Emily Blunt says it was 'shocking' acting helped her overcome her stutter
Emily Blunt says it was “shocking” that acting helped her overcome her stutter.
The ‘Mary Poppins’ star didn’t go into the craft to fix her speech disability but found it useful as she spoke at the American Institute for Stuttering’s annual Freeing Voices, Changing Lives Gala.
While at the event, the 39-year-old actress told PEOPLE: "I wouldn't say that's why I've ventured into acting, but it was just a bit shocking the first time I was able to speak, you know, doing a silly voice or an accent pretending to be someone else. People don't talk about [it] enough if it hasn't got enough exposure, and millions of people around the world struggle with it."
Emily added: "And I think it's a very moving force. If you can't express yourself, you can't be yourself. And there's something very poignant in freeing people of the grip of a speech impediment, because it's like a sort of imposter that lives in your body."
The ‘Jungle Cruise’ star - who has previously spoken about other members of her family, such as her grandfather, uncle and cousin all experienced stuttering - called the speech condition “biological and often hereditary”.
Emily - who has two daughters, Hazel,eight and Violet, six with her husband John Krasinski, 42- said: "It's biological and it's often hereditary and it's not your fault, and I think it's very often a disability that people bully and make fun of. So I think, to raise awareness about what it's really about, and that there's this soft place for you to land in this amazing organization. It's a big deal for me to be here."
Two years ago, Emily called her work with the charity as deeply meaningful because of her “own personal experience with it”.
She said: "I think of all the causes, my work with the stuttering community is the one that pierces my heart probably most profoundly because of my own personal experience with it.”
Emily gushed about the AIS and how “understand” the problems faced by children with the affliction.
She said: "They understand that how these kids relate to their stutter is usually the issue," she said. "You've got to fall in love with the fact that you've got a stutter to accept it. But it's not all of you. Everyone's got something — and this is just your thing."
