Emily Blunt Once Thought Female Roles in Superhero Films Felt ‘Thankless’
Emily Blunt has been scouted for superhero roles all the way back to the earlier phases of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
But in the past, she was a little reluctant to do superhero movies because of how they treated their female characters.
Superhero movies left Emily Blunt feeling cold
Blunt’s name has been orbiting the superhero genre for years now. She was once in the running to play Black Widow in Iron Man 2. But scheduling issues kept her away from the role. At the time, Blunt clarified that she was contracted to do the feature Gulliver’s Travels. However, doing the film because of obligations wasn’t easy for the star.
“It was a bit of a heartbreaker for me because I take such pride in the decisions that I make, and they mean so much to me, the films that I do. So that was tough,” she once said on The Howard Stern Show.
There were also rumors that Blunt might have been in the running to play the superhero Sue Storm in a possible Fantastic Four movie. But she asserted the rumors weren’t true, while also explaining why she didn’t see herself doing superhero projects.
“I don’t know if superheroes are for me. They’re not up my alley,” Blunt said. “I think it’s been exhausted. I think we are inundated. It’s not only all the movies, it’s the endless TV shows as well. And it’s not to say that I would never want to play one, it would just have to be something so cool, and like a really cool character. Then I’d be interested. But in general, I don’t race to see superhero movies. Maybe because I feel they leave me feeling a bit cold.”
Emily Blunt once felt female roles in superhero movies were thankless
Blunt’s stance on superhero features has been pretty consistent over the years. Back in 2012, she confided that another reason she avoided superhero flicks was because she was unimpressed with how they treated female characters. To her, the women weren’t nearly as interesting as the parts played by the men.
“Usually the female parts in a superhero film feel thankless,” she once told Vulture. “She’s the pill girlfriend while the guys are whizzing around saving the world. I didn’t do the other ones because the part wasn’t very good or the timing wasn’t right, but I’m open to any kind of genre if the part is great and fun and different and a challenge in some way.”
Blunt referenced her role in the sci-fi time travel thriller Looper as an example of the characters she wanted to play. Although not a superhero movie, Looper contained a few elements that were typically seen in comic book films.
“I just did Looper, because it’s so original and breathtakingly cool. The time-travel aspect is just a backdrop to visit this heightened world, where you’re atoning for something and attempting to be more than you’ve been,” Blunt added.
How Emily Blunt feels about her husband John Krasinski being in a superhero movie
Although the world still hasn’t seen Blunt in a superhero role, they’ve seen her husband don the tights. Recently, John Krasinski played the part of Reed Richards in the movie Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Despite Blunt’s own hesitation about doing superhero movies, she was thrilled to see her husband as part of the MCU.
“I was really happy for him because I think he’s a huge fan,” she said in an interview with HeyUGuys. “And I understand why it’s such an ardent passionate religion for people. It’s a huge part of our cinematic history now. So he was thrilled.”
