Washington [US]: Actor Emily Blunt is under fire for a resurfaced interview in which she referred to a Chili’s waitress as “enormous”, according to Page Six.
The actress, 40, was a guest on the UK’s ‘The Jonathan Ross Show’ in September 2012 when she decided to share a story about how she dined at one of the chain restaurant’s locations in Louisiana while filming the film ‘Looper’.
“The girl who was serving me was enormous,” Blunt told the namesake host. “I think she got freebie meals at Chili’s.”
According to Page Six, though Ross, 62, chimed in to note that there’s “nothing wrong with that,” he had previously quipped that “when you go to Chili’s, you can see why so many of [their] American friends are enormous.” Mimicking the server’s Southern drawl, Blunt said the woman asked her, “Did anyone ever tell you you look a lot like Emily Blunt?”
“And I said, ‘I have heard that, yes,'” she recalled responding, to which the staffer then asked, “Are you Emily Blunt?”
The ‘Devil Wears Prada’ actor claimed that after the woman verified her identity, the woman exclaimed, “What are y’all doing here?!” with enthusiasm.
The 2012 interview clip has reappeared on the internet, and many Twitter (now X) users are upset with Emily Blunt. She’s been labelled “fatphobic,” which means she made fun of or disrespected someone because of their size.
“Emily Blunt being blatantly fatphobic wasn’t on my 2023 bingo card but here we are,” one critic posted alongside a clip of the moment.
“Scratch her off my crush list.???,” “JFC Emily, we were rooting for you too. Smh,”
“Why would she described [sic] her like that? That was so unnecessary” and “its so easy to tell when people honestly believe waitstaff are below them/lesser members of society” were just some of the remarks that followed.
The ‘Oppenheimer’ star has since released a statement, telling Page Six her “jaw was on the floor” when she watched a video of her appearance.
“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,” Blunt lamented, reported Page Six.
