She’s just announced she’s taking a break from acting for a year to spend more time with her kids Hazel, nine, Violet, seven, and husband, fellow actor John Krasinski, 43, but before she steps back, Emily Blunt, 40, is going out with a bang!
Critics are calling her new movie Oppenheimer – which tells the story of Robert Oppenheimer, the theoretical physicist who helped develop the first nuclear weapons – director Christopher Nolan’s best film to date.
Here, Woman’s Day catches up with the British star to find out what it was like working with friends Cillian Murphy and Matt Damon
What first made you want to be part of this project?
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First of all, it’s [director] Chris Nolan. That was more than enough to get me interested. And then I read the script and I couldn’t put it down. I found it to be so extraordinarily emotional and immersive. It plays out like a horror movie and by the end I felt destroyed by it.
What can you tell us about your character in the film?
I play Oppenheimer’s wife Kitty. She was a woman very much the equal of her husband. She was a fiery force of nature who was uncompromising about how she wanted to live her life. Kitty was really destined for more intellectual endeavours than raising kids, but she was definitely not a woman who conformed to the 1950s housewife ideal. Oppenheimer is her fourth husband and given they met when she was 29 years old, it says something about the wildness in her.
How did you relate to her as a mother?
She’s very different but I found that I could empathise with how being a mother did not come naturally to someone like her. It was something she wasn’t good at. Kitty was a scientist. She was a non-conformer, which is why she got a reputation for not being terribly nice.
Murphy and Blunt previously starred together in A Quiet Place Part II.
(Image: Getty)You worked with Cillian Murphy on A Quiet Place Part II. What was it like to be reunited on something so different?
I loved it. He is so mesmerising. It was a monumental task he took on as Oppenheimer. I don’t know how he did it. I loved every minute of working with Cillian. He’s incredible.
You also got to work with Matt Damon again…
Working with Matt is always a joy. Not only do we go back years but he’s also a neighbour actually. Matt has always been a friend I can lean, on so it was great having him be part of this with me. Matt is the best.
You play a woman who is always there with great advice for her husband when he needs it. What is the best advice your husband has ever given you?
I’m lucky that John is the ultimate pragmatist in my life and for a lot of people actually. He’s just good at fixing stuff by breaking it down and saying how it is or what needs to be done. If I’m worried about something, he will listen and then he will just have the answer.
The friends joked around at the London premiere.
(Image: Getty)Are you and John planning on making A Quiet Place III together?
That’s the plan. We’re working on a third. It’s a whole different story, different to anything we’ve seen of that world before. It’s actually a prequel and it’s called A Quiet Place: Day One. That’s all I’m allowed to say.
Do you think you will follow your husband into directing one day?
Maybe one day, but I have seen just what it costs you emotionally and physically. Right now I am still learning.
The couple are currently working on the third instalment of A Quiet Place.
(Image: Getty)