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INTERVIEW EMILY BLUNT
She
RULES
40 FAMOUS DECEMBER 2009
The Young Victoria’s
Emily Blunt on playing a
softer, gentler — and much
younger — Queen Victoria
✒ BY MATHIEU CHANTELOIS
mily Blunt is best known for playing servant to the ironfisted
queen of the fashion mags in The Devil Wears Prada.
But it’s payback time. This month, she’s no longer waiting
on hand and foot for a ruthless leader. She’s the
queen. Literally.
Quebec director Jean-Marc Vallée (C.R.A.Z.Y) makes
Blunt his queen in The Young Victoria, a film pitched by
Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, to several producers,
including Martin Scorsese who jumped at the
chance. The film focuses on the first 18 years of the
monarch’s rule, painting a very different picture than
that which we usually have of Victoria, wearing only black and living
a life of mournful seclusion. Here she’s a young woman juggling
political advice and falling in love with her long-distance suitor
Prince Albert (Rupert Friend). She loves to laugh, to dance and dress up.
Which is exactly what Blunt did during this past September’s
Toronto International Film Festival, where The Young Victoria
screened as the closing-night gala.
Q:Let’s talk about your director, Quebec native Jean-Marc Vallée.
What was his approach to this film?
A: “He had this kind of ferocious passion for this girl and for this love
she had for Albert. And he had a real rock-star approach to her and
wanted her to be the rebellious girl that nobody knew about. Everyone
knew about the stuck-up, mourning, repressed old lady, but no
one knew about this girl who used to dance all night and she used to
horse ride all day, she was incredibly, sort of, vivacious, and I think he
was really excited by that, that nobody knew that side of her. He had
the most real approach and didn’t hold the period in too much reverence.
And I think that’s really vital because period films can become
stuffy and they distance people, who think they can’t possible identify
with those persons.”
Q:I heard Vallée played a lot of music on set.
A: “Big on music, creating a very atmospheric set…. He would play
Sigur Rós a lot. Have you heard of them? They’re an Icelandic band
and they have quite a haunting, beautiful...umm...it’s very hard, hard,
hard to place. It’s sort of a modern classic music and it’s beautiful.”
Q:The film got some great reviews in Britain, and some not so
great reviews. Do you think it’s always sensitive when you’re
portraying the monarchy?
A: “I think it’s a touchy subject for the British press. I think they are
always going to be a bit tougher on period films because it’s sort of
our ancestry in a way, so there’s more of an ownership of it. And I
think they’ve all read up and they know their stuff and I think that
if you take a bit of poetic license with a film there’s a tendency to
sort of hate that…. If you go too far one way and make it too contemporary,
people say, ‘Well, that’s not accurate.’ And if you go too
far the other way and make it too tame, then people are bored.”
Q:How did Vallée walk that line?
A: “I think he found the love story rather than making it a historical
drama. And with a love story there will obviously be a bit of
poetic license, which I’m sure some people won’t agree with. I
wasn’t surprised that there were going to be some people who
would have their say about why they think the film didn’t work,
and everyone’s entitled to an opinion as well. I mean, it’s completely
subjective. When I go see a film there are things I love and
my friend will hate, and so it depends on how you respond to it.”
Q:What do you think Victoria would think of the film?
A: [Laughing.] “It’s such a weird question. I hope she would have
loved it. I think it must be strange for anyone watching a film
that’s been made about them. I have no idea what that’s like. I
think that must be a strange thing to see an actor play you.” F
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Mathieu Chantelois is the editor of Famous Québec.
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