Emily Blunt and Dwayne The Rock Johnson are known to be great pals since their collaboration on Jungle Cruise. The duo shares impeccable chemistry, something that cannot be faked but only found. It is a miracle that the two became friends and continued to stay that way. Blunt and Johnson are essentially two different people whose paths were not supposed to cross.
Blunt has been a part of more subtle, artistic, and female-led films like The Devil Wear Prada, A Quiet Place, Marry Poppins, etc. The Rock on the other hand is a regular star in films that ride on high testosterone, oozing masculinity and over-the-top machismo.
Emily Blunt crashed Dwayne Johnson’s Oscar interview
Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson onstage during the 95th Annual Academy Awards
During the 2023 Academy Awards, Dwayne Johnson’s interview was interrupted by his sweet co-star Emily Blunt. Johnson and Blunt were not nominated for any awards but were presenting the Best Animated Feature Film at the Oscars. As the Fast and Furious star spoke with Entertainment Tonight on the red carpet, he noticed his friend giving a separate interview.
She jumped into The Rock’s interview and Johnson used the moment to call her out. He said to her, “So, they were just asking me ‘Who’s the most talented, most brilliant actor you’ve ever worked with,” To this Blunt replied, “Nicole Kidman — where is she?” Johnson charmed his friend by responding, “No, no. I said, Emily Blunt. Isn’t that right?”.
The Marry Poppins actress was taken aback by the compliment, but quickly gathering her composure she retorted, “Well, that’s incredibly nice. Have you worked with any other actresses?”. To this, the Rock kindly responded “None that I care about after you, no.”
Dwayne Johnson wanted only Emily Blunt to star in Jungle Cruise
Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt
Dwayne Johnson had his eyes on Emily Blunt since her performance in The Devil Wears Prada, he was also impressed by her personality which shined during talk shows and interviews. He shared with THR,
“I had always admired her as an actor, but also when I would watch her on talk shows, she had this personality that was effervescent, that was cool and very, very charming.”
When the film Jungle Cruise was undergoing casting Sean Bailey, the Chief of Disney urged Blunt to read the script, he penned down his emotions and sent a letter to her. Blunt proved impervious to any attempts whatsoever. Finally, the lead Johnson sent a heartfelt video along with the script, which was hand delivered by the producer Jaume Collet-Serra. The Rock elaborates,
“I had not even met her. And I wanted to let her know via this video just how important she was to this movie and how I only wanted her in this movie. And it was great. And I … I actually never heard again from Emily. Didn’t respond at all. Just ghosted me.”
Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt in Jungle Cruise
Later on, Blunt joked that she was unaware he would get hurt so easily. A Quite Place star did sign the film after a stunning and convincing pitch by the director and the moving video by Johnson. It turned out to be a fair gamble for Blunt as the film went on the earn $200 Million at the box-office collections.
Producer elaborates on Jungle Cruise‘s sequel
Dwayne Johnson and Hiram Garcia at Red Notice promotions
Talking to The Wrap, in 2022 Hiram Garcia and Dwayne Johnson shared their vision for the sequel. Garcia talked about the film while promoting Johnson’s Netflix film Red Notice. The producer elaborates,
“I think one thing fans can expect is our heroes covering more territory. Our first movie mainly went between London and the Amazon, but for this next adventure, we have much bigger plans. That coupled with the joy of seeing how Frank and Lily’s relationship continues to evolve are just a few of the many things we’ve been having fun playing with as we break the story.”
Jungle Cruise
It is hard to say at which stage of development Jungle Cruise 2 is, even though the sequel was announced almost after a month after the original’s release, no substantial information has been out since. Yet we can expect some scenic adventures, vast lands, and gorgeous-looking people solving some intriguing mysteries and fighting heinous creatures.
