Emily Blunt did not hold back when discussing romance scenes in an interview with Howard Stern last week. The actress joined in an ongoing public discussion about sex and romance on screen, describing how she approaches it and how she has gotten the best results. Most shockingly, she said that she has “absolutely” felt like throwing up after kissing past co-stars.
“Have you ever wanted to throw up?” Stern asked Blunt. She answered: “Absolutely. Absolutely. I wouldn’t say it’s sort of extreme loathing, but I’ve definitely not enjoyed some of it.” The 41-year-old actress refused to name names throughout the discussion โ whether positive or negative. She has had a lot of on-screen romances that she could be referencing, including her new movie The Fall Guy where she is paired with Ryan Gosling. In the recent past, she has also acted out romances with her real-life husband John Krasinski, actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Irish actor Cillian Murphy.
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Blunt did specify that Gosling was fun and easy to work with. She said: “I love his wife, Eva. I love their children, and I feel like I’m very lucky to be friends with a gem of a person like him.”
Earlier on The Howard Stern Show, Blunt spoke more generally about how to cultivate chemistry between actors. She said: “I’ve had chemistry with people I haven’t liked… I have had chemistry with people who… I have not had a good time working with them. Sometimes it’s a strange thing. Sometimes you could have a rapport that’s really effortless, but it doesn’t translate onscreen. Chemistry is this strange thing. It’s an ethereal thing that you can’t really bottle up and buy or sell. It’s like there or it’s not. It’s just easier when you have a natural rapport with someone.”
For herself, Blunt said: “I’ve got to find something I love about everybody. I have to find something… Even if it’s one thing. It might be that they have a nice laugh or I like how they speak to people. They’re polite. I mean, it might be something random. But find something you love about that person or something you love about them as the character and then kind of lean into that.”
Social media has been preoccupied with discussions of sex and romance on screen over the last few months, with many critics generalizing that the younger generation is against depictions of sex altogether. Blunt’s comments were specifically linked to an interview with Anne Hathaway the previous week, where she described a grueling “on-screen chemistry test” where she was asked to “make out with” ten different actors in a row.
“It wasn’t a power play; no one was trying to be awful or hurt me. It was just a very different time, and now we know better,” Hathaway said. Her new rom-com The Idea of You is streaming now on Prime Video, while Blunt’s movie The Fall Guy is playing now in theaters.