From fears of parenthood to capturing the “untethered” feeling across the world, there is a lot to take away from A Quiet Place 2, Emily Blunt has said.
The original 2018 horror film revolved around the Abbott family, featuring Blunt, her husband John Krasinski (also the director), Millicent Simmonds and Noah Jupe, trying to survive in a post-apocalyptic world where monsters hunt humans by sound.
The now-on-hold sequel also directed by Krasinski, Emily said, is about empathy and if one looked closely, also about how humans need to stick together to survive the odds.
“People are feeling that on a global scale, the idea of borders shutting down, of not extending your hand to your neighbour. That fractured, untethered feeling is in the air. The film does explore that as a metaphor,” Emily said in a group interview in New York, before the coronavirus pandemic spread worldwide.
“I find the film very hopeful as ultimately the characters discover that as human beings we want togetherness, we want to feel that we are meant to be together. It’s an awakening for Cillian’s (Murphy) character who has been broken by this environment.”
Emily, 37, known for films like The Devil Wears Prada, Mary Poppins Returns and The Girl on the Train, felt a bit of “pressure” going in with a sequel but all her fears vanished when her writer-director-actor husband narrated the opening sequence to her.
“There was never really any intention of doing another one initially, we were so reluctant to do another one. When John came up with an opening, and I remember him pitching it to me, it was an undeniably great idea that I thought I’d be an idiot to not do it.
“Both of us tried to abandon the idea that it was a pressure situation and see it as part two, as what happens to this family... It’s probably my most personal work. Some of the scenes I found more harrowing than the others if it had to do with loss of a child, a partner,” she added.
The sequel reunites Emily and Krasinski on screen briefly, with the latter featuring in a special appearance apart from writing and directing the film.
