Emily Blunt had stutter

Nov 25, 2009, 5:01 GMT

Emily Blunt used to have a stutter.

The 'Young Victoria' actress suffered from the speech impediment while growing up and admits she used to be reluctant to speak as a teenager.

She said in an interview with New York Times magazine: "Because I couldn't talk very much, I watched the world go by more closely."

Rather than let her stutter get the better of her, Emily improved her speech by listening to the different accents of the people in her acting class.

She said: "I've always been fascinated by accents, and the way people speak, and the intonations of it, and that was because I found it so hard to speak in my own voice."

Emily, 26, doesn't shy away from self-improvement. She went to "dance boot camp" for her role as a ballerina in new movie 'The Adjustment Bureau', in which she stars alongside Matt Damon.

She recently said: "I'm going to dance boot camp. I'll never be at the same standard as a professional, but hopefully I'll be able to do a little bit.

"I didn't do ballet when I was a child. I gave it up in some sort of bratty rage, claiming it hurt my feet."

'The Adjustment Bureau', which also stars Anthony Mackie, is a sci-fi thriller which sees Matt's congressman character thrown into turmoil by the arrival into his life of Emily's dancer character.