British actress Emily Blunt has enjoyed a stellar career in movies for many years, and she says her interest in this path stemmed from having a stutter since she was around six or seven.
The ‘Devil Wears Prada’ star has been an active spokesperson for the condition that causes people to have problems with their fluency and the flow of speech. She recently hosted the American Institute for Stuttering’s 2022 Freeing Voices, Changing Lives Gala in New York City. She also sits on the board of directors for the American Institute for Stuttering.
“I wouldn’t say that’s why I’ve ventured into acting, but it was just a bit shocking the first time I was able to speak, you know, doing a silly voice or an accent pretending to be someone else,” Blunt told People magazine at the event. “People don’t talk about [it] enough if it hasn’t got enough exposure, and millions of people around the world struggle with it.”
The actress added: “If you can’t express yourself, you can’t be yourself. And there’s something very poignant in freeing people of the grip of a speech impediment, because it’s like a sort of imposter that lives in your body.”
In earlier interviews, Blunt had revealed that it was a teacher had encouraged her to audition for the school play because she noticed that the young Blunt would speak more clearly when she was impersonating others. She had said it was freeing to be finally able to express herself on stage.
Blunt also told Hello magazine at the event: “I often tell parents that they should put their kid in an acting class. That’s my own personal relationship with it. If I can pretend to be someone else, I stop stuttering. The more you hear yourself speak fluently, it kind of stops the record skipping.”
The actress, who is married to her ‘A Quiet Place’ co-star John Krasinski, said that many of her relatives including her uncle and cousin faced a stutter.
“It’s biological and it’s often hereditary and it’s not your fault,” Blunt said to People. “And I think it’s very often a disability that people bully and make fun of. So I think, to raise awareness about what it’s really about, and that there’s this soft place for you to land in this amazing organisation. It’s a big deal for me to be here.”
On the work front, Blunt most recently starred in fantasy adventure movie ‘Jungle Cruise’ alongside Dwayne Johnson. She’s also set to play biologist Katherine Oppenheimer in the upcoming biographical movie ‘Oppenheimer’, which features Cillian Murphy as theoretical physicist J Robert Oppenheimer.