Emily Blunt Is 'Bored' by Scripts Specifying a 'Strong Female Lead': 'Makes Me Roll My Eyes'
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Karwai Tang/WireImage Emily Blunt
Emily Blunt is all about playing complex characters — not ticking off a list of stereotype checkboxes.
The English actress, 39, said in a recent interview with The Telegraph that she instantly checks out and is "bored" when she comes across a script specifying a "strong female lead."
"It's the worst thing ever when you open a script and read the words, 'strong female lead,' " said Blunt. "That makes me roll my eyes — I'm already out. I'm bored. Those roles are written as incredibly stoic; you spend the whole time acting tough and saying tough things."
Her character in The English, Cornelia Locke, "is more surprising than that," Blunt said.
"She's innocent without being naïve, and that makes her a force to be reckoned with," explained the actress.
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Stephanie Augello/Shutterstock Emily Blunt
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Over the span of her career, Blunt has appeared in films across a wide variety of genres, including family entertainment (Mary Poppins Returns, Gnomeo & Juliet), adventure (Jungle Cruise), horror/thriller (A Quiet Place and its sequel, The Girl on the Train), action (Edge of Tomorrow), comedy (The Devil Wears Prada), musicals (Into the Woods) and more.
She will next appear on the silver screen in Christopher Nolan's atomic-bomb thriller Oppenheimer, opposite Cillian Murphy (her costar in 2021's A Quiet Place Part II) as the titular scientist.
Based on the Pulitzer Prize–winning book American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, the film features a large cast including Blunt as Oppenheimer's wife, Katherine; Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss, a major figure in the development of nuclear weapons, according to IMDb; and Matt Damon as Lt. Gen. Leslie Groves, who oversaw the construction of the Pentagon and directed the Manhattan Project.
Florence Pugh, Josh Hartnett, Dane DeHaan, Rami Malek and more also star in the film, which is due to hit theaters on July 21 of next year.
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Raising her daughters with husband John Krasinski — Hazel, 8, and Violet, 6 — has also inspired Blunt to become more involved in women's organizations, she previously told PEOPLE.
The actress supports Malala Fund, created by Nobel Prize winner Malala Yousafzai to break down the barriers preventing more than 130 million girls worldwide from receiving an education.
Blunt and husband Krasinski, 43, previously auctioned off two tickets to the premiere of A Quiet Place (as part of a double date with them!) to benefit Malala Fund. They also met the young leader and her father Ziauddin in 2017.
"She's the most poignant, impressive person I've ever met," Blunt told PEOPLE of Yousafzai in March 2020. "What she says is true: When women are empowered in communities, those communities flourish. I want to support Malala until the day I die."
