Rocking an 85-pound exoskeleton and getting some tough love from
Tom Cruise. This is how Emily Blunt got into tip-top shape for "Edge of Tomorrow!"
In order to prepare for the role of Rita, Emily Blunt trained for two and a half months prior
to shooting. She worked with Jason Walsh, a trainer who has collaborated with a plethora
of celebrity clients. His Instagram features photos of him training with Brie Larson,
Donald Glover, Bradley Cooper, Pedro Pascal, Miles Teller,
and others. Training Blunt for this intense role was likely just another Tuesday for him.
Walsh's company, Rise Nation, started as a way for people to train their bodies as an
athlete would. Walsh applied that philosophy when training Blunt. As he put it via Women's Health,
"What I specialize in is figuring out where the weak points are. It's like building the
foundation of a house. You never, ever want to have any cracks because she
would be carrying around [an 85-pound] exoskeleton for a lot of the film."
For Walsh, it was all about building up Blunt's resilience so the cracks would
never show. He helped strengthen Blunt's body so she would be prepared to run, jump,
and do whatever else she needed to in her suit. Luckily, she'd already worked with Walsh before
signing on for "Edge of Tomorrow," and Walsh described their relationship as already having
a decent foundation, leaving them with an excellent idea of how to work together.
"You're gonna get me there, and I'm gonna kill it."
The exoskeleton armor we see Emily Blunt and Tom Cruise wearing in the film is pretty heavy-duty.
It was designed by Pierre Bohanna, who worked on the "Dark Knight" trilogy creating Batman's
suit. However, he truly outdid himself while working on "Edge of Tomorrow," as
the massive mechanical suit weighed in at 85 pounds, according to EW. Bohanna shared that
his team made the suit themselves and that it's made up of over 400 different pieces of machinery
and hardware — over half of them custom-made, which is what he specializes in. As he told EW,
"You set up a manufacturing process that's bespoke to it. All the CAD drawing,
all the prototype work, all the molding,
the casting, the fabrication, artwork, and assembly were all done in house."
Bohanna also shared that he looked at real models to inspire the suits' design — stating
that bionics used to help paraplegics walk was a big inspiration for his team.
Because of this, Blunt trained to carry an additional 50 to 60 pounds safely on her
body. Jason Walsh shared with Women's Health that, while he wanted her to be prepared,
he also wanted to ensure that she was training in a safe environment. Above all else, her safety
was most important, so she took part in a lot of stretching and cardio to build up her stamina.
Once Emily Blunt showed up on set for filming, Tom Cruise was incredibly impressed with her
dedication and all of the work she put in beforehand to bring Rita to life.
According to Walsh, Cruise complimented the actress by saying that he's never worked with
someone who came as prepared for the action scenes as she was. Therefore,
he wanted them to work out together, in addition to her training with the stunt crew.
Cruise and Blunt worked out to keep up the momentum and stay in shape. Blunt shared that
everything about shooting "Edge of Tomorrow" aimed to capture some realism. Or at least as real as a
sci-fi film about aliens invading and time travel can be. Blunt said on the "SmartLess" podcast,
"We had to wear these enormous robotic suits. I think it would've been great if
they could have CGI'd them, but we wanted to do it practically in a tactile way."
In other words, they wanted it to be as real as possible,
and the only way to do that was to put in the work.
Cruise has long been known for doing all his own stunts. Like when he famously held
onto a moving plane in "Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation," piloted a real fighter jet
for his stunt scenes in "Top Gun: Maverick," and climbed up the Burj Khalifa in "Mission:
Impossible — Ghost Protocol." Some stunt scenes in Cruise's movies nearly killed him, illustrating
his daredevil nature. Now, Blunt can say that she was right up there with him for this film.
In order to increase her endurance, Emily Blunt worked tirelessly on her cardio. Her
trainer for "Edge of Tomorrow," Jason Walsh, told Women's Health,
"We worked to make sure she had mobility in her joints, and then flexibility and base strength.
Once her body was resilient and strong enough, and she had a lot of endurance, I took her out
to the UCLA track to really condition her. She did tons and tons of sprints up [the] stairs."
Once Blunt's endurance was good enough, Walsh began adding pounds to the actress with a
weighted vest. However, it was important to not start off with 60 pounds. Instead,
Walsh started with 10 pounds before gradually moving up the ladder. Once Blunt was ready,
they moved up to 20 pounds, and continued to climb at 10-pound intervals.
Walsh argues that training is all about challenging yourself to find enjoyment — even
when it's hard. And that's the secret sauce that makes training so powerful, especially for a
role like Rita in "Edge of Tomorrow." For Walsh, it's a good thing when strenuous workouts become
habitual. By then, you're at a place where you can really push yourself. According to the trainer,
"That's when it becomes fun."
During her time on the "SmartLess" podcast, Emily Blunt shared a moment she and Tom Cruise
had together while filming "Edge of Tomorrow." She recalled when she put on the 85-pound exoskeleton
armor, she started crying, as it was so heavy and overwhelming for her. At the time, she didn't want
to cry in front of everyone, but she felt very strongly about the cumbersome gear. She expressed
to Cruise that she wasn't sure how she would be able to play Rita and was feeling really panicky
about the shoot. She said Cruise was initially so surprised that he froze, not knowing how
to comfort her. However, once he composed himself, he opted for a joke, telling her,
"Come on, stop being such a pu--y, okay?"
Luckily, that gave her a good laugh and helped her get into the mindset to do their job. She
referred back to the weeks of training she had just endured to play Rita and was able
to step back into the role. While there are some who have taken offense to this exchange,
Blunt has maintained that it was only meant to motivate her. According to the actress,
it was a lighthearted moment, not an offensive one. She shared that this
joke is something she and Cruise still laugh about to this day, via E! News.
Due to her extreme training, Emily Blunt was able to do most of her stunts in "Edge
of Tomorrow." However, that did not prepare her for one of the most intense stunts of
all — a car crash. During her time on "Conan," Blunt detailed a scene she and Tom Cruise share
where she's driving a car at high speed. She and Cruise are attempting to escape
from a Mimic that's attacking them from behind. Blunt's character Rita is driving,
while Cruise's character Cage is shooting at the creature. Blunt shared how she was
initially annoyed with Cruise as he was muttering instructions on how to drive
under his breath, stating that Cruise is not particularly comfortable being hands-off.
"I don't think it's in his fabric to like being a passenger in a stunt-driving scene."
However, she quickly learned that he was trying to help her as he'd done a fair
amount of stunt driving before and knew when it was time for her to hit the brakes. And
since Blunt was driving the car extremely fast, per the director's instructions,
by the time she realized her mistake, it was too late, and they crashed into a tree.
"As if I thought I knew more about stunt-driving than Tom Cruise."
Luckily, the two made it out okay, with her jokingly telling Cruise
that she found his comments to be incredibly annoying. Luckily,
they laughed it off and moved on ... most likely with a different car.
"Edge of Tomorrow" was released in 2014, and since then, Emily Blunt has continued to express
interest in fitness and training. While she was initially a client of her "Edge of Tomorrow"
trainer Jason Walsh, Blunt has also been working with trainer Monique Eastwood for her everyday
workouts. According to Women's Health, Blunt has trained with Eastwood for several years,
even bringing in her brother-in-law, fellow actor Stanley Tucci, as one of Eastwood's clients.
According to Eastwood's testimonials, she has racked up quite a few celebrity clients outside of
Blunt's talented family. Eastwood has worked with actor Sam Rockwell, downhill skier Jack Gower,
actress Ruth Wilson, and "Captain America: The First Avenger" star Hayley Atwell.
Although Blunt trained with Walsh for "Edge of Tomorrow," Eastwood did tell
Women's Health that she helped to prep Blunt before training with Walsh began.
She shared that they worked on cardio fitness and muscular endurance to prepare for filming.
In the same year that "Edge of Tomorrow" was released,
Emily Blunt also starred in the musical film "Into The Woods." The actress began filming
after her work on "Edge of Tomorrow" but had become pregnant in the interim. This time,
she worked with Monique Eastwood as her trainer, who took extra care when building
workout plans to compensate for Blunt's pregnancy with her eldest daughter, Hazel.
Eastwood recalls that she had to adapt her training regimen to ensure Blunt would be
okay with the demands of working on a musical set. Eastwood shared with Women's Health,
"The priority was to make sure we did not exhaust her,
as she had a singing and dancing role whilst being pregnant."
Luckily, this was completely in Eastwood's wheelhouse, as the trainer was once a former
dancer, and working with a pregnant Blunt during musical numbers was incredibly familiar for her.
It's clear that all the training she experienced with Walsh for "Edge of
Tomorrow" prepared Blunt to tackle the demands of this role while she was pregnant. And in the end,
the physical requirements for the films "Into The Woods" and "Edge of Tomorrow"
were impressive hurdles for the actress to overcome.