Emily Blunt has revealed she thought she was going to be offered the role of James Bond at the time she got the call for Mary Poppins Returns.
The 35-year-old actress said she was under the impression she was being approached to be the next 007 agent - but was thrilled to bag the role of the iconic nanny.
Speaking on This Morning, Blunt said: “I knew something big was in the pipeline. And it was like either [director Rob Marshall] is asking me to be James Bond or Mary Poppins!
“Hilariously, I think I was playing a blackout drunk for Girl On The Train when I got approached about playing Mary Poppins!”
She added: “I of course was completely overjoyed and overwhelmed. I was just really shocked but quite quickly my thrill at playing her overwhelmed the fear.
“It is such iconic territory that you’re walking into, but it was that excitement of trying to create my own version of her.”
She told Variety: ''I met her years ago at some event. And she was so charming and so lovely. Little did I know that years later I would be off playing Mary Poppins.
“But [director] Rob [Marshall] was very close with her, she was incredibly supportive of me playing the part and excited for me to do it.”
Blunt also revealed that Andrews chose not to appear in the reboot because she didn’t want to discredit the star.
She said: “There was discussion about [how] maybe she would come and do a bit in the movie.
“She said to Rob, 'This is Emily's version of her, and I don't want it to be that she's playing Mary Poppins the whole way through, but then I come in like, Oh, but there's the real Mary Poppins’.”
