Emily Blunt opens up about growing up stuttering and how acting helped

By Chloe Melas, CNN

Emily Blunt is sharing how acting helped her overcome stuttering.

“I wouldn’t say that’s why I’ve ventured into acting, but it was just a bit shocking the first time I was able to speak, you know, doing a silly voice or an accent pretending to be someone else,” Blunt told People. “People don’t talk about [it] enough if it hasn’t got enough exposure, and millions of people around the world struggle with it.”

Blunt hosted the American Institute for Stuttering’s 2022 Freeing Voices, Changing Lives Gala on Monday in New York City.

“It’s biological and it’s often hereditary and it’s not your fault,” she continued. “And I think it’s very often a disability that people bully and make fun of. So I think, to raise awareness about what it’s really about, and that there’s this soft place for you to land in this amazing organization. It’s a big deal for me to be here.”

Blunt previously told Marie Claire magazine that her stuttering got progressively worse as she got older.

“It wasn’t the whole part of me; it was just a part of who I was,” Blunt said at the time. “There were certain people who liked to define me by that. That was tough. I decided not to really spend time with those people. I’ve probably only now come to realize that everybody has something growing up. That just happened to be my thing.”

Adding, “Stutterers don’t feel understood. It’s not psychological. It’s not that you’re nervous, it’s not that you’re insecure, it’s not that you can’t read, it’s not that you don’t know what you want to say. It’s neurological, it’s genetic, it’s biological. It’s not your fault.”

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