Thursday October 8, 2009

Emily Blunt says Los Angeles makes her feel ugly.

The British actress — who recently announced her engagement to The Office star John Krasinski — has revealed that living in Hollywood makes her feel extremely self-conscious about the way she looks.

“I feel the fear of the business creep under my skin in L.A. in a way that it doesn’t in England,” she said. “It’s funny — I feel like beauty is in the eye of the beholder, unless you’re in Hollywood!

“It’s shameful how you have to look a certain way. Women are simply not allowed to grow old gracefully. That’s why I love playing character parts, because I’m not pigeonholed into trying to remain young forever to play the ingénue or romantic lead.”

Blunt, 26 — who plays a woman caught up in a passionate lesbian love affair in new film Sunshine Clearing — has previously revealed how she is looking forward to becoming a “gay icon”.

“I’m going to become a gay icon,” the Devil Wears Prada star told British newspaper The Observer in June this year. “Have I ever flirted with that side? No, never, but I do remember girl crushes on other girls in your year group at school.

“There are these girls who are magnetic and beautiful and so cool. You just feel yourself shrink in their presence.

“I absolutely remember how powerful 16-and-17-year-old girls can be. I look at them now — my little sister is 18 — and they do seem very grown up.”

“I think [my family] are very proud of me but in the way you’d sort of expect, not in a gushing, obsequious way, but just because I’m their child,” she added. “I think they’re relieved their child is doing well in a business that is known for crushing people.”

Tags: emily blunt