After iconic roles in films like The Devil Wears Prada and The Quiet Place, Emily Blunt has become a much-loved Hollywood it girl, but she wasn’t always destined for the silver screen. According to the actress, she almost became a pop star if it wasn’t for Judi Dench’s harsh but helpful advice.
In a recent interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Blunt said she once wanted to become a musical sensation so badly she took dance lessons and even recorded songs. “I don’t want to tell you too much because I feel like someone is going to find these songs.”
“I could’ve been Britney [Spears],” she told Kimmel.
Blunt said that while she was trying to launch her music career she was in a play with fellow actress Dame Judi Dench, who offered her a little tough love.
“I went to her for advice because I was really, really nervous about this career,” she said. “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.”
Dench sounds like a straight up savage, but in hindsight, it’s probably a good thing she talked Emily Blunt out of following in Britney’s footsteps.
Since bursting onto the scene in The Devil Wears Prada, Blunt has gone on to win several accolades including a Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild Award and multiple nominations for the British Academy Film Awards.
After a little coaxing from husband John Krasinski, Blunt is also set to appear in the second instalment of the horror flick A Quiet Place.
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Speaking to Variety, the actress said she and Krasinski were “really reluctant and unnerved” to do a follow-up of the first film, but after deciding to make Regan – their daughter in the film – the lead of the movie, they decided to move forward with it.
It’s hard to imagine Emily Blunt doing anything other than acting – and clearly, all it took was a pep talk from the iconic Judi Dench.
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