Emily Blunt is a beautiful woman, but I dislike her as a blonde. This shade does nothing for her coloring at all! She needs to stick with warmer, richer shades of brown or red. Blonde Blunt covers the February issue of Vanity Fair to promote two films: Mary Poppins Returns, which comes out on Christmas 2018, and A Quiet Place, which comes out in April. It seems a bit early for Blunt to appear on a February cover, right? I can think of a dozen other women with decent Oscar campaigns who would be better candidates for a February VF cover: Octavia Spencer, Saoirse Ronan, Greta Gerwig, Sally Hawkins, Allison Janney, etc. Or they could have used this cover to hype the sh-t out of Black Panther, which is actually coming out in February. Just another nonsensical window into the editorial decisions of magazines, I guess.
Anyway, A Quiet Place was directed by John Krasinski, Emily’s husband. They star in the film together. Here’s the description of the movie: “A family lives an isolated existence in utter silence, for fear of an unknown threat that follows and attacks at any sound.” Odd. The VF story – while poorly timed – is a good read, and Emily covers a wide variety of subjects. You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:
Why they moved from Los Angeles to Brooklyn: Because she missed the intimacy of “brushing past strangers on the street” and being in “a vibrant, bustling city where you don’t feel isolated.”
On strangers wanting photos: “Social media has changed the landscape so an encounter with you is valued more as a social-media currency than a genuine interaction. Frances McDormand told us—she just makes my teeth ache I love her so much—when someone asks her for a picture, she says, ‘You know what? I’ve actually retired from that. But I would like to shake your hand and meet you.’ ”
Why she refuses to engage with social media stuff: “I don’t think it does sh-t, to be honest. I think a movie lives or dies on word of mouth and the trailer. I have seen people do endless social-media campaigns and the movie tanks, so I don’t see a correlation. . . . I strongly believe that my job is to persuade you that I am playing somebody else, so exposing too much personally is just something I can’t get on board with.”
On her career in show business: “I am not cynical in my personal life. I actually feel quite hopeful. But with the business itself, you have to approach it in a harder way. I think you have to wear a helmet. It was just an accumulation over the years. . . . You are part of a machine that is moving and will overwhelm you and drown you if you are not tough in it. It’s a very precarious industry that can often be quite crushing, so any advice I have for anyone going into it is to do something else.”
On sexual harassment: “Everyone has had their bum pinched, but I would not put me having my bum pinched on the same side of the street as women who have been raped or sexually assaulted or abused or harassed… The bum-pinch statement was more of a euphemism for any kind of minor behavior that I have experienced that has been very easy for me to shut down. . . . I think it is something that everyone has experienced. That comment was meant in no way to disparage the people who have actually been brave enough to come forward. I think it is a really vital, remarkable time, and I really hope that it will translate to other social injustices because I think this is a time when people are finding their voice and using it.”
Her fantasy career: “It would be my dream just to flip houses. I adore renovating. I love working with different materials and coming up with a different story for each room. I am Pinterest-mad. Once I begin playing everyone’s mother, then I’ll just start flipping houses instead.”
A lot of people are always telling me that Emily and John are the most relatable, amazing couple of all time. I’ve never really bought it, but that’s not to say that I don’t think they’re special in their own way. I like that Krasinski is happy to let Emily’s star shine brighter than his. I think it’s sweet that she wanted to star in a movie he directed, and I think it’s cute that the experience made them stronger. But the most relatable thing in this article? Emily fantasizes about flipping houses. Who amongst has not had that day-dream? Anyone who binge-watches HGTV dreams of one day giving up their careers to flip houses.
Here’s a new still from Mary Poppins Returns:
ICYMI: See a Delightful New Image From Mary Poppins Returns: https://t.co/kx0xgRpsQy pic.twitter.com/v3Rh0KbxLy
— Disney (@Disney) December 29, 2017
Cover courtesy of Vanity Fair.
I understand that celebrities may not want their picture taken at all times with fans. I totally get that. I just hate the condescending tone that some celebs get regarding how pictures are the new signature. I see some stars getting their picture taken (personally) with other stars at award shows or other events? How is this any different? Celebrities are not above us regular people. We all can get a little star struck or want that memory. Rant over.
“Celebrities are not above us regular people.”
they aren’t, and that’s why i believe it’s bad form to ask for selfies or interrupt them while at dinner or the likes. i certainly wouldn’t want that to be done to me. a quick ‘i love your work’ without asking for anything else will suffice, and will likely not bother them.
Also, they are so unduly praised just because we know them.
No one even thinks of jumping for a selfie with the writers of Parks & Rec do they? It’s such a knee-jerk reaction to bother people just because they are exposed when working whereas the other people who contribute to what they do are never praised, interviewed or adored.
Sheesh, after reading about Swift’s concert prices I am piiiiiissed against mass culture today.
Like I said right in the beginning, I don’t expect them to always say yes to selfies. They always have a right to say no. But fan interaction (conversation, signatures, selfies) are part of their job description. Without fans, there is no demand for them. Unfortunately it’s 2018, and selfies are the most common exchange.
Those are work events. They’re on-duty at those events, they’re surrounded by colleagues and people they need to network with, and they’re already all done up ready for photos.
Totally different thing to having someone approach you while you’re having dinner or at the park with your kids or trying to use the restroom.
As for fans, they really aren’t that important to most actors careers. Even big fanbases are just a drop in the ocean when it comes to box office results.
I totally agree with ell on the whole “I love your work” sufficing. I’m a comic, so I’ve gotten to meet a few people I admire in the industry and this is really the most appreciated approach. At worst, you get a quick “Thank you; have a good day” and at best, you get a conversation. I do have to shout out to Danny Pudi (Abed from “Community”) for being the nicest notable person I’ve met. He had a full-blown fifteen minute conversation with my girlfriend and me, gave us hugs and told us he thought we were hilarious. This on top of giving out comedy career advice. Long story short: everyone likes to be appreciated; no one likes to be stalked and exploited.
In the age of social media I can understand why celebs wouldn’t want to take pictures. Their every movement can be stalked and privacy taken away. I don’t think it’s a part of their job, and they can say no without being a jerk about it.
I think it depends on the location. I’ve been to TIFF premieres of movies that shes been in. The Young Victoria and Looper and she went around and stopped to take photos and autographs.
But I can imagine that would be annoying if she was on her downtime at a restaurant or if she was at the park with her kids, you know?
Have you seen the latest Keanu photo. Grocery shopping, holding his bike helmet. And posing eith an adorable little girl. It’s too cute! Also, he’s as down to earth and casual as they come. I wish more acted as humble and sweet as he does.
Her opinions on sexual harassment is so… urgh to be honest. Just frustrating. Women and men can be upset over any kind of sexual violence, we don’t need to do the “well it’s not as bad as being raped” it’s all traumatic. It’s statements like this that normalize rape culture. No Emily it isn’t normal for someone to pinch your but. It’s not that hard to realize that touching someone inappropriately is wrong. I’m so tired of the “well it’s not bad as rape” comments. It’s all traumatic, it’s all bad.
Agree.
I’m with you and I know a lot of women who think this.
We were programmed to think like this.
Fight the monster Emily!!!!!
yeah, i’m surprised by this comment as well. i don’t think it’s a minor behaviour either, i mean i’m trying to cut well meaning people some slack, as they might just need it to be explained to them, nevertheless it’s wrong of her to say that.
Yea I think Emily needs to re-think that whole ‘bum-pinch,’ deal.
She needs to know it’s not about what SHE is able to “shut down” because while she might be able to do that easily and dismissively, someone else might be traumatized.
My very first experience with sexual harrassment, even though I was so young and it was so long ago I couldn’t put a name to it – was not a bum pinch but bum slaps while in my 3rd grade gym class. We’d do laps in the gym and the boys would run up behind us and do it.
It sounds like not a big deal. But in reality it was the first instance I’d had of assault because I was female. As a child i didn’t even think of myself as an object of someone else’s gaze in a sexual way, so that coupled with the realization that these boys thought they had a right to touch me in that manner because I was a girl, enraged and terrified me. I began to dread gym class. For some reason the girls, including myself couldn’t bring ourselves to tell. It was embarrassing. It was like I was being given a peek into the future of what being a woman would be like and what it meant. It made me frightened and not want to grow up.
I did grow up, and like Emily learned to deal with handsy douchebags. But it started back in gym. In third grade. Those boys should have had hell reigned down on THEM, that might have prevented future Harvey Weinsteins.
A bum slap or a bum pinch is assault.
@Casey, yes you make an excellent point and i completely agree.
While a lot of people think sexual harassment isn’t that big a deal in some cases, what they don’t seem to recognize is that the major stuff starts somewhere. When the little comments or the pat on the butt are accepted, then the line gets pushed further and further, growing more threatening, demanding and into serious assaults like rape or forced oral sex, etc. … especially with women having their careers held over their heads by men with power. If he thinks making a “joke” about her large breasts is funny and a pat on the butt is not a big deal… it’s not that big a jump to a grabbing a feel and then worse. It’s not so different than when people make horrible “jokes” about black people or Jews or use “gay” as a slur, etc. It’s the small potatoes of racism and bigotry, but the big stuff starts there, and the more accepted, the more common it becomes and gets worse and worse. It’s important to make sure people know that it’s not okay even when it’s small stuff. Teach little boys and girls that. Don’t do it and don’t accept it or brush it off and laugh when people say it’s just a joke or no big deal so stop overreacting. That just makes little girls, then teens, then women feel like maybe it is no big deal and they become unsure when that changes… was it when they were raped? Or was she really giving off signals and didn’t realize, so maybe it’s her own fault? Or maybe she was more drunk and didn’t say NO firmly enough. Or maybe it’s okay for anyone who walks past her when she’s lying passed out on the ground to use her? Is that truly okay? No, and women have been gaslighted with a lot of this stuff for years making them unsure of themselves and what they deserve and what they did to make it happen. No, people need to grow up and take responsibility for their own actions. No one walking by an unconscious woman on the ground should think it’s okay to have sex with her because she’s passed out, and yes…she might have been wrong to drink so much that that happened, but mistakes happen, we all drink too much sometimes without expecting to pass out or get that drunk (nervous sipping of more than you realize, not eating enough, drink stronger than usual, allergy, just not aware of how much you are consuming, etc.). Point is… men need to take responsibility for what they say and do. and women need to take responsibility for what they accept and stay silent about. They need to speak up and they need to be supported and everyone need to start to see that despite sexual harrassment being so ingrained that it’s become barely noticeable or “not a big deal” to many, it’s still wrong and in many cases, is the tip of the iceburg.
Really? Because I felt the exact opposite about what she said. I read her comments to mean that others have been victimized in a way that she has not and she is respectful that her experience does not compare. I have experienced the corporate equivalent of the “bum pinch” and while I agree that it’s innappropriate, I don’t feel it’s anywhere close to what others (including friends and colleagues) experienced and it’s belittling to them if I tried to say they were the same.
There is a huge difference between Matt Damon telling a woman whether what she experienced justified her outrage and a woman saying that her experience was not as traumatic as someone else’s.
I agree.
I think the problem is to make a statement that conveys at the same time, that pinching a butt is always harrasment and inaceptable, but also, that having your butt binched is nowhere as traumatic and compearable to rape.
This is how I interpreted her remarks as well, though she could have phrased them better. The bum-pinching metaphor is unfortunate.
IDK, since her and John are really good friends with Matt Damon, I see their friendship shining thru in her response.
They’re like best friends with Matt Damon, so maybe that’s shading my perception of what she said, but the separation of degrees of assault and harassment sounds an awful lot like what Matt has said.
She gets to decide if she felt victimized, but she can’t decide that for other women who had their “bums pinched.”
She shouldn’t generalise about any type of assault. I had the misfortune of being a victim of a phantom bottom pincher at EVERY wedding we attended for several years. It took a few years and several changes of tactic before I got an idea who the culprit might be – spinning around and shouting “who did that?!” to groups of astonished men- yes the scumbag always chose their timing well. Whilst I can understand that eg for my friend who is a survivor of CSA this would have been more devastating than it was for me it still bloody ruined many a wedding and made me feel minimised and even like a fool for dressing up for these occasions that he calculatedly ruined for me- it’s about power.
+1
She is not forced to act if she really wanted to flip houses for a living she could do that.
She comes off as smug in this interview.
I was thinking the same! “Well you can you know…”
Saw the headline, my first thought was so do it then.
The rest of the world will carry on if Emily Blunt stops acting and starts flipping houses.
Thinks a ton of herself doesn’t she?
Phhfft!
Ha totally. Smug, disingenuous and off-putting.
They sold all of their California homes. They bought and completely renovated their Brooklyn home and turned around and sold it not too long after. So that was kind of a flip as it turns out. They don’t even own a home right now. She said their life was too nomadic with jobs.
I thought all celebs have said what they like outside of acting. She loves renovating, and dreams of flipping after renovating. What’s the big deal?
I saw pictures of that Brooklyn house (it’s near where relatives live and they have an almost identical house). Emily and John made it look so sun-bleached and tacky. Those houses are so gorgeous and and have a ton of character and they painted everything light (even some woodwork).
https://hookedonhouses.net/2017/09/07/emily-blunt-john-krasinski-townhouse/
Otherwise they seem like nice, normal people. But I side-eyed their remodel.
When I saw this headline I said “then do it?” out loud. Like what’s holding you back?
I detest the blonde on her as well.
I find her “pinch on the bum” comments to be… disappointing.
Lin Manuel Miranda has taken over the top spot on my Freebie Five. I know he’s happily married and I’m happily married to a super adorable guy, but I can’t help it. Every time I see him my heart just leaps. I think it’s the joy for life in his eyes.
Is the new Mary Poppins a musical? I think Emily looks good… but really different as a blonde. It totally changes her skin tone and her entire look. Interesting. But obviously she is not really a blond, so I prefer her brunette. Emily seems like a smart woman, confident and wise. That she has been easily able to shut down unwanted behavior from men speaks volumes about her upbringing and self-esteem. This is something that so many of us struggle with, especially when young, due to being deeply conditioned to ignore our feelings, “be nice”, go along and not make a fuss. As we educate boys and men NEVER to pinch women’s bums (Hel-lo, Not Okay), may we also educate girls and women how to say “Stop” and “Don’t ever touch me like that again.” Not blaming, but EMPOWERING the victims, is such a key piece of our #metoo movement.
I think it says a lot about her ambition and her capacity to shut down parts of herself and not about her self-confidence. Cara Delevigne is priviledged (not unlike Emily here but from a totally different side of priviledge) and she still felt horrible with Weinstein and wondered about her career and why she got her part.
Emily, as we will find out eventually, might be a little callous like Kate Winslet. She is not the hottest woman in the room (albeit really beautiful) and she wants a career above all – she tries to be the non-theatening pal. She has that phlegmatic and secluded personality that shields her from a lot and gets her roles. It struck me when I saw her praise Tom Cruise (eeek) much more than necessary in the Graham Norton talk show.
She said she could shut down the misbehavior, not herself. She shut the dude down, like, dude—hands off. That is empowerment.
She’s always struck me as a strong willed woman who gets along well with men and at the same time doesn’t take sh-it. Which I respect. As I think about it, a lot of English and European actresses have that “strong will” trait. I’m wondering if Hollywood has a higher tolerance for non-American actresses to be that way? Or perhaps the fact that English and European actresses come from well to do/privileged families they are raised with high self-esteem and more resilience? Or maybe its just the accents that get respect automatically?!??
she looked better with the more natural blonde she had a few years ago, this is a bit too much.
“…so any advice I have for anyone going into it is to do something else.”
I hate when celebrities say this.
Why doesn’t she quit? “I am so crushed by the industry but I have more money than you will ever dream of and a lifestyle you will never experience but seriously don’t you try to have the same thing that I’m rubbing in your lowly face…”
If playing make believe for a living is too tough, why not get a job waitressing or in a factory for next to no money and standing on your feet all day. Whiner!
Yes, smug is the word.
That comment annoyed me, too. I hate the song Turn the Page for the same reason. If you don’t like the business, get out of it. Plenty of people would LOVE stepping into your shoes.
I am sure she and her husband have made enough money in Hollywood, that she could flip houses now if she wanted to. Perhaps she could do both as I don’t believe she’s on any TV shows or series that require a 5 to 7 day a week shooting schedule? How many movies does she do a year?
She looks gorgeous! Love that shade of blonde on her. She’s gone too pale in the past
Emily, talk to Jeremy Renner. He renovates and flips houses and still acts. Or, you could just quit acting
Like many here, I don’ t understand the criticism for this movement. We should not forget that probably 80% or more of the women wearing black on that red carpet have their own #me too stories to tell.
So, if on a night that is once more all about presenting their bodies for judgement they want to band together and send an understated message I say more power to them. Who’s to say that they are not also working behind the scenes on other ways to change the game?
I really like this idea and honestly wish they had decided to black out the Oscars.
I’ve never had the courage to walk up to a famous person, but historically (even before cell phones and selfies) people have always asked celebrities for pictures.
I’m sorry I got distracted by the HILARIOUS headline “Lena Dunham’s Endless Apology Tour”…. BWAHAHAHHAHAHA
Here’s a thought- Maybe Lena should start saying and doing fewer things to apologize for.
That story makes me love Frances McDormand even more.
I like Emily a lot, I think she’s an interesting actor, and I’ve enjoyed pretty much all of her work. I’m not exactly sure what she’s trying to convey regarding harassment though.
Nope to blonde Emily. Please go back to a darker shade.
Re: what she says about selfie with celebs. I met Lake Bell at a restaurant In NYC over the holidays, she initiated the interaction with a joke about pretending to be the hostess, and she declined a photo saying “but we’re having a moment”. She was really nice about it and asked what my name was and I said I wanted to see her directorial debut. It was a positive interaction all in all.
I remember seeing the Quiet Place trailer months ago and it looked scary, suspenseful, and amazing. I honestly can’t wait to see it!