Emily Blunt says she ‘looked in horror’ at her movie transformation. We can’t see it?

EMILY Blunt says she “looked in horror” at her latest movie “transformation”. In doing so, she managed to make the rest of us feel awful.

‘It was hard seeing myself look so awful,’ says Emily Blunt of her new character. Though she isn’t winning any fans with this transformation talk.

EMILY Blunt gasped in horror when she first saw her transformation into a blotchy-faced alcoholic trainwreck, the unlikely heroine of The Girl on the Train.

“It was hard seeing myself look so awful. I came into work with no make-up and they would make me look even worse, adding rosacea and bags,” Blunt, 33, told news.com.au.

“I could barely look at my own reflection.”

Blunt plays Rachel Watson, the boozy girl on the train who may or may not have witnessed a murder.

“I also had full contact lenses that covered my entire eyes for the really drunk stuff that gave the whites of my eye a bloodshot effect. And there were different levels, like pink was a bit buzzed, and then raging drunk was a really red eye.

“I loved the contact lenses because it gives such a strange glassiness. People look scary when they’re really drunk — there’s something in their eyes that is so crazy.

“And the rosacea? I had the most incredible make-up artist who pulled up mugshots of famous people to draw inspiration from,” she teases, refusing to name the culprits.

But, as the promo shots show, she doesn’t look all that bad. Are we missing something here?

This is the worst picture we could find in the press materials. Where’s this shock transformation?

Devout readers of the best-selling novel, from which the film is based, claimed the beautiful British actor was too glamorous to play Watson, author Paula Hawkins even adding to the fray last week when she was also quoted claiming Blunt was too pretty.

“I think Paula’s comment was taken out of context after she made a joke before seeing the film saying ‘maybe Emily Blunt is a bit too pretty for it,’” says Blunt.

“And now it’s become this whole sort of thing, which is annoying. But when people see the film they won’t have any concern that I look pretty.”

Published just 20 months ago, Paula Hawkins’ book about a woman who unravels in the wake of her divorce became a publishing phenomenon, selling more than 15 million copies.

At the centre of this gripping whodunit is Rachel Watson, a 30-something-woman who pays a heavy price for her alcoholism, ultimately losing her husband, her job, her friends and her self-esteem. Now jobless, she clings to the shreds of her previous life, continuing to make her daily commute into London, indulging in lurid voyeurism as the train chugs past her former marital home now occupied by her husband’s new wife and their baby.

This is apparently Emily Blunt at her worst. Umm ...

Blunt was first introduced to The Girl on the Train by her literary agent sister, Felicity, devouring the book within two days.

But she was shocked when director Tate Taylor approached her to play the title character.

“I didn’t even audition — they came to me. I was obviously complimented but also slightly concerned — nothing says Emily Blunt like a blackout drunk. Oh perfect!

“It’s unsettling to watch yourself at the best of times, but particularly in a role as dark and tormented as this. It’s almost like watching somebody else … it’s a strange feeling,” says the actor whose transformation into a puffy-faced overweight alcoholic was aided by the fact she learned she was pregnant within the first month of filming, conveniently gaining a few pounds.

“The first trimester of pregnancy is riddled with nausea and fatigue so that was the main thing I struggled with because I don’t tend to torture myself by a role I’m playing and I actually would have found it fairly impossible to live with myself if I was in Rachel’s headspace all the time so I just had to keep finding ways to detach and shut off.

“I became the queen of power naps: ‘Emily, you’ve got 10 minutes’, and I was like ‘I’m going to my trailer!’ and then I’d completely fall asleep for seven minutes.”

Blunt transformed into a puffy-faced overweight alcoholic for the role.

Remaining stone cold sober for the duration of the shoot, truth was she yearned for a drink at the end of most days.

“I would have really loved a glass of wine after working with this role, I could have really done with it,” says Blunt who initially only confided about her pregnancy to co-star Justin Theroux who plays Tom, her ex-husband.

“I suspect the rest of the cast imagined I was just very focused and method.”

Asked if she’d had any personal experience of a blackout drinking spree, Blunt laughs, “I’ve had a couple of nights like that. Yes! I mean, haven’t we all? Give me a break! Everyone’s had a night like that. I’ve had a couple of nights where I’m like, ‘What happened? Oh my God, what did I say?’ where you have vague recollections of what you might have done.”

She maintains that she’s a “fun drunk”.

“Or so I’ve been told — or so I like to think. Probably to everyone else they’re like ‘Oh my god, she’s so embarrassing’.”

Rachel Watson (Emily Blunt) in a scene from The Girl on the Train.

Previously engaged to Canadian singer Michael Buble, Blunt has been wed six years to The Office’s John Krasinski, with whom she has two-and-a-half year-old daughter Hazel and three-month-old Violet.

Having originally made their home in Los Angeles, the family recently moved to New York, a shorter plane ride to Blunt’s family in London.

Best known for her roles in The Devil Wears Prada, The Young Victoria and Edge of Tomorrow, she shortly begins filming Mary Poppins Returns, taking over Julie Andrews’ iconic role in this hotly anticipated musical.

She says she hopes she does justice to The Girl on the Train and its devoted fans, and they won’t be too disappointed that the film version has substituted London for New York and the leafy suburb of Westchester, although Blunt retains her British accent.

“There’s a reason why women loved the book. It doesn’t shy away from the underbelly of domestic life; it doesn’t shy away from brutality; it doesn’t shy away from the fact that these are pretty unlikeable women in many ways. I do believe the reason why this book was such a huge success was because people see aspects of themselves in these women to varying degrees.”

The Girl on the Train hits Australian cinemas October 6, 2016.