If you get nervous before big events, don’t be too hard on yourself — Emily Blunt does, too.
“I get nervous before I do everything,” the actor, who starred in “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” “Oppenheimer,” and “A Quiet Place,” told Business Insider at the 20th Anniversary Gala for the American Institute for Stuttering.
About 3 million Americans — roughly 1% of the population — stutter, according to the organization. AIS doesn’t believe in the need for a stuttering cure and instead offers therapy and support to ease negative reactions and help people build confidence when they speak.
At the gala honoring Steven Tananbaum, the founder, managing partner, and chief investment officer of GoldenTree Asset Management, Blunt spoke about four coping mechanisms she uses to work through nerves.
First: deep breathing. The award-winning British actor said she practices deep breathing before public speaking or any other event that makes her nervous.
Blunt’s personal trainer, Monique Eastwood, previously told Cosmopolitan that Blunt practices a breath pattern from Eastwood’s Power/Stress class. It involves inhaling for four counts, holding for four seconds, then exhaling for four or eight counts. The trainer said the practice helps calm Blunt’s parasympathetic nervous system.
Blunt has also said that she likes to meditate. In a 2019 interview with Vogue, the actor said that she practices transcendental meditation every day.
Creative expression has helped her, too. Blunt told Business Insider that acting allowed her to express herself more freely and speak without stuttering, which is one reason she pursued it professionally.
Blunt said she has met other actors who can speak “very fluently” when they are in character. Creativity, she said, can become a “very freeing, very expressive experience,” and she encourages others with a stutter to join an improv group or read poetry as if they’re a different character.
“Try to move away from the cage of how you see yourself,” Blunt said.
When all else fails, “a shot of tequila is really good,” Blunt said.
Read the original article on Business Insider
The post Emily Blunt says she gets nervous before everything. These are the 4 things that help. appeared first on Business Insider.
