Monday, April 14, 2008

Blunt Talk About Queen Victoria

The New York Times recently interviewed actress Emily Blunt about her upcoming turn as Queen Victoria in the film Young Victoria. (You can read my previous posts about the movie here: 11 February 07, 16 February 07, 23 February 07, 4 March 07, and 13 October 07.)

NYT: ". . . You just finished playing the young Queen Victoria, where you had to wear a corset."

Blunt: "It is painful to wear a corset for 15 hours a day. They only loosen you up for lunch, and you would think that you would lose weight, but somehow you don’t. Movie sets are like 30 people grazing all day, eating sandwiches."

NYT: "Does the corset help you to get in character?"

Blunt: "Absolutely. You immediately feel regal. In this movie, we tried to combat the stuffy costume-drama approach. We see the private side of Victoria, when she was young and rebellious. She had a very overprotected childhood — she wasn’t allowed to walk down stairs without someone holding her hand. But she had a great sense of her position: at 10, she told her governess, 'I will be good.'"

NYT: "Did you have to learn proper royal manners?"

Blunt: "We had an etiquette coach on the set at all times. He is very close to the royal family, and he watched everything we did and said. He wanted us to be correct but vivid: after all, the royals go to the toilet, they have sex, they are human beings."

Above -- A scene from Young Victoria: Blunt with Rupert Friend as Prince Albert.

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