Emily Blunt: Judi Dench told me to be an actress and not a pop star
A Quiet Place 2 comes out next week. Do you plan to see it? I don’t know. I wanted to to see the first one (and did) but I’m not as jazzed about the sequel. I’m not a big thriller person so it could just be I reached my thriller threshold. However, a lot of people are excited, and they had a fancy premiere in New York. So Emily Blunt and John Krasinski are both out promoting it. Emily was on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Tuesday. I like Emily in general but she and John used to live across the street from Jimmy so she’s particularly relaxed on his show. During the interview, we learned that we almost lost Emily to the land of pop music, but Dame Judi Dench intervened on pop music’s behalf.
On Tuesday night’s episode of Jimmy Kimmel Live, Emily Blunt revealed that she almost didn’t become an actor. In fact, she told host Jimmy Kimmel that she wanted to be a pop star instead.
“I could have been Britney [Spears],” she joked, noting that her dreams were short-lived because of one minor detail. “I realized I wasn’t good at dancing and I didn’t want to be Britney…I don’t know.”
“I can’t write. I can’t really sing—no, I’m just kidding,” she continued. “They said, ‘I think you have a nice voice and I think that you could be a pop star.’ I said, ‘I can’t dance.’ They said, ‘Don’t worry about it. We’ll teach you.’ It didn’t work. I tried to learn.”
At the time, the Devil Wears Prada star was still pursuing acting and received some advice from one of her A-list co-stars that helped her make the right decision in the end.
“I was doing a play…my first job was with Judi Dench—yeah, the Dame—which was incredible and she was wonderful to me,” Emily recalled. “And I went to her for advice because I was really, really nervous about this career that I didn’t know was right for me—I didn’t think was right for me—and she was like, ‘Oh no, darling. You can’t do both. You can’t act and do that.’ She talked me out of it.”
Anytime anyone quotes Judi Dench, I not only hear it in her voice, I project all her mannerisms on the quote as well. I could just see her tutting Emily, “Oh no, darling. You can’t do both.” I like Emily’s voice just fine but I couldn’t see her as a pop star. Maybe a folksy balladeer, but not bouncing around in a pig tails and thigh high platform boots. Don’t get me wrong, I understand wanting to be a pop star, hell, *I* wanted to be a pop star. But believe me when I tell you you’d rather chew on tinfoil then listen to me sing. I think Dame Judi led Emily down the right path for sure. Besides, what was Emily going to do, not listen to Dame Judi?
At the start of the interview, they discussed how Emily and John decided to do the sequel. Jimmy asked what would have happened if Emily had decided to pass, asking if John would have recast her, which is a really funny concept to me. How awkward would that be? Especially if the replacement got any kind of award recognition. Emily claimed John would’ve called Brie Larson. It’s a funny bit.
In the second half of the interview, Jimmy shows a pre-taped ‘commercial’ for A Quiet Plane, which is the idea of A Quiet Place but on a plane. It’s funnier in concept than execution but you can watch it here if you’d like.
Photo credit: WENN/Avalon and YouTube
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