Emily Blunt’s Least-Favorite Hollywood Word Is “Likable”
It’s too bad The Hollywood Reporter couldn’t secure Jessica Fletcher, who is obviously the number-one spot on that 25 Power Authors list, for a cover shoot. Since she’s too busy solving murders on the east coast to pose for pictures, they got the next best thing, which is apparently The Girl on the Train author Paula Hawkins and Emily Blunt. Emily stars in the film adaptation of The Girl on the Train. I haven’t read the book, but I did watch the trailer. Emily’s character Rachel is an always-drunk who can’t stop stalking her ex-husband and maybe might have murdered someone. Some might describe her character as “unlikable.” But don’t call her that around Emily Blunt. Emily Blunt hates that word.
Just like Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Lawrence before her, Emily Blunt is firmly on Team I Don’t Give A Crap About Being Likable. Emily says she was “intimidated” by playing a character Paula describes as full of “self-loathing” with visible “damage.” But that’s what drew Emily to the character, as opposed to how much a guy might want to take Rachel to Red Lobster and try to woo her over all-you-can-eat snow crab legs.
“With so many movies, women are held to what a man considers a feminine ideal. You have to be pretty. You have to be ‘likable,’ which is my least favorite bloody word in the industry. Rachel isn’t ‘likable.’ What does that mean? To be witty and pretty and hold it together and be there for the guy? And he can just be a total drip?”
“Likable” is a pretty dumb word, because who the hell besides Ned Flanders and the Snuggle Bear wants to be liked all the time? But it’s not nearly the most cringeworthy word or phrase said in Hollywood. I’m sure Michael would say it’s “over the moon.” For me, I think either “canoodling” or split announcements that begin with the words: “It is with a heavy heart...”. That last one makes no sense. If it feels like you’re carrying Rob Kardashian in your chest, get to a doctor!
Emily also says that in preparation for playing a boozer in The Girl on the Train, she planned on getting hammered drunk and letting her husband John Krasinski film her. That never happened because she discovered she was pregnant about a week before they started shooting. So she watched episodes of A&E’s Intervention instead. I fully expect to hear Rachel confess to the police during an interrogation scene that she’s “walking on sunshine.”
Here’s Emily and Paula looking like ~mysterious~ flashers for The Hollywood Reporter.
Pics: THR