Emily Blunt revealed that she took some inspiration from record-breaking Barbie director Greta Gerwig for her role in The Fall Guy.
In the upcoming action-comedy, Blunt plays a movie director, Jody Moreno, whose leading man ends up missing. That’s when Ryan Gosling’s stunt performer, Colt Seavers — who is also Jody’s ex — comes into the picture to help find the actor.
In a recent interview with Total Film, the Oppenheimer actress shared that her character is loosely inspired by Gerwig. “With the warmth and the charm, I guess there’s a little Greta in there,” Blunt said. “She was a mix of a few other people I’d met and pulled from.”
Gerwig became the highest-grossing female director of all time last year, thanks to her blockbuster Barbie, starring Margot Robbie and Gosling. The film grossed more than $1.4 billion at the box office, and also made history as the first live-action movie directed by a woman solo to join the global billion-dollar club.
The Fall Guy director David Leitch’s producing partner and wife Kelly McCormick also explained how the character of Jody was changed from a make-up artist to a director to increase the movie’s weight.
“Emily’s role was a make-up artist when we sold it, and we converted it to first-time directing right before we gave her a very rough draft,” she told the outlet. “It made it feel like [the character] had more pressure on her.”
Blunt added that they worked as a team to finalize her character. “We all kind of built her together, because I think, maybe in the original script, she was quite severe, and that sort of tough director,” the Oscar-nominated actress said. “But I think, for me, it’s always more interesting to play someone who’s in a situation where they’re way over their head.”
The Fall Guy is set to hit theaters on May 3.
