Emily Blunt will not suffer in silence in “A Quiet Place Part II”

Emily Blunt, who garnered a Screen Actors Guild Award among other accolades for her searing performance as Evelyn Abbott in 2018’s A Quiet Place, now returns for the eagerly anticipated sequel, A Quiet Place Part II (in Philippine cinemas November 10).

Although Blunt was admittedly skeptical about a sequel, she couldn’t help but become smitten with where things were going. “Emily wasn’t necessarily going be a part of the second one,” writer and director John Krasinski reveals. “She had said, ‘You’re not doing this one with me so don’t try to pitch me,’ but then she asked, ‘Well, what’s your idea?’ And after I told her, she said, ‘I’ll definitely be doing the second one!’ It just felt so organic to us both.”

Recalls Blunt, “It was such a lights-out idea that it spoke for itself. Gradually, John and I realized that sequel aside, we both just really wanted to explore this concept. If A Quiet Place represented a magnified version of what a lot of new parents feel, this story explores just how far you might go to protect your children as they head into the world. It gets deep into our anxieties about releasing our children into a life that can seem scary and daunting.”

From the adrenaline-surging opening moments of A Quiet Place Part II, there is never any time for the Abbott family to take stock of all that has happened to them in the preceding days. This is especially true for Emily Blunt’s Evelyn, now a solo parent determined to overcome stultifying odds to find a new place to keep her children safe, while the creatures grow more fearsome at every turn.

The chance to take this beloved character to the extreme, with her back completely against the wall, is what most called to Blunt. “Evelyn has never been so exposed,” she notes. “She is now a single mom with a newborn baby, her house has been destroyed and there is nowhere safe to turn. The family can’t go underground, and they only have one oxygen tank left for the baby, while she also has two other children to protect. She’s lonely, vulnerable, grief-stricken and it’s the most intense emotional state you can imagine.”

Perhaps even more than the toll of near-constant physical danger, Evelyn has to wrestle with trusting that she has prepared her kids well enough to take on the world on their own terms, no matter what happens. “There’s a very powerful undercurrent in this film about how one generation tries to give their best to the next, and you see that in how the Abbott kids forge ahead into this new world with all they’ve learned from Lee and Evelyn,” says Blunt. “They have to grow up fast and take charge before they might have otherwise.”

For Blunt, the key to the performance was diving into the turmoil, while also exploring where Evelyn finds those tiny shreds of hope to which she clings tenaciously. “This was the most daunting experience I’ve had emotionally on a film,” she admits, “because there just isn’t any respite for Evelyn. Every moment feels critical and urgent, and it doesn’t stop. Yet, Evelyn’s nature is to be a very optimistic person. So, what really interested me as an actor is the way that optimism stays alive when it is put to the ultimate test.”

Exclusively in Philippine cinemas starting November 10, A Quiet Place Part II is distributed by Paramount Pictures through Columbia Pictures.