TAKING on one of the most-loved characters of all time carries with it a certain kind of pressure, not least when you are following in some practically perfect footsteps. However, for Emily Blunt – who is playing Mary Poppins in the forthcoming remake of the 1964 classic – a confidence boost recently came her way from her famous predecessor.

“Rob [Marshall, the film’s director] said he was in the Hamptons, and he saw Julie Andrews and he said, ‘It’s top secret, but Emily Blunt’s playing Mary Poppins,’” the actress revealed to Entertainment Weekly. “And she went, ‘Oh, wonderful!’ I felt like I wanted to cry. It was lovely to get her stamp of approval. That took the edge off it, for sure.”

“I feel a little more trepidation with this because she’s so emblematic of people’s nostalgia,” Blunt admitted of taking the title role in the film, which is slated for release on Christmas Day 2018. “It’s such an important character in people’s childhood.”

Blunt – who is currently promoting the much-anticipated The Girl On the Train, which is hitting cinemas later this year – also disclosed how her interpretation of the legendary nanny will differ from the portrayal made famous by Andrews’s.

“We’re delving into the books a lot more, which is a different version of the character,” she revealed, referencing P.L. Travers’s original series. “She’s a little meaner, yeah,” she smiled.

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