Emily Blunt feels 'scared' of Oscar buzz around her 'Oppenheimer' role

Emily Blunt has been nominated for an Oscar for her performance in Oppenheimer for the first time this year. However, she didn't learn about her nomination in the typical Hollywood way.

Blunt revealed in an interview with Josh Horowitz at 92NY on Tuesday that despite months of speculation that she would win an Oscar, being called an Academy Award nominee doesn't feel natural to her.

“It’s all quite scary, the anticipation of it, and I think you just try not to listen to buzz because buzz can be built on sand sometimes. And so when it did happen, and when it happened in such a far-reaching way for all of us in the movie and every crew member, it was magical,” Blunt said of Oppenheimer‘s many nominations, and when learning of her own, “I did have a brief cry in the middle of Brooklyn, brief weep directly after picking up my dog’s poop.”

“I did pick up her poop and then I heard that I got nominated so it was perfect,” she continued, and her husband John Krasinski “had a really good cry as well, after helping me with the poop. I think he went and put it in the trash and then we both cried.”

Blunt is up for a nomination for her portrayal of Kitty Oppenheimer, the title character's wife played by Cillian Murphy, who gradually loses control of her own life as a result of their union and J. Robert Oppenheimer's work on the Manhattan Project.

“I think there was so much about her that I empathize with — the idea of that extraordinary brain wasted and decaying at the ironing board and the anger and the simmering rage that would follow,” the star said of her real-life character. “She kind of raged against the machine as best she could but there’s only so much I think she could do, and then she married this icon and clearly worshipped him, loved him, supported him, was there, a hugely stabilizing force in his life and yet she was so unstable. I think she bled for him, but I think to her own detriment.”

The complete conversation will be available on the Happy Sad Confused podcast with Josh Horowitz, scheduled for release on February 12th.