Interview: Emily Blunt, actress

By JEANANNE CRAIG
Published on 21/06/2012 14:29

EMILY Blunt plays a bride-to-be with a long and bumpy build-up to her big day, in new comedy The Five-Year Engagement. The star’s own wedding preparations, however, couldn’t have been more different.

British beauty Blunt married US actor John Krasinski in an intimate ceremony in Lake Como, Italy in 2010 and insists she didn’t lose any sleep beforehand - despite a guest list that included Hollywood royalty George Clooney, Matt Damon and her co-star in The Devil Wears Prada, Meryl Streep.

“I didn’t want to have a big wedding. I wanted to keep it really laid-back,” she explains, looking chic and relaxed in a belted black silk top, black ankle-skimming trousers and grey suede wedges.

“I’m quite decisive,” Blunt adds. “I’m not one of those people who says, ‘Oh, what about this, what about that?’ I’m just like, ‘That’ll do, that’ll do, that’ll do’, because I just think it’s the day that’s special, not all of the stuff that comes with it.

“The day should be kind of freewheeling a little, because something could go wrong. You’ve just got to roll with the punches.”

Blunt is home to promote the new romantic comedy with co-star and close pal Jason Segel.

The How I Met Your Mother funnyman - who plays Blunt’s fiancé in the film - turns to her as she finishes speaking about the wedding, a wounded look on his face.

“It’s funny you say that,” he deadpans. “You could have put just a little more thought into the guest list.”

Blunt, stony-faced, leans forward and confides in a stage whisper: “Jason wasn’t invited.”

For all his posturing, Segel clearly didn’t have any hard feelings. He and Nicholas Stoller, who co-scripted and directed The Five-Year Engagement, wrote the role of British academic Violet with Blunt in mind, and his real-life rapport with the actress transfers brilliantly to the screen.

The film begins with talented chef Tom (Segel) popping the question. The wedding date soon gets postponed though, and cracks begin to emerge after Violet lands a new post in Michigan and Tom quits his job to go with her.

As the big day gets further delayed, the couple begin to wonder whether they are really meant to be together.

Despite the grace and poise which helped secure roles such as Queen Victoria in The Young Victoria, and ballerina Elise Sellas in thriller The Adjustment Bureau, 29-year-old Blunt is clearly game for a laugh, demonstrating her gift for slapstick as Violet gets shot in the leg with an arrow, runs into an open car door and performs an impeccable impression of The Muppets’ Cookie Monster during a row.

“Emily’s really capable of anything,” Segel says enthusiastically.

“I’m in awe of everything she can do. She can be elegant, she can be a tomboy, she can be funny, she can be serious, but you always believe what she’s doing. You never feel that she’s ‘efforting’ at anything and it astounds me.”

Blunt adds: “We didn’t really want to do that Hollywood gloss of the romantic comedy that we’re used to seeing. We wanted to make it really real and accessible and naturalistic, kind of messy.”

And the Cookie Monster impression? “The director Nick’s daughter gets him to do silly voices sometimes at the most inopportune moments, like when he’s in a talk with his wife and she’s like, ‘Do the silly man voice’,” Blunt explains, smiling.

“So I think that’s where the idea came from, and what I love about it is the silliness of the voices and how funny it is to see two people arguing as Cookie Monster and Elmo. It undercuts the emotion and the earnestness of the scene.”

•The Five-Year Engagement is released in cinemas tomorrow