The Devil Wears Prada's Emily Blunt shows that sass and style are always in fashion.
By Brandon Voss
Damn that Abigail Breslin! If the Little Miss Sunshine tyke hadn't pulled a surprise "Anna Paquin," this year's Academy Award nominees for Best Supporting Actress might've included Emily Blunt, who plays Miranda Priestly's ruthless first assistant in The Devil Wears Prada. Sure, Dreamgirls' Jennifer Hudson would’ve probably squashed her like she did at the Golden Globes, but Oscar was still a fool to overlook the bitchy Brit who nailed the line: "I'm one stomach flu away from reaching my goal weight."
More surprising than this snub is the fact that the 24-year-old star has had no formal acting training. I was planning to go to university and do something constructive," jokes Blunt, who did her first play while taking her A-levels in high school. Now dating crooner Michael Bublé and set to star in such high-profile projects as The Jane Austen Book Club, Blunt broke through in 2004's British lesbian drama My Summer of Love. Her portrayal of a deceptive temptress seduced producers of Prada, helping her net the role of Emily opposite Meryl Streep's icy editrix — a job a million girls would kill for.
Some might call the character a four-letter word that rhymes with her last name, but Blunt, who shed some pounds for the part, prefers "fierce" to describe Emily. "I wanted her to look so on the edge of fashion that she was falling off it," she says, adding that the studio initially envisioned her as a blonde. "I really fought for the bright red hair — and Meryl backed me up on it."
But is Blunt also a fashionista in real life? "I'm more so now," says the woman who received universal praise for the off-white, pearl-beaded silk Hervé Léger she worked at the Globes. "I was definitely a jeans and T-shirt girl before, but [Prada costume designer] Patricia Field encourages you to have more courage when it comes to what looks good on your body. She'd throw things into this elaborate concoction of an outfit I would never have thought would work. Sometimes I'd be like, 'Oh, I don't know, Pat.' And she'd be like, 'Wear it, it's fierce!''
Though most of the Prada outfits were auctioned off for charity at Streep's behest, Blunt did pocket one accessory. "l got to take home a 1970s vintage silver belt, but that's just about all I got to wrestle off them," says Blunt, who particularly coveted her character's silver Fendi shoes and a "hot" Dolce & Gabbana pencil skirt. "I was desperate to keep more, but it was auctioned off to a far greater cause than my wardrobe."
SIDEBAR: Behind the Seams
Patricia Field figured Oscar would favor period costumes constructed from scratch over her Prada designs, essentially pieces culled from other top designers. A nomination proved the Emmy-winning Sex and the City designer wrong, pitting the glam lesbian against such talents as Marie Antoinette's Milena Canonero. Field's work will next be seen in Suburban Girl, the film adaptation of A Girl's Guide to Hunting and Fishing, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar.
HX, February 2007.