiny
brat
Yep.
Please stop!! I get a headache everytime I come to this site and there is a post about Emily Blunt and this citizenship debacle. Boring, non-story. Enough.
I used to like her and think she was kind of a cool, strong woman like her “Edge of Tomorrow” character. Now I don’t really like her and probably wouldn’t go out of my way to see her movies. This whole thing has just been a huge turn-off for me.
” Having to be sworn into a country that wasn’t mine.”
Feeling sad and bittersweet doesn’t sound wrong or odd to me, but this part of the quote does sound a little strange, in the sense that she kind of makes it sound like she was forced to take the citizenship. Or was she just hoping to get the citizenship without a swearing in ceremony? Since she already has British citizenship which is an excellent citizenship to have, I guess if you feel like you’re being forced to do a swearing in ceremony I don’t know why you’d bother even if you do get certain tax thingies from obtaining the citizenship. The only thing problematic I find about her quotes is that sometimes she makes it sound like she didn’t have a choice, but she did. Sometimes her quotes are humorous, but she sort of goes off-track when she makes it sound like there were no choices involved.
Maybe there was pressure from her husband as well as the accountant…maybe she didn’t really want to do it after all.
Of course she is sad, Of course she it feels bittersweet. She grew up in England, it’s home. It’s so normal to feel a sense of loss and mourning for any big change like that. I mourn the loss of my home town even though I’ve lived in a huge metropolitan area for years. I mourn my cultural roots even though I didn’t grow up there and as much as I love America and am grateful I grew up here. It’s totally weird and neurotic that people are angry that she’s not spewing a bunch of untrue bullshit. People seem to not be in touch with the human experience at all. Black and white thinking is crazy.
I’ve seen some interviews I’ve read in magazines that were conducted as far back as two months before it came out. So it is very possible she said all of this before the backlash and not vice versa, still going on about it.
I just don’t think she is that smart so doesn’t understand why if she keeps talking she only makes it worse.
I just find it ridiculous that so many Americans are so sensitive about this whole thing. It is like children – “my mommy is better than you mommy !”.
You can love your mother in law like a second mother or barely tolerate her but you never can stop caring for you mother. These two things are irrelevant to each other. And to demand things to be otherwise is just contrary to human nature.
Agreed!
My husband became an american citizen after 17 years of living and working in this country. He worked hard to prove himself worthy of such an honor. The day when he took the oath he cried. He was so happy and proud! He would never say it was a sad day.
She is being disrespectful and entitled.
Why just for the taxes? She’s rich enough to not worry about that.
I get the annoyance of most of the commenters here, because yes, she is extraordinarily lucky. But I also get what she’s saying. I’ve lived in this country almost twice as long as I did in my home country. I moved here in my early teens. I’m in my 40s now and I no longer have an accent. My kids were born here…it’s home. But I felt very conflicted at my swearing-in ceremony 20 years ago. The swearing in language makes it very clear (as it should!) that you are renouncing all allegiance to your birth country, and as happy as I was to become a US citizen, I did feel a little sad that day. I’m sure I’m not the only one who can relate to that feeling.
Her becoming a US citizen was probably planned as the talking point during her Sicario PR tour, which is fine but, “Yuck, I hate it” may not have been the best response.
Wow. She renounced the queen for a tax break. I wish she would stfu about her citizenship. No one forced her to become an American.