When Emily Blunt Apologized For Making a Fatphobic Comment in Old Interview: 'Hurtful’

Actress Emily Blunt is a fan favorite for many reasons, but a clip that resurfaced in October ahead of Oppenheimer's release changed the status quo temporarily. Blunt came under fire in October 2023 when a previously taped TV interview from 2012 came to light. The British actress had made a fatphobic remark during a conversation about her experiences shooting Looper. Blunt was on The Jonathan Ross Show when she recalled a meal she had at a Chili's restaurant in Thibodaux, Louisiana, when a server recognized her, per The Things.

“If you go to Chili’s, you can see why so many of our American friends are enormous,” Ross commented about her going to Chilli's. “Well, the girl who was serving me was enormous, I think she got freebie meals at Chili’s,” Blunt replied. “Nothing wrong with that,” Ross added in an attempt to diffuse her remark's offensive tone. The actress also revealed that the waitress asked her if they were shooting a movie there. “She was like, ‘Are y’all shooting a movie here?’” Blunt recalled in a Southern accent mimicking her server's before adding, “And I said, ‘Yeah, I’m shooting a film called 'Looper.’ And she went, ‘Looper?’ And I went, ‘Yeah.’ And she went, ‘Y’all just made that up.’”

Many social media users on X, formerly Twitter, criticized Blunt for reinforcing negative stereotypes and unnecessarily focusing on the waitress' body when the story had nothing to do with it. Users expressed dismay and emphasized the role celebrities play in influencing public attitudes in response to the resurfacing of the video, which set off a chain reaction of emotions.

A Twitter user said, "The actual interaction with the waitress was a cute funny story, she could have just said that cuz there was zero need to describe the waitress… it added nothing to the story, just flat-out rude." Another fan slammed her, saying, "I always had this idea that she was a nice person. Turns out she's a vicious mean girl who thinks skinny is a virtue."

“I just need to address this head-on as my jaw was on the floor watching this clip from 12 years ago,” Blunt said after the backlash sparked so much conversation, in a statement to PEOPLE. “I’m appalled that I would say something so insensitive, hurtful, and unrelated to whatever story I was trying to tell on a talk show... I’ve always considered myself someone who wouldn’t dream of upsetting anyone so whatever possessed me to say anything like this in that moment is unrecognizable to me or anything I stand for," she added. "And yet it happened, and I said it and I’m so sorry for any hurt caused. I was old enough to know better."

A user said after seeing her apology, "I’m happy that she acknowledged the harm but I would love for her to talk about how she has addressed her fatphobia. She made it seem like this was out of character for her when a lot of us are fatphobic and we have to be real about that to change it."