ROARING OUT OF QUIET LOCKDOWN

Published date29 May 2021
Publication titleMix, The
Just before Covid hit hard last year, Emily Blunt was poised to have a huge summer.

The star of A Quiet Place Part II was in the middle of promotion for the sequel to the blockbuster original when the film’s director, her husband, John Krasinski, announced the postponement of the movie’s release. It was March 12, 2020, just before the United States shut down.

Suddenly forced into quarantine, Blunt dove into reading books and scripts. She homeschooled her two children, then 3 and 6 years old. She had guest spots in family members’ quarantine projects, most notably Krasinski’s Some Good News and brother-in-law Stanley Tucci’s viral cocktail tutorials on Instagram. Now more than a year later, she’s back in the spotlight not only with A Quiet Place Part II, which finally opens in theatres, but also with Disney’s Jungle Cruise — two blockbuster releases that many hope will reinvigorate the struggling box office.

‘‘It’s just been mad,’’ Blunt says.

‘‘We’re on the other side of it [now] so I’m feeling sort of hopeful.’’

A Quiet Place Part II, Krasinski’s follow-up to his critically and commercially successful 2018 sci-fi horror film, is a portrait of a family in crisis. After the loss in the first film of her husband (played by The Office alum Krasinski), Blunt’s Evelyn Abbott has to find a way to survive with three kids in a post-apocalyptic world where terrifying creatures hunt humans by sound.

‘‘The movie is made for theatres so I’m relieved and grateful that we waited and were given the support to wait,’’ Blunt says.

‘‘Because I do believe that it’s an event movie, and I think to gain the full experience you’ve got to watch it in a theatre.’’

She’s speaking by Zoom from Spain, where she’s filming the Western series The English — ‘‘if I can remember how to act after a year and a-half of not doing it’’.

It’s been nearly that long since A Quiet Place Part II had its world premiere in early March 2020, just over a week before stay-at-home orders began to be issued across the US.

‘‘It’s weird that it was almost about to come out and then it didn’t,’’ Blunt says.

‘‘But we just had to ride it out and wait for the right moment. And I think John always felt quite sure that he’d like it to be one of the first movies back in theatres. It was always sort of what he wanted for it.’’

‘‘It’s certainly a bizarre circumstance to go through all of the motions to come out with a movie and then to have to put it back in the box,’’ Krasinski says.

‘‘But the truth is, as bizarre...

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