Emily Blunt Trained as Hard as Matt Damon Did in ‘The Bourne Identity’ for ‘Edge of Tomorrow’
Emily Blunt had to push herself in order to match Tom Cruise’s intense work ethic in Edge of Tomorrow. To portray her character in the film, Blunt had to resort to training like another action hero.
Emily Blunt’s ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ director compared her training to Matt Damon’s
Bourne Identity director Doug Liman was adamant that Damon had to harden his physique for the 2001 feature. In the film, Bourne was a character of great physical fitness and skill. But Liman took one look at his actor shirtless and knew Damon had a lot of work to do.
“Well, we were trying to figure out what the guy should look like and all the work that would go into it,” Damon once told ABC News. “And we decided on this pretty serious regimen of martial arts and boxing and weapons training and all this stuff, and we kind of, talking about it, theorizing kind of you know, six months or something. And he came over and just picked the shirt up and looked at me and it was just enough, ‘OK, enough—you know, enough talk.’”
Years later, Blunt portrayed an action hero in Edge of Tomorrow, which was also directed by Liman. Playing a hardened and experienced war veteran was a great motivator for Blunt to get into peak shape. Working with Cruise, who’s known for his relentless work ethic, also further inspired the star. According to Liman, Blunt’s regiment reminded him of Damon’s back in the day.
“She’s got more edge, in the best possible sense of the word. She’s a powerful, strong person,” Liman once told USA Today. “But physically, she went through training on par with what I put Matt Damon through to get ready for The Bourne Identity. She had the huge advantage of having Tom Cruise as a training partner. I’ve never seen anyone work as hard physically preparing for a role as Tom Cruise. She started training three months before she even showed up in England to start rehearsing.”
Tom Cruise gave Emily Blunt brutal advice to help her get through training
Training for the film was far from easy. There were times when Blunt wasn’t sure she’d be able to even finish the shoot because of its intensity. Her breaking point almost came when she had to wear suits she could barely move in.
“It was like 85 pounds. It was so heavy,” Blunt once said on Jason Bateman’s Smartless podcast. “The first time I put it on I just started to cry, just started to cry in front of Tom, and he didn’t know what to do.”
She voiced her concerns to Cruise, who offered her little sympathy for her troubles.
“I was like, ‘Tom, I’m not sure how I’m going to get through this shoot,’ and just started to cry,” Blunt said. “I was like, ‘I’m feeling a bit panicky about the whole shoot,’ and he literally goes — he just stared at me for a long time, not knowing what to do, and he goes, ‘Come on, stop being such a p***y, OK?'”
However, the comment was exactly what Blunt needed to hear.
“And I did laugh, and then we got through it,” Blunt said. “But the training was intense. It was like twice a day we trained for it.”
Emily Blunt really wants an ‘Edge of Tomorrow’ sequel
Despite her exhausting preparation, the Jungle Cruise star seemed to enjoy Edge of Tomorrow enough to want to a sequel. Rumors of a follow-up movie have been floating around the film industry for years now. According to Blunt, there’s even been a script for it.
“I wish there could be one,” Blunt said on Happy Sad Confused. “There was one that Doug [Liman] slithered over to me and like… I would love to make it a reality, but I just don’t know when or how – how many Mission Impossibles does [Tom Cruise] need? Come on!”
