English actress Emily Blunt first broke through with 2004?s My Summer of Love. The following year she co-starred with Bill Nighy and Miranda Richardson in the British TV drama Gideon?s Daughter, and in 2006 earned international renown for her performance in the box-office hit The Devil Wears Prada. This year she starred as eponymous queen in THE YOUNG VICTORIA, directed by Jean-Marc Vallée and written by Julian Fellowes, and in 2010 will appear with Jack Black in Gulliver?s Travels and with Matt Damon in The Adjustment Bureau?

Q: Tell me about Gwen and how she drives the story?

A: She is the love interest but she is really the picture of purity and she?s the only person who is willing to extend her hand to Lawrence Talbot as he is going through this horrific ordeal. I think she honestly doesn?t believe that it could be real until the end. She doesn?t believe the fears he is having are true. She believes in seeing the best in everyone and it is a rather taboo relationship she is having with Lawrence, because she was engaged to his dead brother.

Q: Is she a strong personality or a damsel in distress?

A: I never like to categorize too many things in a few words, but I think she is very strong. It is a courageous thing to not give up on someone because they are going to go to the dark side. I think that she is a character under stress, for sure, because she has lost her fiancé through really mysterious circumstances. She doesn?t know what happened to him. She is living in a weird house and I think she?s definitely in some sort of turmoil there. She is very pure of heart, though.

Q: Does she develop as a character through the movie?

A: There?s a big sort of transition for her. She realizes she is the only person who can attempt to save Lawrence.

Q: Benicio Del Toro is a real wolfman enthusiast, collecting memorabilia and so forth. How palpable was his enthusiasm on set?

A: He really knows his stuff. You can?t really test him on it. I wouldn?t even have dreamed of it anyway because I am not a big horror movie fan. He is a fan of all movies, and has an incredibly retentive collection of them in his brain. Apparently he has memorabilia in his home, posters, and original Wolf Man memorabilia so I think he has always had a fascination with those monster movies. And this film hasn?t been done for years; I think he wanted to create a very noble nod to those old Lon Chaney movies, the ones he grew up adoring.

Q: Did you watch the original film?

A: Yes, I watched The Wolf Man, which was great. I understand why people become so fascinated by those films but I tend to scare very easily so I don?t tend to watch horror films at all. The reason I loved this script is because it seems more like a classic, suspenseful ghost story. It had mythological themes to it that I really enjoyed and I wanted to work with these guys so much. As for other horrors, I don?t know if I can handle watching those films. With our film, I haven?t seen it yet but I think I might get scared! Obviously, I was only in some bits and I am excited to see it when it is finished. I will probably be alarmed by it, I am sure!

Q: Did you have a favorite scene to shoot?

A: Probably ones I did with Benicio. I really enjoyed our scenes together. We had one scene where he has been beaten up by the mob and I am tending to his cut lip and he is starting to see things and starting to see the blood run through my vein. He is suddenly getting the animalistic traits of the Wolfman. He has these heightened senses and something strange is happening to him. My character is wondering what is happening; he is behaving very strangely and it is frightening. It was a really cool scene to do because I am trying to look after him and I am physically in close proximity, and that was really fun to play because they did a lot of tricks with the camera. Benicio did some great stuff. He was great to watch in that scene. He has got this slightly left-of-centre approach to his work in every scene and he tries to see each scene in a different light from most people. It is always a bit disconcerting when you do a scene like that because you don?t know what he was going to do! He is brave and I really appreciated watching that.

Q: Was Sir Anthony Hopkins very generous or quite withdrawn?

A: He was generous in every single way, in spirit, in the stories he?d tell and in the time of day he?d give everyone. He knew everyone?s name on set. And he hasn?t lost that real enthusiasm and the adoring quality to approaching this job. He really loves it. He really, really loves it and that is infectious to be around. His attention to detail when it comes to creating a character is really inspiring, too. He thinks of everything. He would call Joe Johnston twice a day to say, ?What about this or what about this?? His brain is in overdrive all the time. He doesn?t miss a trick. He sees everything in people. He was so warm with me and funny and we laughed like idiots. We?d sit there and gossip in the corner and he was so much fun in that way and he?d tell me these riotous stories. He is a great storyteller and great mimic.

Q: When you signed up, this was your first really big studio movie. Were you nervous? You?d been building such a strong independent film career?

A: I remember thinking, ?My God, this is a huge movie.? We were doing a scene running through the woods and the size of the lights they put in the woods were huge. Oh my God, there were like three sets going on at one time, three units and I thought, ?My God, what am I doing? This is a really huge movie.? But I am still very picky about what I do, so was I concerned? No, because I was so desperate to work with these actors ? they are both in my top five actors and they are both in the movie, so I was like, ?Please let me do this film!?

Q: With a role like this you can?t hang out in Victorian London to get a feel for it, so besides learning your lines, how else can you prepare?

A: Try running in a dress! Practice running in a dress. Practice riding in a dress! Not much else you can do. I always cringe when people talk about how they prepare for a role this way or that way, because everyone is different and it often doesn?t sound as if you have earned this job by talking about the process! I just tend to think a lot and try and learn from everyone I have met in my life, and steal from moments in my life, and to try and remember times when I have been scared or disconcerted or frightened or grieving about something or someone. You just channel your own experiences as much as you can without them being self-indulgent. I think that was important for this film because we didn?t want to do the classic clichéd horror, gasping and screaming! I just said to Joe one day, ?I don?t think people scream when they are scared. If they are shocked they might gasps, or they might scream but if you are genuinely scared I think people faint. I have never fainted in my life. I am hoping it will never happen. I don?t know why. It is something that has always filled me with dread, the thought of that loss of control, hitting your head, someone not being there. So please don?t scare me. For God?s sake; it could be game over!

Q: When you prepared for THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA you and Anne Hathaway almost starved yourselves, right?

A: We did eat very healthy. There were a lot of salads, and a lot of lettuce floating around, but it wasn?t too arduous. I was playing someone who was supposed to be on-the-edge-of-ill-thin. So I understand why I was required to lose some weight.

Q: Apparently, you first tried acting in order to cure a childhood speech problem?

A: It was not the sole reason. I wouldn?t say that it was the reason why I did it. But it was surprising to me that it helped so much with the stutter and it?s mainly down to this great teacher I had who encouraged me to be in our class play. I said, ?I can?t. You are crazy.? And he said, ?Why don?t you do it in a different voice? I think that may help and I think you would be really good.? And that was it. It was really down to him having the where-with-all to suggest that I try to be somebody else, to have a sort of out of body experience, if that makes sense.

Q: When did the acting bug bite really bite?

A: I didn?t have any intention of doing it throughout my younger years and then when I was 17 I was at this great school that had this wonderful drama department and I really enjoyed being in the class plays. I honestly wasn?t intending to go to drama school, though. I was in this play that went to the Edinburgh Festival and I got an agent from it. They said ?Would you like to try it for a while?? It was really like, ?Hmm I don?t know. I will give it a go.? And if it hadn?t worked out I think I would have been okay with it. I was very lucky. I don?t mean to sound cavalier in telling that story because I do love what I do and I can?t imagine what on earth I would do with my life if I wasn?t acting.

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