Emily Blunt & Chris Pine struggled with Into The Woods singing
Emily Blunt and Chris Pine endured their own private hells while preparing to play leading roles in new movie musical Into The Woods because director Rob Marshall insisted on them hitting the high notes.
Both stars knew they'd have to sing in the film but they had no idea just how grueling the work they had to do prior to the start of filming would be.
Blunt tells WENN, "I was very reluctant to audition for this and
Rob did audition all of us as he should. I was scared to go in. Rob
called my agent and said, 'I want actors who can kinda sing; not
the other way around'. So I had a couple of singing lessons and I
learned it and auditioned and he was amazing and gave the role of
The Baker's Wife to me. I'm very grateful.
"It's the best part I've ever been given. Once I got over my own
fear of singing in front of other people it turned out to be such
an exhilarating and impassioned experience. You realize how joyful
it is to sing and to be around music. The day we sang with a
65-piece orchestra with Stephen Sondheim in the next room is just
one of those days you will never ever forget."
And Pine adds, "I was the only person who didn't know what Into The
Woods was when my agent called and asked me if I wanted to audition
for it. I heard Meryl Streep, Rob Marshall... so I said, 'Yeah,
count me in!' I had a night to prepare a song to go sing in Rob
Marshall's living room.
"I made a mistake in going online and Googling what I was getting
into and then it dawned on me the kind of magnitude of the kind of
pantheon that I was touching with this music... So to step in that
living room, I had not sung for anyone but myself; it was
terrifying. A piano was brought out and he joined me in singing. It
was actually a blast."