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On Monday, July 11, The Jungle Cruise actress opened up about her past struggles with a debilitating stutter as a child, which she has worked to overcome over the years as an actress. She has since become a board member for the American Institute of Stuttering and even hosted the Freeing Voices, Changing Lives Gala on Monday night.
“Stutterers are my heroes,” the AIS board member and actor told the crowd. “That’s why I am here.”
Emily Blunt — Speaking About Her Stuttering
Blunt said on the red carpet earlier that evening about her own battle with the speech disorder. “It’s not that you’ll never not be a stutterer. I’ll always be one,” she said. “Occasionally it will sort of rear its head if I’m on set or having to pitch an idea. It’s pressurized situations that are quite hard for stutterers. A pressurized situation where you have to be persuasive and communicative are quite challenging still for me.”
“I see it as a really important part of my world to keep talking about and keep illuminating this disability, because I don’t think there’s enough representation of it and there’s millions of people around the world who struggle and suffer from it. Anytime I talk about, I just want it to be a soft place for people to land to know that you’re not alone, and I get it. I really understand.”
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She continued: “They’re really nice people. Stutterers are a nice bunch, because they’re often people who have been really humiliated and they’ll never do it to someone else. It creates real empathy in people.”
When discussing the fact that stuttering is a prominent hereditary trait in her family, Blunt recalled the different ways her parents tried to deal with her childhood speech disorder.
Laughing amongst a crowd of peers who shared her plight, Blunt said, “My mom sent me to, like, cranial osteopathy. And then she tried everything. I would listen to dolphins at night… I think she thought it was because I wasn’t relaxed. And I was like, ‘No, I am fine! I am calm.’”
Emily Blunt — Blunt Advises Parents With Stuttering Children
Blunt also shared what advice she’d give to parents of children who stutter.
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“Well definitely call this organization,” she said. “I am always sure to remind parents that it’s just a part of you, it doesn’t define you, it’s just a piece of who you are. And everyone’s got something. And this happens to be your thing. And it’s okay. There’s light at the other end.”
She also touched on her own experience with the disability and how she overcame it with the help of acting, saying: “I often tell parents that they should put their kid in an acting class. That’s my own personal relationship with it. If I can pretend to be someone else, I stop stuttering. The more you hear yourself speak fluently, it kind of stops the record skipping.
“So if kids are into drama or acting, don’t let the fact that you have a stutter hold you back. It may actually be that you’re freed of it when you’re able to be someone else.”
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