Emily Blunt has admitted learning the Irish accent was “tricky”, ahead of her role in Wild Mountain Thyme.
The English actress will star alongside Jamie Dornan in the upcoming romantic comedy, based on John Patrick Shanley’s play ‘Outside Mullingar’.
After the trailer for the film was released, the stars faced a lot of online criticism, with people slamming the 37-year-old’s “leprechaun” sounding Irish accent.
Speaking to the Hollywood Reporter, Emily said: “I think there’s 50 to 100 different accents just in Ireland.”
“Even in Dublin, there’s North and South Dublin, and they sound completely different.
“So we had to learn a very specific midland, rural, quite thick accent, and it sounds completely different from a metropolitan, sort of Dublin Irish accent. I don’t even know all the accents.
“Even for Jamie, who’s from Belfast, he has a completely different accent from how he spoke,” she added.
“So accents are tricky. You just do your best and that’s all you can hope for.”
Emily previously spoke to People magazine about preparing for the role, revealing she would blame her co-star Jamie if she faced backlash for the accent.
She explained: “Well, Jamie’s from Northern Ireland. So we were both sort of thrown in at the deep end having to do an accent that was unfamiliar.
“I’ll admit, I’m sure I had a tougher time with it than he did initially, but he’s not usually one to give people tips, he’s the most unpresumptuous person ever.
“But he assured me that I sounded Irish and I’m going to believe him. So if he’s wrong, I’m going to blame him for any backlash on my accent. He has assured me it was a great Irish accent. We’ll see.”
