British actor Emily Blunt, who is being honored Thursday at the opening ceremony of the Red Sea Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, told an audience earlier in the day about Benny Safdie’s MMA fighting drama “The Smashing Machine,” in which she stars alongside Dwayne Johnson.
During a public interview, which runs as part of the festival’s “In Conversation With” strand, she said: “It’s an incredibly intense film.”
She said Johnson, with whom she starred with in “Jungle Cruise,” is “unrecognizable” in “The Smashing Machine.”
She said: “Dwayne is someone who, as you know – not only because of his colossal size, but just who he is – has never really been allowed to disappear, and he is unrecognizable in this.
“And it’s an incredibly intense film – yes, centered around the life of this real life MMA fighter Mark Kerr – all of his struggles with addictions, his relationships. It was, again, an incredibly immersive, very intense, very emotional experience to do it, and he is extraordinary in it.”
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She described Safdie as a “very cool, aesthetically exciting, visual director.”
Talking about Johnson, she said: “I love him so much, and we had the best time on ‘Jungle Cruise.’ We knew we wanted to do something else together. I don’t think either of us knew it would be a departure like ‘The Smashing Machine,’ which I can’t wait for people to see.”
Asked by a young boy when “Jungle Cruise 2” would be made, she responded: “I need you to put in a phone call to Bob Iger at Disney Studios. We would love to do another one. We would love it. It would be so cool. But instead, I did this very intense movie with Dwayne [‘The Smashing Machine’] that you are not allowed to see until you are at least 55. We are working on it [‘Jungle Cruise 2’], just for you.”
Blunt was asked whether she would reprise her role as Emily Charlton in a sequel to David Frankel’s 2007 comedy “The Devil Wears Prada,” for which she picked up a BAFTA nomination. The film also starred Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway and Stanley Tucci. “I mean, there’s rumblings,” she said. “There’s stuff churning around, but I don’t know if I can confirm anything completely, but yes, we would all be, I think, pretty delighted to work together again, yes.”
Blunt is slated to appear in Steven Spielberg‘s yet-to-be-titled film for Universal Pictures, alongside Josh O’Connor, Colin Firth, Colman Domingo and Eve Hewson.
Recent starring roles for Blunt include David Leitch’s action-comedy “The Fall Guy,” alongside Ryan Gosling.
Earlier she was asked about how she felt when she first started acting and how she learned by playing roles, not at acting school. She said she was still terrified when acting.
Blunt said: “I’m still learning. I have not filled up my cup yet. I still feel absolutely terrified before I start a film. I love that feeling now. I used to be very scared of it, but I don’t mind the terror.”
Blunt was Oscar and BAFTA nominated for Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” this year. She won a Screen Actors Guild award in 2019 for husband John Krasinski’s sci-fi horror “A Quiet Place.” She was BAFTA nominated for a second time in 2017 for thriller “The Girl on the Train.”
Blunt broke through in 2004 with romantic drama “My Summer of Love,” when she was nominated for most promising newcomer at the British Independent Film Award.
The fourth edition of the Red Sea Film Festival runs from Dec. 5 to 14. Other honorees at the festival include Viola Davis and Aamir Khan.
