Emily Blunt Excited to Play a 'Blackout Drunk' in 'Girl on the Train'
‘The Girl on the Train’ actress Emily Blunt promoting ‘Sicario’ at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2015. (AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau)
One of the most-anticipated films of 2016 is The Girl on the Train, an adaptation of Paula Hawkins’ bestselling novel about a woman who witnesses something terrifying on her daily commute. Emily Blunt, who plays the title character, has performed roles that demand exhausting stunts (Sicario, Edge of Tomorrow) and extensive singing (Into the Woods) — but she told Deadline that Girl on the Train is “the most challenging thing I’ve ever done.” For one thing, there’s the fact that her character is, in Blunt’s words, “the most unreliable witness in the world because she’s a drunk.”
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“The idea of playing a part like that where you just feel like you’re drowning is exciting,” said the actress. “I’ve never played a blackout drunk before, so this is new to me now.”
That said, she thinks the character will be “very relatable” to audiences. “I just love that it’s about addiction and loneliness and voyeurism and what we think we see and don’t see…We’ve all ridden the train to work and wondered about the lives of the people on the train, and I think that people relate to that,” Blunt told Deadline.
The British actress is currently receiving Oscar buzz for Sicario, Denis Villeneuve’s dark and edgy FBI drama (released in October, now available for digital purchase). The Girl on the Train, directed by The Help’s Tate Taylor, premieres in theaters on October 7.
