Actress Emily Blunt is known for her diverse range of roles and her work with acclaimed directors such as Christopher Nolan, Rob Marshall, Rian Johnson, and Dennis Villeneuve. She has starred in films such as Sicario, The Devil Wears Prada, Looper, and Mary Poppins Returns. She was last seen as Kitty Oppenheimer in Christopher Nolan’s biopic Oppenheimer and with Chris Evans in Pain Hustlers.
Blunt starred along with an ensemble cast of Meryl Streep, Chris Pine, Johnny Depp, James Corden, and more in the musical Into The Woods. The Rob Marshall-directed cinematic adaptation of the Broadway musical saw Blunt play the leading role of the Baker’s wife. However, she was pregnant with her child during filming and had to hide her baby bump in various creative ways, including hiding behind a cow.
Emily Blunt Became Pregnant Before Into The Woods
Emily Blunt was cast in the leading role of the Baker’s wife in Disney’s 2014 cinematic adaptation of the popular Broadway musical Into The Woods. The film also starred Meryl Streep, James Corden, Johnny Depp, Anna Kendrick, and more, and was directed by Rob Marshall, who is known for directing the musical Chicago.
Blunt played the role of the Baker’s wife, who is one part of a couple who are cursed into being childless by a Witch, played by Streep. Ironically, Blunt became pregnant right after she got cast in the role and had to play the role of a barren woman while trying to hide a baby bump. She recounted her experience on Letterman,
“I found out I was pregnant the same week I found out I had the job. I had to call my director Rob Marshall two weeks before we started rehearsing and say, ‘I have something to tell you,’ and he said, ‘You’re having a baby,’ as a joke and I went, ‘Yes, Rob. I am.’…I’m supposed to be playing this barren woman who can’t have any children. The ultimate irony of a pregnant actress.”
Blunt was pregnant with her first child with husband and actor-director John Krasinski at the time. The team of Into The Woods then had to find creative ways to hide the bump on camera.
Emily Blunt Had To Hide Her Pregnancy While Filming
Emily Blunt revealed that despite her pregnancy, the team still went ahead with her as the leading lady in Into The Woods. When they started filming, Blunt was three and a half months into her pregnancy but by the time it ended, she was at seven months. She said that as the months went on the crew made her hide behind bigger objects, which at one point was a cow.
“The objects they would hide my pregnancy behind got bigger and bigger. It started off like a bag and then it became another actor, and then it became a cow by the end. There is a cow in the movie.”
While no one else had any issues with her pregnancy, Blunt mentioned that actor Chris Prine, who plays Cinderella’s Prince might have had some issues while filming as it went on over the months. Blunt said that they had a scene in the film where Pine dips her as they share a romantic moment, which proved difficult for the actor as Blunt had been seven months into her pregnancy by the time they filmed it. She said,
“I said [to Chris Prine], ‘You need to add 25 pounds to that dip. You better get in a deep lunge.’ I swear to God I felt his quad shaking as he was holding me. Which is awful.”
All the effort seemed to have paid off for Emily Blunt as she received her second Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical for her role.
