How Emily Blunt Hid Her Pregnancy for 'Into the Woods'
Emily Blunt and James Corden in Into the Woods
When you’re shooting a movie called Into the Woods and you need to disguise a baby bump, there’s only one thing to do. “I was hiding behind every tree in that wood!” Emily Blunt joked in an interview with Disney fan club magazine Disney twenty-three. The British actress announced that she was pregnant with her first child, daughter Hazel (born in February), right around the time that the fairy-tale musical began filming. Fortunately, the trees were able to help her out — as was the costume department. “Colleen Atwood, who’s the most remarkable costume designer, as everybody knows, was so accommodating,” says Blunt, who is married to actor John Krasinski. “I would say towards the end, every four or five days they were making some adjustments.”
A pregnant Emily Blunt in January
Ironically, Blunt’s Into the Woods character, The Baker’s Wife, suffers from a witch’s curse that has made her barren. In their desperation to have a child, The Baker (James Corden) and his wife go on a mission to reverse the curse, which involves stealing from other fairy-tale characters like Red Riding Hood and Rapunzel. Despite its practical challenges, Blunt recalls that her real-life pregnancy actually helped her get into character. “The fact that I was pregnant actually was a rather transporting thing, and a very helpful experience in a way to understanding the urgent need that this woman has for a baby,” she said. “Here I was, feeling incredibly blessed and understanding what the character maybe is missing out on.”
Still, the efforts to hide her baby bump amused her co-stars. “That was pretty funny,” Meryl Streep told Disney twenty-three. “They were constantly putting James Corden in front of her belly, raising her apron higher and higher.”
Watch a trailer for Into the Woods below:
Photo credit: Disney, Getty Images
