Emily Blunt: ‘They Used Me As Bait’ [Video]
Actress Emily Blunt stars in the first trailer for the action-packed crime thriller Sicario. If the preview is any indication, Blunt’s star can only shine brighter in this dark look at the Mexican drug trade. Sicario, directed by Denis Villeneuve and starring Ms. Blunt along with Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin, was a huge hit at its first showings at the Cannes Film Festival last month.
https://youtu.be/1tzpYbfoknw
“In Mexico, Sicario means hitman. In the lawless border area stretching between the U.S. and Mexico, an idealistic FBI agent [Emily Blunt] is enlisted by an elite government task force official [Josh Brolin] to aid in the escalating war against drugs. Led by an enigmatic consultant with a questionable past [Benicio Del Toro], the team sets out on a clandestine journey forcing Kate to question everything that she believes in order to survive. A Lionsgate presentation, a Black Label Media presentation, a Thunder Road production, a Denis Villeneuve film.”
Emily Blunt has become the focus of this high-octane thriller, particularly after Emily’s participation in Looper and Edge of Tomorrow have begun to earn Ms. Blunt the well-deserved label of action hero. Emily brings intensity and intelligence to her action heroine role as she tries to sort out which side of a morally bankrupt system she is fighting for in Sicario. As mesmerizing as her performance is, Ms. Blunt was nearly passed up for the role that may very well show Emily at her darkest yet.
“The screenplay was written some years ago and people were afraid that the lead part was a female character, and I know several times [writer Taylor Sheridan] had been asked to rewrite the role,” director Villeneuve revealed of the role that would ultimately go to Ms. Blunt. “When I got involved, the script was as it is, and I embraced it, as did (producers) Black Label and Thunder Road. But the pressure came before, and these guys had the guts to keep it as it was.”
The Villenueve-Sheridan team stuck with their decision to keep the female lead and awarded that role to Ms. Blunt, the resulting performances bringing many critics to the edges of their seats. Reviews applauded Sicario’s “expert action and suspense,” while others commended Emily, Josh Brolin, and Benicio Del Toro for their “first-rate” performances in Sicario’s “violent, bleak exploration of a bottomless moral quagmire.”
Fans can catch action star Emily Blunt in Sicario when the film hits U.S. theaters on September 18 and U.K. theaters on November 6.
[Featured image: Emily Blunt courtesy of Lionsgate/Sicario]
