Emily Blunt is addressing the body-shaming remarks she made during a 2012 talk show appearance about a Chili’s server.
“I just need to address this head on as my jaw was on the floor watching this clip from 12-years ago,” Blunt, 40, said in a Friday, October 20, statement to Us Weekly. “I’m appalled that I would say something so insensitive, hurtful and unrelated to whatever story I was trying to tell on a talk show.”
She continued: “I’ve always considered myself someone who wouldn’t dream of upsetting anyone so whatever possessed me to say anything like this in that moment is unrecognizable to me or anything I stand for. And yet it happened, and I said it and I’m so sorry for any hurt caused. I was absolutely old enough to know better.”
During a September 2012 appearance on The Johnathan Ross Show, Blunt recalled an experience about having dinner at a Chili’s restaurant. When recounting the meal, the actress made an unsavory remark about her server’s appearance after Ross, now 62, quipped, “If you go to Chili’s you can see why so many of our American friends are enormous.”
“The girl who was serving me was enormous,” Blunt replied before adding,. “I think she got freebie meals at Chili’s.”
Ross interjected to say there was “nothing wrong with that” before Blunt finished her story. The Golden Globe winner ended her tale by taking on a Southern accent and saying that the waitress asked if anyone had told her that she looked like Emily Blunt.
“And I said, ‘I have heard that, yes,’” she said, to which the employee then replied, “Are you Emily Blunt?”
After Blunt — who was in town at the time filming Looper alongside Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis and Paul Dano — confirmed who she was, she said the woman shrieked in excitement, “What are y’all doin here?!”
Blunt’s remarks sparked backlash as the clip resurfaced online. Social media users accused Blunt of being fatphobic and called for an apology.
“Ugh f–k Emily Blunt seriously was one of my fave actresses but turns out she’s a fatphobic unfunny mean girl who thinks it’s funny to point out the size of a server when it adds nothing to the story — for shame,” one user wrote via X (formerly known as Twitter).
Another reshared the video and captioned the clip, “Emily Blunt being blatantly fatphobic wasn’t on my 2023 bingo card but here we are.”
