Emily Blunt reflects on 'The Devil Wears Prada,' 'A Quiet Place'

Blunt recalled nearly falling on Meryl Streep during her first day of shooting.

September 18, 2024, 2:59 PM

Emily Blunt is looking back on some of the biggest roles of her career.

The actress, who was nominated earlier this year for her first Academy Award for her performance in the 2023 blockbuster biopic "Oppenheimer," sat down with "Good Morning America" to chat about the beloved "The Devil Wears Prada" (2006) and the scary "A Quiet Place" (2018).

Reflecting on her first day of shooting "The Devil Wears Prada," Blunt called it a "nerve-racking" experience because "it was my first big movie and I didn't know what to expect."

"I remember how kind Annie Hathaway was to me," she recalled of her co-star, Anne Hathaway.

"And David Frankel, the director, created such a fun environment," she added. "You could improv, you could chuck in a thing you wanted in there, and there were no mistakes."

PHOTO: Emily Blunt appears in a promotional video for "The Devil Wears Prada."
Emily Blunt appears in a still from "The Devil Wears Prada."
20th Century Studios/YouTube

One thing she said stuck out to her about her first day on set was how she "fell practically on Meryl Streep" during a scene that required her to run down a corridor in high heels, which she admitted she is "not very good at walking in."

"I just fell over, clipboard and all, just clattering to the floor," she said, recalling how her co-star didn't break character. "I just remember Meryl going, 'Oh, oh, oh."

As for what Blunt took away from her time shooting "The Devil Wears Prada" -- her first foray into comedy -- she said she learned to embrace "openness" and to "just throw the kitchen sink at it, 'cause you don't know what's gonna be funny, and just try to be as free and as loose as possible."

"It was the perfect environment in order to try comedy for the first time, because you could throw anything at the wall to see what would stick," she noted. "Stanley [Tucci] would have 10 different reads of a line, and Meryl is so agile, she changes it every time, like, you don't really know what you're going to get with every take."

Emily Blunt appears in a still from "The Quiet Place" official trailer.
Paramount Pictures/YouTube

Fast-forward 12 years later and Blunt found herself diving into a new genre -- horror -- by starring alongside husband John Krasinski in "A Quiet Place," which Krasinski also directed.

"I hadn't done horror like that before, and I'd never realized how tiring it is to be constantly hyperventilating and terrified," she revealed.

Blunt said watching Krasinski direct his first film showed her a new side of him.

"You kind of see that your partner kind of has a superpower you didn't know they had," she gushed. "It was really extraordinary to build that together. It was really something else."

Watch the full "Take It From Me" with Blunt here:

The actress sat down with “GMA” at the American Institute for Stuttering gala to reflect on how stuttering paved the way for her career.
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Emily Blunt reflects on her 1st audition for ‘The Devil Wears Prada’

The actress sat down with “GMA” at the American Institute for Stuttering gala to reflect on how stuttering paved the way for her career.