Emily Blunt Explains Why the Same Women Are Always Rumored for the Same Action Roles

Emily Blunt kind of really nailed it with this one. While promoting her recent film, Sicario, at TIFF, she was inevitably asked about the rumors swirling around her regarding possibly being cast as Captain Marvel. While her answer was somewhat of a let down (“I’ve not had a phone call about it. Not one whisper of Captain Marvel has come my way. Promise… Promise promise. I don’t even know who Captain Marvel is!”), she expertly explained why it seems like the same women keep ending up on the same lists for these action roles.

I think it’s because the list is very short, because we don’t see women in these kind of roles. So I think as soon as you do a role like that, like Charlize did or I did, or Rebecca’s done — there’s like four of us or something. And Jen Lawrence. So I feel like us four, we get talked about — and Angie, Angelina.

So it’s a list of like, four women who are going to be considered for those kind of roles. So I think that’s why the rumors happen, because they’re like, ‘who else? Surely not another girl can wield a gun,’ you know what I mean? ‘A woman doing push-ups? There’s only one who can do that.’

Blunt is completely right: it seems that when the time comes to cast a female role in an action movie, the same names always turn up because Hollywood has such a limited purview when it comes to putting women in those roles. It’s as if they’re saying, “It has to be one of these women on this really short list because nobody else can do it.”

When really, we all know that’s not true.

(via HitFix)