Emily Blunt
Emily Olivia Laura Blunt is a British actress. She is the recipient of several accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and two Actor Awards, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award and four British Academy Film Awards. Forbes ranked her as one of the highest-paid actresses in the world in 2020.
Blunt made her acting debut in a 2001 stage production of The Royal Family and portrayed Catherine Howard in the television miniseries Henry VIII. She made her feature film debut in the drama My Summer of Love. Blunt's breakthrough came in 2006 with her starring roles in the television film Gideon's Daughter and the comedy film The Devil Wears Prada. The former won her a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her profile continued to grow with leading roles in The Young Victoria, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, The Adjustment Bureau, Looper, Edge of Tomorrow, and Into the Woods.
Blunt received critical acclaim for playing an idealistic FBI agent in the crime film Sicario, an alcoholic in the thriller The Girl on the Train, and a survivalist mother in her husband John Krasinski's horror film A Quiet Place, for which she won the Actor Award for Best Supporting Actress. She has since starred in the sequels Mary Poppins Returns and A Quiet Place Part II, and the miniseries The English. Her portrayal of Katherine Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer earned her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Blunt has been working with the American Institute for Stuttering since 2006 to help children overcome stuttering through educational resources and raise awareness of the realities of the condition. She is on the board of directors of the Institute, and hosts a gala for it to raise funds for speech therapy scholarships for children and adults.
Early life
Blunt was born in London on 23 February 1983. She is the second of four children, born to a former actress and English teacher, Joanna Mackie, and a barrister, Oliver Blunt KC. Her mother gave up acting to parent full time before Blunt started school. Blunt described herself as a "shy and awkward" child, who began having difficulties with stuttering, a condition she described as debilitating and "like an imposter living in your body". She experienced it at its worst between the ages of seven and fourteen. Intimidated by speaking, she spent much time watching people, as well as creating elaborate games for herself and playing the cello. She credits a school teacher with having encouraged her to perform in class plays, where using voices different to her own allowed her to disconnect from herself and speak fluently. This also gave her the confidence to continue on the stage and discover her love of acting. She has said that her stutter largely receded in adulthood, but still occasionally emerges under stress. She was educated at Ibstock Place School, a private school in the London suburb of Roehampton, followed by Hurtwood House, a private sixth-form boarding school near to the market town of Dorking, in Surrey, known for its performing arts programme. After appearing in a school play at the Edinburgh Festival, Blunt was discovered and signed by an agent. Once she finished her school exams, she began auditioning.Career
2001–2004: Early work
In November 2001, Blunt made her professional acting debut aged 18 in Peter Hall's West End production of the play The Royal Family, in which she played the granddaughter of Judi Dench's character. Critic Tom Keatinge hailed the production, writing that "Peter Hall's direction and Anthony Ward's tremendous set combine with all this to make The Royal Family a terrific night's entertainment", and that "it provides a vehicle for acting of the finest quality, with strong performances from the whole ensemble". For her performance, Blunt was named "Best Newcomer" by the Evening Standard. The following year, she portrayed Eugenie in Nicholas Wright's play Vincent in Brixton at the National Theatre, and Juliet in Indhu Rubasingham's production of Romeo and Juliet at Chichester Festival Theatre. In 2003, Blunt made her screen debut in the British television drama Boudica, about the life of the ancient Celtic warrior-queen who fought the Romans. That same year, she was praised for her performance as the 16th-century Queen Catherine Howard in the two-part British television drama Henry VIII.In 2004, Blunt made her cinematic film debut in Paweł Pawlikowski's critically acclaimed independent British drama My Summer of Love, about an infatuation between two young women from different socioeconomic backgrounds set in the English countryside. The film involved much improvisation, which Blunt found an interesting challenge, later stating that Pawlikowski's approach was "free spirited, collaborative and alive". Co-starring as Tamsin, she received considerable praise and attention for her performance,, with David Ansen of Newsweek writing: "Press and Blunt are major discoveries... they conjure up the role-playing raptures of youth with perfect poetic pitch". Blunt won the Evening Standard British Film Award for Most Promising Newcomer and was nominated for the British Independent Film Award for Most Promising Newcomer. She credited her experience making the film as having an impact on her career choices, stating that it was "such a foray into the great unknown.... putting your feet to the fire" and she "loved that feeling of terror and excitement" and "looked for it ever since".
2005–2010: ''The Devil Wears Prada'' and breakthrough
Blunt's international breakthrough came in 2006. She co-starred as the troubled only child of a New Labour spin doctor in the British television drama film Gideon's Daughter, and played Emily Charlton, the senior assistant of fashion magazine editor Miranda Priestly, in the comedy-drama film The Devil Wears Prada. The Devil Wears Prada was a commercial success, grossing. Blunt's performance was deemed a standout, with Clifford Pugh of the Houston Chronicle asserting that " has many of the film's best lines and steals nearly every scene she's in." Blunt won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or Television Film for her performance in Gideon's Daughter, and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Motion Picture for her performance in The Devil Wears Prada. She also received a BAFTA Award nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for the latter. At the 79th Academy Awards, she and co-star Anne Hathaway co-presented the Academy Award for Best Costume Design, with both acting as their characters from the film. Blunt also appeared in the independent mystery drama Irresistible. After The Devil Wears Prada, Streep described Blunt as "the best young actress I've worked with in some time, perhaps ever".Blunt's profile continued to rise, and in 2007 she appeared in four films: the horror film Wind Chill, the romantic drama The Jane Austen Book Club, the comedy-drama Dan in Real Life, and the biographical comedy-drama Charlie Wilson's War. In 2008, Blunt appeared in Sunshine Cleaning in the role of Norah Lorkowski, an underachiever who starts a crime-scene clean-up business with her sister Rose. The film premiered at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, where it received positive reviews, particularly for Adams' and Blunt's performances. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine commented "This funny and touching movie depends on two can-do actresses to scrub past the biohazard of noxious clichés that threaten to intrude. Adams and Blunt get the job done." A. O. Scott of The New York Times agreed, stating "Amy Adams and Emily Blunt attack their roles with vivacity and dedication..." She then starred in The Great Buck Howard as Valerie Brennan, which premiered at the same festival.
In 2009, Blunt portrayed Queen Victoria in the independent period drama The Young Victoria, directed by Jean-Marc Vallée and written by Julian Fellowes, which focused primarily on her early life and reign, as well as her marriage to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Blunt admitted to having little prior knowledge of the Queen, but after consulting her mother, had found her to be "remarkable" and "a very 21st century sort of woman". Blunt's performance earned critical accolades, and she was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama and Critics' Choice Movie Award for Best Actress, among others. Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly concluded that "Director Jean-Marc Vallée's images have a creamy stateliness, but this is no gilded princess fantasy – it's the story of a budding ruler who learns to control her surroundings, and Blunt makes that journey at once authentic and relevant." That same year, Blunt received the BAFTA Britannia Award for British Artist of the Year.
She starred in the Toby Spanton–directed short film Curiosity. She also voiced Matilda Mouseling, the mother of the titular character, in the television series Angelina Ballerina: The Next Steps. In 2010, Blunt played a supporting role in the period horror film The Wolfman, starring Benicio del Toro and Anthony Hopkins. A re-adaptation of the 1941 film of the same name, it received mainly negative reviews, and according to the Los Angeles Times was one of the largest box-office failures of all time. Blunt was offered the role of Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow for Iron Man 2, but she was contractually obligated by 20th Century Fox to join the Jack Black-led comedy film Gulliver's Travels after the studio exercised an option it had for her when she signed on for The Devil Wears Prada.