Disney's Into the Woods opened on Christmas Day and if you haven't seen it yet, you are missing out! While I was in LA for the screening of Into the Woods and the following day's press junket, I met with Emily Blunt and James Corden and hilarity ensued. No, seriously, these are some funny folks! I didn't have any preconceived notions about the personalities of these actors, but I really didn't expect them to make me laugh so hard that I almost spit out my water all over the table in front of me!
As we were mostly moms, and James and Emily were both parents, our conversations really had a lot to do with parenthood.
James Corden: Hi, Mums.
Us: Hi.
James Corden: Are you all Mums?
Us: Yes.
We didn't even get two sentences in before they had us cracking up. In typical mom fashion, Emily Blunt noticed something in James' teeth and pointed it out to him.
Emily Blunt: You have a little thing in your teeth.
Jams Corden: Oh, is it a bit of blackberry?
We were all already giggling at this point.
Emily Blunt: This is it. This is our relationship.
James Corden: That’s when you know we’re…
Emily Blunt: I always tell people - don’t you hate it when someone doesn’t tell you?
James Corden: It’s still there.
Emily Blunt: Is it? Here, stop the cam. Oh, look, there you go, here you go.
For the record, we did not stop the cam. We laughed and took notes, because it's not every day that you have the opportunity to watch movie stars use their cell phone to pick blackberries out of their teeth.
Emily Blunt: We need a toothpick, guys.
James Corden: Or chewing gum. A chewing gum would do.
Emily Blunt: They took my chewing gum going into The Woods premier.
Funny note: At the Into the Woods screening the evening before, they took every tidbit of food, drink and snack away from everyone as they entered the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre! They took my chewing gum too!
James Corden: What are you talking about? They took it?
Us: Why? What?
James Corden: They took your gum?
Emily Blunt: They look through your bag and take everything. You’re not allowed to have anything food related.
Emily Blunt: They took my trail mix. I was like, I’m pregnant.
Emily Blunt on Filming While Pregnant
We asked: You were pregnant.
Emily Blunt: Yes.
During the live Q&A the previous evening, we learned that Emily Blunt was heavily pregnant during the filming of Into the Woods, which was pretty ironic considering that she played a woman who was barren and the entire premise of the movie was that she, the Baker's Wife, and the Baker (played by James Corden) were on a mission to have a baby!
We asked: So we watched your interview, so we heard about hiding and stuff while you were shooting, especially seven months.
Emily Blunt: Well, it’s funny because I, you know, found out I was having a baby when I found out I had the part, but I was thinking well, she’s the baker’s wife, so it doesn’t matter if I gain a few pounds.
*Insert all of us laughing here*
Emily Blunt: And also it’s, you know, it’s the singing, and it’s lovely, and it’s easy - I forgot how much running around this woman does in the woods. Like, I body slam into Anna Kendrick like a linebacker, and she’s a tiny person. I almost killed her. And you know, yanking Rapunzel’s hair out - she’s always running; we’re always rushing. And so it was interesting. There was a chair onset that was written on it, Emily Bunt’s pregnancy. I often found Chris Pine sitting in it.
*Insert more laughter from us bloggers here*
Emily Blunt: I’m like, stood over him, several months pregnant, like that. And he went, oh, do you wanna sit down, and I’m like, yes, I do.
James Corden: He’s just, god, I’m tired.
We all had a good laugh at that! Chris Pine plays Prince Charming in Into the Woods, and he was sort of an arrogant prince - we could all imagine him taking a pregnant woman's chair!
We asked: Was your morning sickness bad or were you…?
Emily Blunt: I was through the first trimester by the time I came to rehearsal. I honestly was in the second trimester, so much energy, so elated, and then, I just I went into the, I’m tired, I’m fat stage. Yeah.
We asked: Did you try any of that bread? It looked really delicious?
Emily Blunt: We made some bread.
James Corden: Yeah, we had a bread making…
Emily Blunt: Session.
James Corden: We had these bakers come in - this is what they do on films. They go, well, we should teach you how to bake. And it’s, like, four hours, and none of it’s in the film.
We all laughed at this, of course. After being involved in a few interviews like this, one learns that there are many, many things that the cast and crew on a set go through that never makes it into the film. Learning bits of information, like the fact that the Baker and the Baker's Wife actually had to learn how to bake bread from scratch on the movie set, and that none of that actually made it into the movie is such a nice little window into the soul of the movie. It makes you appreciate all of the little details in a movie so much more. All of the sweets in the scenes in the Bakery being real baked goods? Astounding!
Emily Blunt and James Corden on Honesty and Parenting
We Asked: So a lot of the film is about parenting methods and what happens, so did this influence how you guys parent or what not to do at all?
Emily Blunt: It’s interesting. I hadn’t thought of that, actually.
James Corden: I think there’s an honesty…I think there’s an honesty in the film which has made me want to be more honest with my children, like, from the get-go.
I think the message in the film, be careful what wish for, sometimes the very thing you wish for is not the thing that you need. In a world where we seem to have told children that this happily ever after does exist, and we all know it doesn’t.
And I feel like - that’s not to say you won’t be happy, but like that song, No One is Alone, at the end of the film, I sort of feel like what that song is saying is, it’s two adults talking to two children saying, there’s some screw-ups coming your way, and that’s true of all of us.
There’s screw-ups, and they’re coming for you, and there’s nothing you can do about it. But when they do, you might feel like you’re completely on your own in the world. You will feel like you are completely alone, and you’re not.
And you never will be. And these things are just part of your life and what ultimately make you better and stronger. And it has made me think that that’s a positive message to tell your children, that mistakes are gonna happen.
Emily Blunt: And also, you, you said that, you know, children, like, no one is more perceptive than a child. They see everything, they’re like little sponges, they pick up - even babies, I’ve noticed, they pick up on your energy, they pick up on if someone walks in the house that Hazel hasn’t met before, and they’ve had a bad day, she doesn’t want to go to them. She doesn’t want to be around them, you know. And so even from a young age, they’re so perceptive.
I just feel that it’s important to teach your children that life is not always going to be easy, you know, and that is what this film is about.
Nobody goes through life unscathed. Nobody does. And actually, these fairy tales, the original fairy tales really were sort of, obviously children can’t understand the deep metaphorical meanings in these fairy tales, but they understand right and wrong, and they understand the need to make decisions, and they understand what happens when people behave badly, they get a comeuppance. You know, it’s that sort of thing that these fairy tales, I think, were created to teach children about life - warn them about life. And we’re sort of in a society where we like to coddle our children and over-tend, over-parent, over-this- there’s like ten thousand books on how to raise a kid nowadays, and it’s purely instinctual.
James Corden:
I sort of feel like the only thing you can be with your children is honest.
Like, we’ve got quite a bit of change coming up in our house, we’re moving country, and so for my son, he’s just had this is a new person joined our family, and he’s leaving his school and gonna start a new one. And any one of those things are huge deals for a child. And so me and my wife saw this child psychologist; I thought, we don’t wanna mess this up. And she said the most amazing thing. When she just went, if your son says I don’t wanna leave or, or starts crying, or is scared of it, don’t do the thing which I think I would’ve done of go, it’s gonna be great. It’s gonna be sunny, we’re gonna have a swimming pool, we’re gonna go to the beach; she was like, don’t tell him that what he’s feeling is not valid; is actually go, I know.
Emily Blunt: I understand.
James Corden: I know, buddy. It sucks, but I promise you we’re all in it together, and I feel sad about it, too, but there might be great things that we get to do, and this is an adventure that we’re all gonna go on together and, I was like, oh, so all you really need to do is just be honest and go, you’re not a child. You’re just a person. You are a person.
Emily Blunt: Yeah, they just wanna be heard.
Emily Blunt and James Corden on Friendship
Emily and James had us laughing so much during our interview, they really seemed to be great friends - not just costars. It's a rare thing to sit with two actors and feel like you're sitting with friends, real honest to goodness friends! Of course we had questions about that too, because we all knew that they movie didn't take an incredibly long time to film, so they must have known each other before they appeared in Into the Woods.
We Commented: You guys have such great chemistry together, onscreen and off screen.
Emily Blunt: That’s part of working with each other. We knew each other, actually, I’ve known James for, like, eight/nine years almost? Um, we met at a polo match in England. The princes were there, guys-
James Corden: ...Harry and William.
Emily Blunt: Harry and William. We met them!
James Corden: If you ever hear a more British…
Emily Blunt: Yeah. And we were at a polo match.
James Corden: We met there…
Emily Blunt: And we really got along and, and we had too much to drink, and we sang…
James Corden: Something Stupid.
Emily Blunt: Something Stupid by Frank Sinatra, and that’s not true. Like, he’s the only person I’ve ever sung in front of…
James Corden: Yeah, we were getting on great.
Emily Blunt: And so it was nice. We sort of, when we, when I heard it was him- I remember Rob Marshall telling me that I had the part, and he, and I said, who’s the baker. And he went, it’s James Corden. And I went, oh my god. I was so relieved and so thrilled because I knew that this couple needed to have real lifelong, shorthand chemistry, ease with each other and, and you needed to believe in them.
You needed to believe that they’ve been together forever. That was the option they had in the village that they grew up in, and… These are small-town folk.
James Corden: There’s always options. Okay? There’s never not options if you’re rocking this.
Emily Blunt: This is the thing, this is the thing that he’s going on, that he said the whole time, this is a fairytale movie. A lot of fantasy stuff happens, and the audience goes with it. The only thing that this audience won’t understand is why she’d leave this - for Chris Pine.
*Insert a tremendous amount of laughter from us bloggers here*
Emily Blunt: It’s was like, it doesn’t matter.
James Corden: No one, no one would believe that, you know what I mean?
Emily Blunt: He was like, he said to Rob, he was like, they’re not gonna go with you on this, Rob.
What Would You Wish For?
As Into the Woods is all about wishes, we asked, "If you could have your own wish for anything, what would you wish for?"
James Corden: Oh wow.
Emily Blunt: It does become about your children, doesn’t it?
James Corden: Yeah. No, you just, we just, you just want the people you love, to be healthy, right?
Emily Blunt: Healthy and happy. That’s it.
James Corden: That’s it. That’s all, that’s all it is. It sounds so sort of trite in so many ways, but I don’t think there’s anything else that you could really, you know, yeah.
We asked: You guys worked with the kids…What was that like? They were phenomenal.
Emily Blunt: They are phenomenal.
We asked: And you guys seem, you know, you were in more of the scenes, I think, than just about anyone else.
Emily Blunt: (to James) You probably had more than me.
James Corden: Well, they are both incredible, incredibly talented and gifted, and unbelievably composed and assured, because it’s one thing being brilliant in the film; it’s another thing just being brilliant to be around all day, and they are. I mean…
Emily Blunt: I mean, Lilla Crawford was doing eight shows a week playing Annie on Broadway. Like, this is a girl who knows how to punch in and go to work, and show up, and be professional, and, and when she opens her mouth, she has a voice like a trumpet.
James Corden: Oh my god.
Emily Blunt: I mean, it was just insane what she was able to do, and she was so capable, you know. And Daniel was completely unflappable, like, the coolest kid.
James Corden: Well, the first day of shooting was the Giants in the Sky song, which is my favorite song in the show anyway, and I absolutely remember watching him run around this tree looking at him - so I remember looking and thinking, oh my god, I’m watching a thousand Facebook profiles start to happen from girls who are just gonna be in love with you. He’s got that thing which is unquantifiable that you can’t - you don’t know what it is, but it’s just there. And he’s so gifted, musically. He would sit down at a piano, and he’ll playing these ukulele - he’s, he’s the real deal. He really, really is.
We Asked: One of the things we were discussing on the bus today is that you’re such a discovery for all of us, and we’re just really pleased about your character and just kinda fell in love with you. So you’re kinda gonna emerge as this undiscovered, like, leading man - you’re gonna be huge. So you’re starting the Late Late Show. What if you’re gonna start to get all these movie offers to be, like, the hunk in Hollywood?
James laughed, we laughed and Emily says, "WOW."
James Corden: Let’s not get carried away.
We laughed some more.
James Corden: Um, you know, I’ll fare. It’s an amazing sort of time for me. I’m very intent on trying to enjoy it while it’s here, whatever it is, it comes or doesn’t. I’m so aware that these are transient things that will go as quickly as they arrive, in so many ways.
I just want to really enjoy it and, lots of people have said to me, and I get it, when I decided to take on the Late Late show, lots of people, their first reaction - and my reaction, in a sense - when I first got offered it, was an amount of reticence of people saying, well, you won’t be able to do this, and you, there’s a film coming and what if, you know?
Emily Blunt: What if, what if, what if…
James Corden: But after talking it through with my wife, the truth is that in this job, there are no guarantee of anything, and you really have to go wherever the work is. And there was a point in the summer, just after I got offered, and I was unsure what to do, where I was shooting in Johannesburg for, like, six weeks, Skyping my son on my birthday. And I thought, this is only gonna get harder.
And actually, here is someone offering me a job where I get to be creative every day, I get to have fun every day and talk to America before or more likely while they’re falling asleep and at the end of every day, I get to go home and be a present father and husband. And I just don’t think there’s ever a child when they’re twenty or thirty, sitting in a therapist’s chair going, do you know, my dad was just around too much. He gave me too many cuddles, and he was too much a part of my life. And ultimately, it was like, well, this is a privilege, actually, to be in this job, in this industry, and because you don’t have the choice. You’ve gotta go; you’ve gotta go. Oh, there’s a tax break in Vancouver. I’ll be back in three months. And actually, here’s a place where it’s a luxury, and so that was the thing that tipped it over, really, is just to be around, and I feel very lucky to have such an opportunity.
Emily Blunt: You’re gonna make me cry.
James Corden: Stop it. Stop it, flirt.
*Insert more laughter from us here. I told you we laughed a lot!*
If you haven't seen Disney's Into the Woods yet, go buy your tickets now!
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All photos courtesy of Louise from Mom Start and Disney's Into the Woods. I attended the Into the Woods press junket as part of an all expenses paid trip.
Dusty B says
These two were such great fun and I'm a HUGE fan of his now! Wasn't he adorable?
Debi says
I loved reading this. I am slightly obsessed with seeing this movie.
Danielle K says
Love them! This was a fabulous movie - Emily Blunt is one of my favorite actresses 🙂
Kelly Hutchinson says
It looks like Emily and James have great chemistry with each other. I cannot wait to see this movie.
Angela says
Emily and James are both incredible young actors. Such a fun interview!
Crystal says
I love interviews where the actors' personalities really come through. This sounds like such a fun experience!