It appears as though Emily Blunt is ready to shake off her high heels and wear Converse sneakers as a way to protest certain footwear requirements at the Cannes Film Festival. The comments made by Blunt come in light of reports that the exclusive event was turning away some women because their choice of shoes did not match up to the event’s dress code, reports the L.A. Times .
“Everyone should wear flats to be honest,” Blunt stated during a press conference for her new film Sicario . “We shouldn’t be wearing high heels anyways. That’s my point of view. I just prefer wearing Converse sneakers. That’s very disappointing.”
The director of Sicario , Denis Villenueve, added to the comments made by Blunt by saying that he was willing to wear heels as a show of solidarity. “As a sign of protest, Benicio [del Toro], Josh [Brolin] and I will walk the stairs in high heels tonight,” the director stated.
The entire shoe wear controversy started when reports began to surface that security guards for the event had prevented some women from walking down the red carpet if they were wearing anything but high heels. According to Screen Daily , a number of women were denied access to the screening of Todd Hayne’s Carol because their shoes weren’t up to code for the event.
Screen Daily added that some of the women who were turned away had medical conditions, were in their 50s, and weren’t allowed in because they wearing rhinestone flats. In light of these reports, Emily Blunt addressed the issue during the Sicario event after being prompted by a few questioners.
“Yeah, that’s very disappointing,” the Into the Woods actress stated in regards to the Cannes controversy. “To think there are these waves of equality and waves of people discovering that women are so fascinating and interesting to watch and bankable [on-screen].”
Allegedly, reps for the Cannes event told Screen Daily that it is obligatory for women to put on high heels for screenings. However, the festival’s director Thierry Fremaux tweeted a response to the allegations and stated that the rumors of high heels being mandatory were simply not true.
The official Cannes Film Festival Twitter account re-tweeted Fremaux’ words, and noted that they only ask people to be dressed in formal wear for event and don’t require women to wear heels. Perhaps the comments made by Emily Blunt and company will lead to some changes for the high profile screening event.
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