The actress admits that she has never felt as humiliated as after auditioning with Konchalovsky.
British actress and Oscar nominee Emily Blunt, 42, called Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky “cruel” and said he tried to confuse her during an audition for The Lion in Winter when she was just 19 years old. The Sun writes about this.
According to Emily, she auditioned for the role of the young lover of King Henry II.
“He was very cruel at the audition and liked to throw me off. It was a very misogynistic atmosphere and I remember by the time I came out I felt like a shell of my former self. This incident seems terrible to me because you feel so humiliated,” she recalled at an American Actors Fund event.
Now Blunt says he can’t even remember Konchalovsky’s name.
Andrey Konchalovsky
Photo: andrei_konchalovsky/instagram
“I have to just say he was vile… Really terrible. Of course, we’re not always cool-headed. You’ll get your feelings hurt – that’s the way it is. Sometimes there’s an element of life in the trenches in this job. It can hurt and it can be the same.” It’s beautiful, but it’s also painful, and I was prepared for it. Sometimes there’s an element of preparing for the impact in this work, but this was kind of the low point,” she admitted.
It all ended with Konchalovsky inviting Yulia Vysotskaya, his wife, to play this role. And the main role in the film was played by Glenn Close.
Konchalovsky’s “The Lion in Winter” is a 1968 film of the same name starring Peter O’Toole and Katharine Hepburn.
The events of the film take place in 1183 on Christmas Day. According to the plot, the English king Henry II is obliged to name the name of the future heir. This event is so important that it is attended by the king’s wife named Eleanor of Aquitaine, sentenced to 10 years for participating in conspiracies and intrigues against the monarch, Henry’s beloved – an arrogant and calculating princess named Ale, her brother – Philip II Augustus, as well as the king’s sons: John, Geoffrey and Richard the Lionheart. Hatred reigns in this family. But there is something that unites them – a strong thirst for power, and for the sake of it anyone will commit the most vile betrayal.
Trailer for the film “The Lion in Winter”
The other day, a new action comedy starring Emily, “Stunt Man,” was released, based on the 1980s TV series starring Lee Majors. Blunt’s partner in the film was Ryan Gosling.
Emily’s other notable works include The Devil Wears Prada with Anne Hathaway and Meryl Streep and Oppenheimer. For the latter, she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the 2024 Oscars.
Andrei Konchalovsky has not yet commented on the actress’s words.
Previously Focus wrote that Emily Blunt spoke about unpleasant kisses with stars in the movies.
