Emily Blunt opens up about her struggle with stuttering
If someone asked me what there is to love about Emily Blunt, I’d respond, “What isn’t there?” Not only is she a strong, independent, kick-ass role model, but she isn’t afraid to open up about incredibly important issues, no matter how personal and raw they are. Take, for example, her speech impediment.
Emily has spoken in the past about her problem with stuttering as a child, but recently, in an interview with Howard Stern on his Sirius XM radio show, she explained that it’s an issue she still faces to this day.
“When I’m on the phone, it comes back, because I think it’s that pressure to communicate only with your voice,” Emily told him. “Anytime I feel under pressure, and actually when I was pregnant it came back really badly. My diaphragm was so constricted. There wasn’t any space in there. I think I need to be really relaxed and calm to speak freely.”
In the interview, she started from the beginning, saying that she developed the stutter as a child — and that acting helped her get past it. When she was 12, a teacher encouraged her to try out for the school’s plays so that she could gain confidence in her speaking voice, and, well, we all know how that turned out, as she’s become world famous for her amazing skills.
Emily isn’t the only performer who struggled with stuttering as a child. In fact, actor Bruce Willis also had the same issue, and when they starred together in Looper, they talked about it on the very first production day. “I had written him a letter to try to get him to come and speak at this gala I do every year,” Blunt told Stern. “He said, ‘I’m too nervous because I’m nervous I’m going to stutter.’”
When Howard asked if this is the reason Bruce seems so closed off in interviews, and she responded, “Yes, I do. I think it’s partly him, because he’s very cool, and everyone else’s cool factor just diminishes when he walks in the room. He is innately quite shy as well. But I think stutterers, I’m guilty of it too, you come up with ways to avoid it.”
You go, Emily. Thanks for opening up about such a personal issue that thousands of young children — and adults — all over the world struggle with. To not only overcome such a difficult obstacle, but specialize in speaking out loud in front of millions of people? Yeah, you rock.
(Image via Shutterstock.)
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