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Emily Blunt sat down with Porter to discuss her career and how tough it can be to find a solid part as a woman, one that doesn’t fall into easily pigeon-holed categories of representation. Still, one thing she said about her earlier roles in the entertainment industry was particularly resonant with the problems faced by women in film and television today.
“‘Write me like a guy, and I’ll do the “girl” stuff. Just write me as you would a man: fallible and complex and difficult and shady,'” she remembers once saying to a writer. All the same, it seems Blunt isn’t overly impressed with the progress that has been made in the industry since then. “We are still having to remind people to not hold women to a certain ideal,” she said.
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Blunt is not shy about criticizing the way women are written or represented in film and television. While speaking to The Telegraph about “The English,” she praised the complexity of her character Cornelia while also declaring, “It’s the worst thing ever when you open a script and read the words: ‘strong female lead’. That makes me roll my eyes – I’m already out. I’m bored.” She went on to explain that these types of roles often end up being one-note.
If the critical response is any indication, Blunt definitely got the opportunity to dig deeper with “The English.”
