Emily Blunt Would Rather Shake Your Hand Than Take a Selfie

emily_blunt_gettyimages-815132496.jpg
Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney

The actress also talks about the 'roller coaster' of motherhood in the new issue of 'Vanity Fair'

When it came to teaming up with her husband, John Krasinski, for their new film, A Quiet Place, Emily Blunt credits the crazy “roller coaster” of motherhood for helping her identify with the story.

The British actress stars alongside Krasinski in the new supernatural thriller, about a family living in silence in the woods, and is sharing how parenting the couple’s two children (3-year-old Hazel and Violet, one) prepared her for the role.

“Much of the sort of real-life roller coaster that is parenthood is unspoken,” Blunt says in the new issue of Vanity Fair, on which she graces the cover, looking stunning in a plunging black gown. “The first time you bring your kid home from the hospital, there’s no talking. You just pray they’re going to be OK. When you drop your kid off at school for the first time, there’s no talking. You just pray they’re going to be OK. So, there’s a familiar poignance and power to watching a family live in silence … that actually speaks volumes.”

The film hits theaters in April and Krasinski, 38, also co-wrote and directed the project. Speaking about collaborating with Blunt for the first time professionally, the Office star tells the magazine he was so moved by her performance that he momentarily forget she was his wife of seven years.

“The air changes in the room when she starts doing what she does,” he gushes. “It’s so honest and so pure and so powerful. It’s like a superpower that she can just unlock and do so specifically with not many attempts. For me, I love acting, and I’m so lucky to be doing it. But she’s on another plane. This weird intersection happened while filming where I totally forgot I was her husband. I was just watching her performance and was lucky enough to be in the front row.”

Photographed exclusively for Vanity Fair by Craig McDean

While her husband was captivated by her work on the film, there’s another family member who Blunt hopes to impress when it comes to taking on the role of Mary Poppins in the upcoming Disney sequel -- Hazel! The Devil Wears Prada star recently showed her daughter the original movie, starring Julie Andrews, and says she has become mesmerized by the classic.

“She is besotted with this movie, to the point where I have a deep dread she is simply going to reject my version and be, like, ‘You are not Mary Poppins,’ because she is so in love with Julie Andrews and she knows every single song,” Blunt, 34, shares.

Photographed exclusively for Vanity Fair by Craig McDean

However, don’t expect Blunt to get too active on social media promoting either movie. During the cover interview, which hits newsstands on Jan. 4, she explains why she steers away from social media, saying she believes that “exposing too much personally” compromises her ability to persuade audiences she is someone else onscreen.

Blunt also prefers not to take endless selfies while out and about, noting that she took advice from fellow actress Frances McDormand to politely turn down requests by saying, “You know what? I’ve actually retired from that. But I would like to shake your hand and meet you.”

See more on Blunt and Krasinski in A Quiet Place below.

RELATED CONTENT: