Emily Blunt turned down Black Widow to star in a film she ‘didn’t want’ to be in

Actor says she was ‘contracted’ to star in the 2010 Gulliver's Travels

Emily Blunt has revealed she turned down the part of Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to star in a film she “didn’t want” to be in.

The actor was asked about the role during a recent interview with Howard Stern.

“You had to turn it down because you’re so f****** busy that you were doing Gulliver’s Travels at that point,” Stern said.

Gulliver’s Travels, starring Jack Black as Lemuel Gulliver and Blunt as Princess Mary, came out in 2010 to tepid reviews, with The Hollywood Reporter deeming it “a moderately entertaining children’s movie”.

According to Blunt, she appeared in Gulliver’s Travels not because she wanted to be in the film, but because she had a contractual obligation to do so.

“I actually do want to clean up the story on Gulliver’s Travels,” Blunt told Stern. “I was contracted to do Gulliver’s Travels. I didn’t want to do Gulliver’s Travels.”

The situation, she added, “was a bit of a heartbreaker for me, because I take such pride in the decisions that I make, and they mean so much to me, the films that I do”.

Blunt said she ended up realising she had to “get rid of this optional picture deal, because it was going to hang over me for a long time, and I didn’t want that”.

The Independent has contacted the studio for comment.

Blunt told Stern she acted professionally on the Gulliver’s Travels set, adding: “No one knew, and I also didn’t talk about it with anyone on set or anything, because there are a lot of lovely people in it who were heaven to work with, and I actually had a really good time. I had a laugh with all of them.”

The role of Black Widow eventually went to Scarlett Johansson. She will reprise the role in the standalone Marvel film Black Widow, scheduled for release in July 2021 in the US and in the UK.