At the Mary Poppins Returns red carpet premiere event in LA, I also got to interview the practically perfect Emily Blunt about taking on the iconic role of Mary Poppins. Emily Blunt was director Rob Marshall’s first choice as the magical nanny and Emily was supercalifragilistic and expialidocious!
Emily entered the room with amazing energy and she looked stunning wearing a long sleeved color blocked dress with a jewel neckline.
There were many questions I wanted to ask but I really wanted her thoughts on the fashion. We will be seeing Mary Poppins style, created by Sandy Powell, included in winter 2018 and spring 2019 fashion.
What was your favorite costume and why?
“I have to say I really loved the red suit with the skirt that kind of flowed out when I danced with 30 lamplighters. I remember Rob Marshall really wanted like a Ginger Rogers type of look to that and it’s not actually accurate for the time period to have a skirt that opened up like that. So that’s where Sandy Powell, the great Sandy Powell created all those very tight pleats so that it looked very chic and sort of straight-lined. And then when I turned, the whole skirt kind of opened up and she’s just so exciting to work with, Sandy Powell.
What was the moment where you were like “holy smokes I’m Mary Poppins?”
“I would say the arrival scene where I am dangling 60 feet from a crane and Rob Marshall played the amazing orchestral music from the speakers, like blared it from the speakers so that it was very transporting and really exciting, but I was kind of terrified at that. I thought I was alright with heights and then I was up there and like ‘I’m not.’
But I think that was the moment because I had the coat, the hat, the umbrella, the feet, the kite. It was one of the only moments I allowed myself cause and I kind of had to block out the fear of how iconic she was in taking this on for most of the shoot. And then I remember I landed and we did the scene, and one of the crew guys came up to me and he goes, ‘I’ve got to say I got really emotional watching that!’
It’s like ‘she’s back.’ And we’ve waited 54 years and people have told me that, people who, some of the most cynical people I know were like, ‘I cried when she came and I didn’t realize how much I wanted her to come back until I saw her, saw your feet coming out of the clouds.’ It was so cool.”
Emily got to work with a legend, Dick Van Dyke- What did she think about it?
“Oh My God. It was so overwhelming I have to say because he’s so sprightly and cool, just what a gorgeous human and he walked on set and he just said, ‘I feel the same spirit here that was there on the first movie,’ and of course, we all wanted to cry. And we’d sit around him and just want him to tell us stories about the original and he sang “Jolly Holiday” to me. I was just like that’s it, I could die now. I could die and be happy. It’s just lights out, awesome moment.
And I think probably my other moment of Oh My God, I’m playing Mary Poppins was in the scene with him where he has that beautiful monologue that was so gorgeous to Michael Banks and we’re all crowded around him and the music starts, and he finishes the monologue and in the scene, he crosses his arms and he looks up at me like that. And I just remember looking at those iconic blue eyes and I was like ‘Wow,’ that was so wild.”
What was your biggest challenge?
“The dancing was a bit daunting because I’d never done those sort of big show-stopping Hollywood numbers. The great Rob Marshall and he is an incredible choreographer as well as incredible Director. So we were in safe hands. I feel like Lin Manuel and I were sort of on par with dancing abilities. If I had been dancing with Justin Timberlake, that would have been really embarrassing.
But on a deeper note, I think the initial idea of taking her on because she is so iconic and Julie Andrews is so iconic and the character has this searing imprint on people’s lives. It’s often the first movie that anyone ever saw. I needed to get over myself I think and sort of approach her as I would any other role and allow everyone’s sort of gasping reaction when I said I was gonna take on Mary Poppins. So I think it was the initial overcoming of that and then I just completely fell in love with her. I was just so mad about her by the end. I just loved it.”
Mary Poppins Returns opens in theaters on December 19th
Grab your tickets today here!
You can also take home your favorite characters for the kids (or yourself) with Funko from Entertainment Earth.
- For more details visit: Mary Poppins
- Pick up one of four fun Funko Pop collectible figures.
