Emily Blunt admits she knew she was going to be ridiculed for her attempt at an Irish accent in Wild Mountain Thyme.
John Patrick Shanley’s romantic comedy based on his own play Outside Mullingar has been the topic of a lot of debate in Ireland on social media, based just on the trailer
- with even the Leprechaun museum tweeting that it was too much.
Blunt said she’s aware of the backlash, but admitted the negative reaction hasn’t taken away from her ‘breathtaking’ time shooting and working in Ireland.
Shot in Crossmolina, Co.Mayo, Wild Mountain Thyme offered Blunt a new challenge, having just starred in Disney’s Mary Poppins Returns and horror flick, A Quiet Place II.
“I do enjoy the transformative nature of taking on different parts and sounding different, looking different, all of that.
“Obviously, neither of us is from that part of the world.
“I mean, Jamie [Dornan] is Irish but has a completely different accent and certainly for me, it’s a very different accent.
“We were told by Shanley that he wanted a very specific accent; a sort of Midlands rural, but he also joked that if we actually sounded like his family members, no one would have understood what we were saying!
“So, we had to find something that was a bit more palatable for our audience,” she told RTE Guide.
While it may have been seen to be more ‘palatable’ for wider audiences, it caused a storm in Ireland.
Londoner, Blunt, 38, said: “I’m aware that it’s rubbed some Irish people the wrong way.
“I knew that was coming for us and that’s all OK; we had to take that rather light-heartedly.
“I listened to a dialect coach for two months before we started. He recorded all our lines, so I was walking around Brooklyn with this voice in my head saying it over and over.”
But the backlash won’t taint their treasured memories of working and shooting in Ireland.
“To be there in Ireland, a place I’ve always really wanted to explore, having only ever been to Dublin, was breath-taking.
“I loved the Irish crew.
“I loved going to the pubs. I loved the restaurants and I loved working on that gorgeous farm.
“It was just magic.
“I’m obviously very biased, but I do believe that Irish people are the best people in the world,” Belfast born star of the movie, Jamie Dornan, added.
“We were shooting a predominantly Irish crew in County Mayo, which is a county I don’t know that well. We just felt so welcomed and the hospitality was brilliant.”
