Emily Blunt says she's immediately 'out' of a project if she sees three specific words in a script

Emily Blunt has opened up on the three words in a script that will put her off a role entirely.

The 41-year-old - known for her roles in Oppenheimer, A Quiet Place and Mary Poppins - made the admission while promoting TV programme The English in 2022.

The show follows her character Cornelia Locke, a woman who embarks on a revenge mission in the 1980s USA on the man she sees as responsible for the death of her son.

With a solid 87 percent critic rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the film proved to be a big hit.

However, if a certain three words came up in the script, she might have walked away from the role.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Blunt said: “I love a character with a secret. And I loved Cornelia’s buoyancy, her hopefulness, her guilelessness.

“It’s the worst thing ever when you open a script and read the words ‘strong female lead’. That makes me roll my eyes - I’m already out. I’m bored,” she admitted.

The actor believes that characters attributed to her disliked phrase are expected to have almost no emotion.

She said: “Those roles are written as incredibly stoic, you spend the whole time acting tough and saying tough things.”

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In 2023, Blunt announced she was taking an entire year out from acting to spend more time with her family.

She shares two children with husband John Krasinski - Hazel, nine and Violet, seven.

Speaking on the Table for Two podcast, she said: "This year, I'm not working. I worked quite a bit last year and my oldest baby is nine, so we're in the last year of single digits.

"And I just feel there are cornerstones to their day that are so important when they're little.

"And it's, 'Will you wake me up? Will you take me to school? Will you pick me up? Will you put me to bed?' And I just need to be there for all of them for a good stretch. And I just felt that in my bones."

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Blunt then spoke on how taking on big projects impacts her relationship with her kids and the 'guilt' she subsequently feels.

"I had a beautiful time on the projects I did last year," she said.

"Some were more tense than others, some were harder than others. Some were more time consuming than others.

"The ones that are time consuming, I think for me are becoming few and further between because of just the emotional cost on me, on the kids, on balance.

"And I'm very prone to guilt, I think all mothers are. You're just prone to feeling bad for, god forbid, wanting something outside of being a mother."