Emily Blunt’s worked with the American Institute for Stuttering for years. She discovered her own stutter when she was about six or seven. She also had a grandfather, uncle and cousin who all had stutters. Unfortunately, even having family members sharing the same trait as you does not protect you when you leave the house. One of the things Emily is fighting for in her work is raising awareness so people will stop picking on those with the speech impediment. Emily spoke at AIS’s 2022 Freeing Voices, Changing Lives Gala on Monday about it being a disability that people bully. Emily hopes by educating people about stuttering, the less kids will be mocked for it.
Emily Blunt is continuing an important conversation.
Speaking with PEOPLE Monday at the American Institute for Stuttering’s 2022 Freeing Voices, Changing Lives Gala in New York City, the 39-year-old actress — who hosted the event — said she thinks it’s “important” for her to keep “speaking openly about” having a stutter, “a disability people don’t know much about.”
And “in some ways” for her personally, Blunt said, acting “was a sort of invitation into speaking fluently for one of the first times,” she said, even if it didn’t “cure” her stuttering, per se (“Once you are a stutterer, you will always be a stutterer,” she said in a speech).
“I wouldn’t say that’s why I’ve ventured into acting, but it was just a bit shocking the first time I was able to speak, you know, doing a silly voice or an accent pretending to be someone else,” Blunt told PEOPLE. “People don’t talk about [it] enough if it hasn’t got enough exposure, and millions of people around the world struggle with it.”
“And I think it’s a very moving force,” she added. “If you can’t express yourself, you can’t be yourself. And there’s something very poignant in freeing people of the grip of a speech impediment, because it’s like a sort of imposter that lives in your body.”
“It’s biological and it’s often hereditary and it’s not your fault,” Blunt told PEOPLE Monday. “And I think it’s very often a disability that people bully and make fun of. So I think, to raise awareness about what it’s really about, and that there’s this soft place for you to land in this amazing organization. It’s a big deal for me to be here.”
I think Emily’s right. I remember kids teasing those who stuttered on the playground. And I don’t ever remember it being addressed as kids making fun of another disability would. It was widely ignored and I think the only time I ever asked anyone about it, a teacher, they said the stutter wasn’t a big deal because so-and-so would grow out of it. Like, somehow that made the poor kid being openly ridiculed by children sputtering in their face okay. And many films and TV shows had a stuttering character as the butt of the joke. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I ever saw stuttering portrayed in any truthful way, with the frustration of trying to get their words out and how pressure and stress made the stutter worse. And to Emily’s point, I still don’t hear much about it. It’s gotten better, there are more sympathetic portrayals on film, but stutters are not discussed a lot. We don’t have any stutterers in our family, and I don’t think we’ve ever had a family discussion about it or how our kids should listen patiently. That’s our bad, of course. But Emily is right that by speaking about it, it will broaden the conversation. Because now that she’s brought this up, it’s a discussion I intend to have.
It probably also helps to have a few stutterers turn out to be bad@sses as well. Emily, of course, has her own action background. Bruce Willis and Samuel L Jackson are also both stutterers who work with AIS. In Samuel’s 2013 speech, he said the mockery from kids caused him to shut up. It’s really sad to think how many quiet kids out there are too afraid to speak up for themselves because of what Emily is talking about. Hopefully they all have a teacher or person in their life like Emily who help them find their voice. After all, they might grow up to be president one day.
Photo credit: Cover Images
So she says there is no cure as such but there is a way to control it? I have a cousin who has a severe stutter to the point he has so much anxiety about it.
Well, look at Joe Biden. He stutter war rather pronounced, yet he learned to control it.
I guess so because this is the first time i am hearing Emily,Bruce or Samuel have stutters.
My son stutters and while it did get better as he got older, there are still words that are difficult for him to get out. I’m thrilled that Emily is highlighting the bullying that stutterers face!
My granddaughter, who is 3, has just recently started to stutter (like within the last 3 weeks). It’s so odd and out of the blue and really sounds / feels like she’s putting it on (for attention maybe?). She also has a tongue tie. Her mom (my daughter) has a slight stutter that surfaces when she’s excited / agitated. We’re not sure if we should ignore it or go the speech therapist route to get it looked at early. She’s so young and we’re hoping she will grow out of it. I guess we have to wait and see?
My son who is 2.5 has a stammer which surfaces when he’s very excited and trying to get words out to tell us something quickly.
We were referred on the NHS but the waiting list was long so we sought a private assessment- essentially we were told that his speech was generally very advanced for his age (like a 4/5 year old) and his 2 year old brain just couldn’t keep up. Apparently the vast majority of children will improve as they get older but if it persists over 6 months you should seek advice from a speech and language therapist.
The Michael Palin institute has some good resources on its website and we have seen an improvement fairly quickly from putting some of their suggestions in place.
He might always stutter when he’s excited (who knows?) but I think anyone in the public eye who brings attention to the fact that it is a disability and not something to make fun of should be applauded!!
@Charley – thank you so much for your reply. We’ll definitely keep an eye on it over the next few months then get an assessment if it persists. Thanks!!
Our 4 year old granddaughter developed a strong stutter overnight, after her regular babysitter had to leave during the pandemic. My daughter’s best friend is a speech therapist, and said although many children develop a temporary stutter they grow out of, it’s still a good idea to see a speech pathologist early on. If a child’s stutter lasts longer than 6 months, there’s a higher probability the stutter will be permanent. Our granddaughter had a VERY difficult time getting words out after being very verbal previously, and it did last longer than 6 months, but gradually went away. We were told to not discuss her stutter with her and never make a big deal of it, to speak slower and clearly to her, to give HER more time to respond to anything & listen attentively, and to not rush any conversations. I don’t know what the therapist said at their sessions. Best luck, and hope it’s a quick phase he grows out of. No one should ever be teased for stuttering, so I was extremely happy to read it’s getting more
publicity.
Hi! Speech-Language Pathologist here. It’s very common for littles (2-4) to have some dysfluent speech. They’re just learning all of this vocabulary and grammar and need time, essentially, to sort it out. You’ll hear a lot of “umm” “uhhh” and word/phrase repetitions (but I, but I) as fillers because their vocabulary isn’t as strong yet. Adults also do this but we are, typically, able to retrieve vocabulary much quicker than that of a 3 year old so our “umm” and “uhhh”s are often less noticeable. However! If you notice a little one (or an adult) who seems to physically be showing signs of “getting stuck” that could be an indicator of a “block”, or prolonging an initial sounds (s-s-s so?) are not average dysfluencies a person who does not stutter makes. If you’re seeing that physical struggle or tension in the body then I suggest seeking an evaluation with a Speech-Language Pathologist.
Unfortunately, there is no “cure” there are strategies out there to target, but sadly, they don’t always work. There is a shift in therapy to also focusing on acceptance and working on “purposeful” stuttering. The idea is that the person will fake stutters to try and control the behavior. Fluency therapy needs so much more research so I’m happy she’s bringing more awareness to the subject and hopefully more money to fund it!
I just wanted to say thanks for this. That linked Atlantic article, written by a stutterer about his own and Joe Biden’s stutter, is amazing.
I was teased relentlessly because of my stutter, and did years of speech therapy to control it. But even when I was able to control it, the kids still made fun of me.
Three years ago, I had encephalitis, which is when the brain swells, and I had some brain damage because of it. Well, because of the brain damage, I couldn’t speak, when I was finally able to communicate, my stutter was back, I was so embarrassed, and so frustrated. I’ve more or less gotten it under control now, but not like before the brain injury
See “The King’s Speech.” Geoffrey Rush works with stuttering King George,