The daunting 2018 role that left Emily Blunt “frozen with fear”
2026 seems to belong to two actors: Anne Hathaway and Emily Blunt.
While the former delighted fans of queer-coded storytelling in Mother Mary and is set to take the breath away of endless suitors in The Odyssey, Blunt gave a show-stealing performance as a clairvoyant news anchor in Disclosure Day, and served up stern-lipped laughter alongside her old screen-sharer in The Devil Wears Prada 2.
But a homerun like this doesn’t just come out of nowhere: The pair had to have their confidence knocked time and time again in an industry which usually shames women for making even the suggestion of a mistake. When your face, your voice, your likeness, and your profession are up for criticism, there is a lot to be terrified about. For Blunt, this fear-inducing panic took the form of one household name, offered to her in the shape of a “cryptic message” from director Rob Marshall.
With major movie musicals such as 2002’s Chicago, 2014’s Into the Widows, Blunt might’ve only guessed in her wildest dreams what name would be suggested down the phone line, as she recalled, “When he uttered the name Mary Poppins, I thought, ‘Wow!’ I was filled with a mixture of two emotions: I was obviously very excited, but I was also frozen with fear because, well, Mary herself is so iconic, and Julie Andrews is so iconic, too.”
In 1964, Andrews starred as the magical, if a little batty, nanny-cum-magician in what soon became the highest-grossing film of 1964, which went from a production budget of around $5million to grossing over $103m worldwide, allowing Walt Disney to purchase 27,000 acres of land, which later became Disney World. How can you deny a legacy like that? Built off the character that Blunt now had to re-create, no less.
Blunt’s answer was simple: She based her imitation on the original books, written by PL Travers. While Andrews’ take on Poppins was warm, doting, and caring, Blunt pulled out the eccentricities in the umbrella-bearing singer, making her all the more vain and delightfully rude in the 2018 movie.
The actor explained, “In the books, she’s quite batty! She’s eccentric and very vain and not warm and fuzzy at all. But she’s also magical, with an incredibly warm core, and she has a master plan for the children and ultimately brings great joy to them. I must say, it’s a joy to play somebody who knows so confidently that she is better than everybody else!”
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In the face of fear, Blunt made sure to hone her craft; alongside Hamilton mastermind and Mary Poppins Returns co-star Lin-Manuel Miranda, she underwent extensive dance training to shine in the Hollywood-style dance numbers. Amid the technicolour of 1930s London during the Great Depression, she restores joy to an otherwise dreary time.
Oddly, despite her highly praised character study and the stacked cast supporting her, including Angela Lansbury, Emily Mortimer, Ben Wishaw, and Dick Van Dyke, the film has faded into relative obscurity, cast in the shadow of her next thriller, A Quiet Place. That’s a different kind of fear altogether.
